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Ota has rare start, surprising finish in Giants' laugher

The Yomiuri Giants are literally waltzing toward the Central League title. Saturday’s win at Tokyo Dome was　proof of that.

They brought up farmhand Taishi Ota, who hadn't started a game since June 4 of last year, inserted him into the lineup and watched him rake in a 9-1 win over the Yokohama BayStars. Ota had three hits and three RBIs [his first runs driven in since May 21 of last season] to help lead a 15-hit attack as the Giants reduced their magic number to win the CL title to 25.

Shuichi Murata had three hits, including his 10th homer, against his former team, and D.J. Houlton (10-6) set the tone by keeping Yokohama at bay by tossing eight innings of one-run ball. The righty, in his first season with Yomiuri after four years with the SoftBank Hawks, only broke a sweat because of the humidity.

He yielded just three hits, while walking two and fanning five to reach double digits in wins in Japan for the third time.

Ota also pulled off a rare feat. He started the game at first, later moved to center and finished the game at third base.

Announcers were practically ready to hand Ota keys to the city after his performance.

“Slow down, we don't need to heap that much praise on him," Tatsunori Hara said in a postgame TV interview. "It's his fourth year and we've expecting to see some results from him, so this is just part of the process.”

Hisayoshi Chono had two hits and two RBIs, and Daisuke Fujimura added a hit and two runs batted in for Yomiuri.

CARP 1, TIGERS 0

Fourth-year righty Keisuke Imai (2-5) fired the game of his life, fanning 10 in a 134-pitch, four-hitter to post a shutout in his first-career complete game, blanking Hanshin for his second win [both against the Tigers] this season.

SWALLOWS 6, DRAGONS 2

Lastings MIlledge, batting in the cleanup spot because of all the injuries, smacked a three-run homer in the first and a bases-clearing double in the seventh as Yakult downed Chunichi at Jingu to improve to 12-7 against the Dragons.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

BUFFALOES 7, EAGLES 4

Takahiro Okada went deep twice and Aarom Baldiris belted his 10th homer as Orix powered past Rakuten at The Kleenex Box.

Alex Maestri (3-1) made it through five innings, allowing four runs [one earned] on five hits and a walk with six Ks for the win.

LIONS 4, MARINES 2

Hiroyuki Nakajima had a two-run single in the second, and Kazuhisa Ishii (10-4) held Lotte to a run on five hits and a walk over seven innings as Seibu won to move a season-best 11 games over .500.

Hideaki Wakui notched his 20th save, becoming the sixth Sawamura Award winner to also record 20 saves.

FIGHTERS 3, HAWKS 1

Eiichi Koyano socked a two-run homer off Masahiko Morifuku (1-5) in the ninth inning, and Hisashi Takeda worked out of a two-on, one-out jam to notch his 21st save as Nippon Ham downed SoftBank at FYJ Dome.