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Some rights reserved.
Pena HR helps Hawks sweep Marines
Talk about dialing it up. The defending Japan Series champion SoftBank Hawks are making a statement about the Pacific League title race, turning the first-half leaders into second-half fodder.
Wily Mo Pena thumped a three-run homer, and rookie righty Shota Takeda (5-1) and three relievers combined on a seven-hitter as SoftBank completed a three-game sweep of the Marines at FYJ Dome, pushing Lotte into fifth place with a 3-0 shutout.
Takeda’s five-and-dive effort of four hits and four walks with three Ks put the Hawks four games over .500 and just three games out of the top spot.
Takeda became the first Hawks hurler straight out of high to win five games in his first season since Hayato Terahara in 2002.
The Marines, meanwhile, have dropped eight straight -- their longest skid this season -- and their tumble into fifth place was their lowest drop in the standings this year.
EAGLES 9, LIONS 2
Masahiro Tanaka (8-4) scattered eight hits and two walks over the distance, finally getting some run support in his third straight complete game [the other two were 10-inning efforts], and Akihisa Makida had a solo homer and a two-run single as host Rakuten swept Seibu for the first time since September 2007.
Ginji Akaminai had three hits and an RBI and Kazuo Matsui doubled and singled twice to finish off Rakuten’s second sweep of Seibu in club history.
FIGHTERS 2, BUFFALOES 0
Yoshio Itoi and Yang Zhong-shou each singled in runs in the first inning, and third-year righty Masaru Nakamura (2-0) held Orix to four hits and a walk over seven innings as Nippon Ham won the rubber game at Kyocera Dome Osaka with a shutout.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
TIGERS 7, DRAGONS 0
Third-year righty Akira Iwamoto held Chunichi to two hits and a walk over six innings in his first-team debut, and Craig Brazell had a solo blast and an RBI hit, while Matt Murton had three hits and an RBI as Hanshin won its series at Nagoya Dome.
GIANTS 4, SWALLOWS 4, 10 INNINGS
Wladimir Balentien’s RBI single in the seventh inning pulled Yakult even, and an extra inning wasn’t enough to break the stalemate in a tie with Yomiuri in Niigata.
It was a franchise-record 11th extra-inning game for the Giants that ended in a tie.
BAYSTARS 3, CARP 3, 10 INNINGS
Hiroshima’s Brad Eldred had two doubles, including a go-ahead two-bagger in the eighth, but Ryosuke Kikuchi’s error allowed the tying run to score in the ninth and neither team could break the deadlock at The Zoom.