Flying colors …

Tanaka lifts Eagles closer to 2nd place

Masahiro Tanaka has been tested three times by former high school rival Yuki Saito, and the Rakuten Eagles right-hander keeps passing with flying colors.

Tanaka (6-2) earned high marks, fanning a season-high 13 over eight innings of a 5-1 victory over the Nippon Ham Fighters on Friday at The Kleenex Box.

Meanwhile Saito (5-7) wanted to hide his grade after yielding five runs over six runner-filled innings. The Nippon Ham righty gave up seven hits and walked six to drop his third straight decision.

Tanaka has won all three pro meetings between the pitching rivals, who battled in a classic matchup at Koshien in 2006 in the national high school tournament.

“I thought if it happened twice, it could happen a third time,” Tanaka said in the hero interview. “I’m just happy that we were able to get the victory.”

The win moved the Eagles, in the third Pacific League, to within a half-game of the second-place Fighters.

Shintaro Masuda drove in the first run in the third with a sac fly, and Takero Okajima’s fourth-inning RBI single gave the Eagles all they’d need to win. Kazuo Matsui’s two-run double in the sixth padded the lead and Ginji Akaminai added an RBI hit later in the inning to cap the scoring.

HAWKS 4, MARINES 3, 10 INNINGS

Nobuhiro Matsuda’s single plated Kenji Akashi to give SoftBank its first walk-off win at FYJ Dome, beating front-running Lotte.

Lotte scored twice in the eighth to even the score, but Matsuda drove in Akashi, who opened the frame with his third hit of the night.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

GIANTS 1, DRAGONS 1, 10 INNINGS

Chunichi’s Kazuhiro Wada doubled and Motonobu Tanishige’s one-out single drove him home in the ninth inning and the Dragons pulled out a tie with front-running Yomiuri at Nagoya Dome.

Yomiuri was in position to snap Chunichi’s club-record 14-game winning streak at home, but Scott Mathieson blew the save opportunity.

CARP 12, BAYSTARS 4

Yoshiyuki Ishihara led six players with at least one RBI by blasting his third career grand slam -- his first since Aug. 31, 2003 -- as visiting Hiroshima battered lowly Yokohama.

Shota Dobayashi cracked his ninth longball, and Eishin Soyogi hit his sixth to help starter Bryan Bullington (5-9) get his second win in as many starts.

The Tigers and Swallows, and Buffaloes and Lions games were both rained out.