Fallen ’Stars …
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Some rights reserved.
Balentien’s blast lifts Birds, sinks BayStars
The falling rain on Thursday and a pitch that ended up in the dirt -- outside the stadium -- symbolized the Yokohama BayStars’ season.
The BayStars worked hard to get in position to win, but in the end, it was more of the same old thing: losing.
Wladimir Balentien bashed a two-run bomb in the sixth inning, and rain halted a 3-1 Yakult Swallows win in a game that was called in the seventh. Balentien had two doubles and ripped his Japan-best 27th homer off loser Kentaro Takasaki (5-10), a moon shot that clean that back wall and went out of the stadium.
The win helped the Swallows pull even with the Hiroshima Carp [who lost in Nagoya] for third place in the Central League standings, and seemed to also mean the BayStars won’t catch the Hanshin Tigers and escape the CL cellar for a fifth straight season.
The BayStars, who drew a Japan season-low 6,303 fans, are 6.5 games back of the Tigers with about three weeks to play.
GIANTS 1, TIGERS 1, 10 INNINGS
Hisayoshi Chono’s RBI single pulled Yomiuri even in the seventh inning, matching Yamato Maeda’s run-scoring single in the second and that’s the way things ended at Koshien Stadium.
Both lefty starters, Tetsuya Utsumi of the Giants and the Tigers' Minrou Iwata, twirled seven innings of one-run ball, but Yomiuri still saw its magic number drop by one to 16.
DRAGONS 3, CARP 0
Tony Blanco lined a two-run missile that scuffed the top of the wall in left for a two-run shot [his 21st] in the first, and Kenichi Nakata (6-9) wriggled out of trouble over seven-plus innings [five hits and four walks] as Chunichi downed Hiroshima at Nagoya Dome.
It was the 23rd shutout of the season for the Dragons, who are 19 games over .500.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
LIONS 9, HAWKS 2
Hideto Asamura tripled and doubled to drive in two runs, Ginjiro Sumitani doubled and singled for two RBIs and [all he does is hit] Jose Ortiz had a single and a solo blast as Seibu routed visiting SoftBank.
All the support helped second-year submariner Kazuhisa Makita (10-7) reach double digits in wins for the first time in his two seasons. The made it three double-digit winners for the Lions for the first time in two seasons.