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Nakajima cracks 2 HRs, Nakamura preserves win for Nishiguchi

These were the Seibu Lions many imagined before the season started. There was　Hiroyuki Nakajima slugging a pair of homers and collecting four hits, Fumiya Nishiguchi pitching into the sixth inning, Shogo Akiyama had four hits and the bullpen made it stand up for a 6-4 interleague win over the Yomiuri Giants.

This was the team many predicted would be atop the Pacific League standings, not the one that on Friday finally moved out of the Pacific League cellar with the victory.

Nakajima was posted in the offseason and couldn’t work out a deal with the New York Yankees and ended up back with the Lions. His team has played like a group in a similar limbo, zombieing through the first two months.

But thanks to Nakajima’s big night, the Lions have won three straight, while the Giants saw their three-game winning streak snapped.

In addition, Randy Williams pried Ken Togame out of trouble in the eighth, and Micheal Nakamura, in his first season with Seibu, worked a perfect ninth to record his first save since Aug. 29, 2010 [while with the Giants].

Nakajima cracked his first homer in 21 games -- since May 1. He hit a two-run shot in the fifth and came back with a solo blast in the seventh. Nakajima also doubled and had a single.

“It was Nakajima’s first homer in a while. He did to those pitches what he was supposed to do and it seemed to give the team a boost,” said skipper HIsanobu Watanabe in his TV postgame interview.

Nishiguchi (4-1) allowed a run on five hits and a walk with four Ks.

SWALLOWS 13, MARINES 4

Wladimir Balentien returned from a Twitter and attitude demotion to the farm by going 3-for-3 with a homer [his 13th] and three RBIs, and Shinya Miyamoto slugged a three-run homer [his first since last Sept. 14] as Yakult topped Lotte with a win at Jingu Stadium.

Shingo Kawabata added to a season-high-tying 15-hit attack with one of five extra-base hits [a double] and two RBIs as the Swallows rode two five-run innings to win for the fourth time in five games.

DRAGONS 3, EAGLES 2

Kazuhiro Wada jacked his fourth homer, a two-run shot with one out in the ninth, as Chunichi turned around a one-run deficit in the ninth for a walk-off win over Rakuten at Nagoya Dome.

The Dragons were held to four hits, but had a double by Yohei Oshima off May MVP Koji Aoyama (1-2) before Wada’s fourth longball to snap a four-game skid and move back on top in the CL.

It was Nishiguchi’s first start at Tokyo Dome since June, 2008.

TIGERS 3, BUFFALOES 1 – 8 INNINGS

Tomoaki Kanemoto blasted a seventh-inning three-run homer, his third of the season, in the rain at Koshien Stadium to lead Hanshin to a comeback win over Orix.

Kyuji Fujikawa, the last of four relievers, slammed the door in the ninth for his 11th save.

FIGHTERS 4, BAYSTARS 1

Yang Zhong-shou and Makoto Kaneko drove in runs in the fourth to back Brian Wolfe (4-4), who scattered five hits over six scoreless innings as Nippon Ham downed host Yokohama.

Micah Hoffpauir and Kensuke Tanaka each added solo shots as the Fighters won their third straight in interleague over the BayStars.

HAWKS 1, CARP 1

Hiroshima’s Eishin Soyogi’s solo blast in the bottom of the first was the last run in a game against SoftBank called after eight innings because of rain at The Zoom.

*Interleague count
PL 49, CL 44, 8 TIES



[Edited by: jgibson on Jun 9, 2012 10:14 AM]