Roaring success …

Takekuma carries no-no into 8th, leads Lions past Hawks

Shota Takekuma stepped up to the first team and stood out at Seibu Dome on Thursday. Even while suffering a cramp, he was walking tall after carrying a no-no into the eighth inning of a 2-0 Seibu shutout win over the SoftBank Hawks.

The fourth-round draft pick in 2007 was making his first start of the season and helped the Lions win a game in which they managed just three hits.

The fifth-year hurler, who fanned six while walking two and hitting one on a career-high 119 pitches, said his control wasn’t sharp. But his wit was intact afterward.

“I thought I’d give up a hit at some point, so I’m glad I wasn’t able to throw a no-hitter,” Takekuma quipped after allowing a bloop single to Yuya Hasegawa with one out in the eighth. The southpaw left with two outs in the inning and picked up his second pro win [No. 1 came in relief against the Hawks on June 20, 2010].

He said Seibu skipper Hisanobu Watanabe offered words of praise to him after the game, but Takekuma had no idea what they were.

“Whatever he said, I think it was positive, but I was just too fired up and I don’t remember what it was,” the 23-year-old Hokkaido native joked after just his second pro start.

Hawks starter Shota Oba (2-3) went the distance and was the hard-luck loser, matching Takekuma pitch-for-pitch until Esteban German broke up the simultaneous no-nos in the fifth with a one-out single. German stole second and came home on a bad throw to first on Yutaro Osaki’s infield single.

German walked and scored in the seventh on a triple by Hideto Asamura, and Hideaki Wakui tossed a 1-2-3 ninth for his eighth save.

FIGHTERS 7, MARINES 2

Atsunori Inaba led a Nippon Ham explosion, blasting a pair of homers, and he and Sho Nakata and Yang Zhong-shou also went deep back-to-back-to-back to win their home series against front-running Lotte.

It was Inaba’s 18th career two-homer game, and the team’s first four-home run game since Aug. 4, 2010. The Fighters hadn’t had hit three straight homers in a game
since May 23, 2010.

The Eagle and Buffaloes were rained out.


CENTRAL LEAGUE

TIGERS 4, DRAGONS 1

Randy Messenger (5-8) worked seven scoreless innings and Ryota Arai’s RBI double in the fourth proved to be the difference as Hanshin won its series against Chunichi at Koshien Stadium.

Arai is 8-for-20 in his past six games, all starts.

GIANTS 6, CARP 2

Hisayoshi Chono went 4-for-5 with four RBIs to lead Yomiuri past Hiroshima in what looked like the Oranges vs. the Apples at Tokyo Dome.

BAYSTARS 6, SWALLOWS 6

Yokohama’s Norihiro Nakamura’s double in the ninth off the wall with two outs off Yakult’s Tony Barnette tied things up, and the time limit ended play after a scoreless bottom of the ninth in a stalemate at Jingu Stadium.