Smoke out …

Dragons nip and scratch for sweep of Hawks

The Chunichi Dragons were exactly breathing fire on the SoftBank Hawks, but they burned them nonetheless on Monday night, rallying for three runs in the seventh inning of a 6-1 win at Nagoya Dome.

Tony Blanco slugged his 11th homer and added an RBI single among his three RBIs, and Masahiro Araki had two hits and an RBI as the Dragons swept the Hawks in their two-game set.

The Dragons loaded the bases with none out in the seventh with the aid of just one hit -- the Hawks making two questionable decisions and poor throws on Chunichi bunts to give the Dragons two runners.

Motonobu Tanishige got a ball out of the infield, singling to left to plate the go-ahead run, but Hidenori Kuramoto got thrown out at home and the Dragons settled for a 2-1 lead. Takeshi Yamasaki followed with a roller that snuck out to left field to score one, and Araki went back through the box for an RBI hit and a 4-1 lead.

Kazuhiro Wada doubled with one out in the eighth and Blanco [the CL RBI leader] followed by lining a shot the opposite way for a 6-1 lead.

Super rookie reliever Shinji Tajima (3-0) worked 1.1 innings -- after Daisuke Yamai got the hook -- to pick up the win, and first-year import Jorge Sosa fanned three over 1.2 innings to close it out for his first save in Japan.

The Dragons have won four straight decisions, and moved into second place in the interleague standings.

EAGLES 7, SWALLOWS 1

Second-year righty Manabu Mima (5-2) became the latest Rakuten pitcher to step up, scattering five hits and a walk with six Ks to dominate skidding host Yakult.

The Swallows dropped their ninth consecutive game, the longest interleague skid in club history.

FIGHTERS 3, GIANTS 2

The second of Sho Nakata’s three hits was a two-run blast that broke a 1-1 tie and helped give Nippon Ham a split in its series against Yomiuri at Tokyo Dome.

Hirotoshi Masui, the sixth Nippon Ham hurler, gave up a solo homer to Yoshiyuki Kamei in the ninth, but nailed down his seventh save.

LIONS 3, TIGERS 0

Yasuyuki Kataoka’s three-run, opposite-field blast in the seventh broke a scoreless tie and Kazuhisa Makita (3-4) tossed a four-hit gem for his second career shutout as Seibu split its series with host Hanshin.

Kataoka had three hits to back Makita, who walked three and fanned five.

BAYSTARS 2, BUFFALOES 1

Yoshitomo Tsutsugo’s two-run blast, his fourth, was enough for Shugo Fujii (1-1) and four relievers as Yokohama broke a 14-game losing skid to Orix, beating it at home for its first win against the Buffaloes since May 26, 2008.

Fujii won his first game since moving to Yokohama, first since Oct. 2, 2010. Shun Yamaguchi earned his first save since May 6.

MARINES 7, CARP 3

Tadahito Iguchi capped a seven-run fifth inning off Bryan Bullington (2-5) with a three-run blast [his career 200th], and Ryoji Katsuki (2-1) and three relievers shut down Hiroshima for a victory at The Zoom.

*Interleague count
PL 32, CL 23, 4 TIE