Big drama in little Tokyo …

Hatakeyama’s slam caps epic comeback for Swallows

As Kazuhiro Hatakeyama made his way to the plate with two down, the bases loaded and his team behind by two runs in the eighth inning on Wednesday, he said he was thinking of the crowd and the two outs he had made his previous two at-bats in scoring chances.

Those thoughts powered his swing on a one-strike pitch, which he belted to left for a dramatic go-ahead grand slam that electrified Jingu Stadium and snapped a three-game skid as the Yakult Swallows rallied past the lowly Yokohama BayStars 7-6.

The blast capped a five-run rally that gutted the Central League’s last-place BayStars, who used three relievers to try to preserve the lead for Daisuke Miura but couldn’t hold off the third-place Swallows.

Downtown Tokyo’s other team used three singles -- two that stayed on the infield -- before Hatakeyama launched a shot down the left-field line that just stayed fair. It was his just his fifth homer of the season [he had a career-best 23 last season].

“I thought it was gone the moment I made contact, but I was surprised that it went that ended up being that close to the foul line,” Hatakeyama said in the hero interview about his fourth career grand slam.

Tony Barnette allowed a run in the ninth, but saved his 20th for the Swallows, who also got a two-run homer in the first from Jun Matsui in their Japan-best 16th comeback win.

CARP 4, GIANTS 2

Kenta Maeda (9-3) worked seven strong innings and Takahiro Iwamoto blasted his fifth longball, a two-run shot in the fifth, to help lift visiting Hiroshima past Yomiuri in a game in Gifu Prefecture.

The Carp closed it out after a 59-minute rain delay as Maeda lowered his CL-best ERA to 1.49, upped his league-best win count to nine and his second-best strikeout total to 98.

DRAGONS 2, TIGERS 1

Ryosuke Hirata homered and Hirokazu Ibata came up with an RBI double for two first-inning runs that second-year lefty Yudai Ono (1-0) made it stand up [with 3.2 innings of bullpen help] for his first pro win as Chunichi edged Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.

Ono scattered seven hits with a walk with one strikeout and Jorge Sosa extended his remarkable scoreless innings streak by working two more for a 0.00 ERA over 36 frames. Hiroki Uemoto was caught trying to steal second to end the game.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

BUFFALOES 3, EAGLES 1

Aarom Baldiris doubled in the seventh after Shingo Nonaka recorded the first hit off Manabu Mima (5-4), and Takahiro T.O. Okada singled him in as Orix came back to edge Rakuten at The Kleenex Box.

Kei Igawa (1-2) scattered three hits and three walks over eight innings for his first win in Japan since May 30, 2006.

HAWKS 4, LIONS 1

Nobuhiro Matsuda stroked a three-run homer in the third to back Tadashi Settsu (8-4), who scattered five hits and a walk over the distance [his first complete game this year] to pull into a tie for the league lead in wins.

MARINES 0, FIGHTERS 0, 12 INNINGS

Nippon Ham’s Sho Nakata notched his league-best eighth outfield assist, nabbing Lotte’s Yoshifumi Okada at the plate to end the 11th, and neither team could break through for a run in a 12-inning stalemate at Sapporo Dome.