Hungry Lions …

Lions top scuffling Marines

The Lotte Marines have been out of step since the All-Star break, while the Seibu Lions have been on a tear.

The Lions ate up the slumping Marines on Tuesday night at The Q. as Takayuki Kishi worked eight sharp innings Seibu pulled away late for a 6-3 win that put it a half-game back of Lotte. The Lions are just 2.5 games out of first.

Hiroyuki Nakajima, batting cleanup for the first time since July 17, broke a 2-2 tie in the seventh with a two-out double for Seibu, and Takumi Kuriyama and Shogo Akiyama each added RBIs in the eighth.

Kishi (9-8) scattered seven hits and a walk with eight Ks over eight innings, and Chris Carter [this week’s guest on JBW] had two hits, including his first longball in Japan, as Seibu put up three runs over the last two innings.

Lotte, which fell to 3-8-1 since the break, had the lead after two innings, but couldn’t make Kishi pay when he put runners on base. The righty loaded the bases with no one in the sixth, but wriggled free without allowing a run.

“It was my fault for starting that pinch, so I’m glad I was able to get out of it with a zero on the board,” Kishi said in the here interview.

Esteban German singled and stole his 25th base [tying the club’s single-season record for imports], scoring on Nakajima’s double.

HAWKS 5, FIGHTERS 4

Wily Mo Pena’s second homer of the game [a two-run shot to give him 15] sparked a four-run outburst, capped by Kenji Akashi’s clutch two-run single in the seventh as SoftBank rallied to nip host Nippon Ham.

BUFFALOES 0, EAGLES 0, 10 INNINGS

Hiroshi Kisanuki fired nine scoreless frames for Orix and Satoshi Nagai went seven scoreless before the bullpens took over in a scoreless deadlock at The Kleenex Box.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

DRAGONS 4, CARP 2

Kazuhiro Wada had three hits and an RBI, and Hirokazu Ibata’s eighth-inning squeeze bunt scored what proved to be the winning run as Chunichi topped visiting Hiroshima.

Wada also scored on a clutch single by Motonobu Tanishige.

BAYSTARS 10, SWALLOWS 1

Kensuke Uchimura had four hits and a career-high four RBIs, and Shugo Fujii (6-2) won his fifth straight decision as Yokohama beat up on host Yakult.

Norihiro Nakamura’s two-run homer in the third proved to be the difference and Yokohama piled on the runs late as four relievers combined to face the minimum over the final four frames.

TIGERS 1, GIANTS 1

Pinch-hitter Shinjiro Hiyama delivered a clutch single in the eighth inning to spare Randy Messenger a hard-luck loss as Hanshin evened the score and earned a tie with Yomiuri at Tokyo Dome.