Fish or fowl ...

Carp, Swallows end tight series with draw

The Fish are trying to get their heads above water, while the Birds are looking to keep the Central League playoff perch they earned last season.

The teams closed out a three-game series that exhibits just how close the race figures to be finishing 1-1-1 in the three-game set.

Jun Matsui’s homer off Takeru Imamura in the ninth inning tied the score at 2-2, and an extra inning was not enough to break the deadlock as the third-place Carp keep their 2.5-game lead in the CL intact with a draw against the fourth-place Yakult Swallows on Thursday at Jingu Stadium.

Kan Otake deserved his 11th victory, going eight innings and holding the Swallows to a run [unearned] on six hits, a walk and a hit batter. But Imamura left an outside fastball a little up, and Matsui whacked it the opposite way for his third hit of the game, a solo shot that stayed just inside the line in left.

Tony Barnette worked out of a two-out, one-out jam in the top of the 10th, but the Swallows couldn’t score off Imamura in the bottom of the inning to give skipper Junji Ogawa a victory on his 55th birthday.

BAYSTARS 4, TIGERS 3

Pinch-hitter Tatsuya Shimozono’s clutch RBI single in the eighth gave host Yokohama the lead, and Shun Yamaguchi worked a perfect ninth by striking out the side as the last-place BayStars took two of three from Hanshin to pull within four games of the Tigers.

No. 7 batter Takayuki Kajitani’s second career homer [his first was also against Hanshin on April 30, 2009] gave Yokohama a two-run lead in the second, and No. 8 batter Kazunari Tsuruoka drove in the other run with a bases-loaded walk in the fourth.

GIANTS 9, DRAGONS 3

Daisuke Fujimura had a bases-clearing triple and an RBI double, and Shinnosuke Abe had two hits and three RBIs as Yomiuri rolled past visiting Chunichi to reduce its magic number to 24.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

FIGHTERS 2, LIONS 0

Brian Wolfe (8-9) fired seven shutout innings and three relievers helped close out a six-hitter as Nippon Ham topped Seibu at Sapporo Dome to avoid a sweep and snap a four-game skid.

Wolfe fanned six with no walks, and Yang Zhong-shou and Haruki Nishikawa [the fill-in for the injured Kensuke Tanaka] also had an RBI single for the only offense the righty needed.

BUFFALOES 4, HAWKS 1

Yusuke Kajimoto had the first of three straight RBI singles in the ninth as Orix outlasted SoftBank at FYJ Dome.

Hideki Okajima surrendered his first earned runs in 47 outings since his return to Japan.

MARINES 3, EAGLES 1

Shunichi Nemoto connected for a tiebreaking two-run homer [his eighth] in the eighth inning, helping lift host Lotte past Rakuten at The Q.