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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Some rights reserved.
The defending Japan Series champion SoftBank Hawks have been doubted since the offseason, when they lost half of their rotation, experienced the usual turnover and got a little older.
Those days are long forgotten by SoftBank fans and the two Pacific League teams above them in the standings as Wily Mo Pena knocked in a pair of runs and the Hawks knocked off the Seibu Lions 5-1 on Tuesday at FYJ Dome.
It was the fourth straight win for the Hawks, who are now just one game behind second-place Seibu, which has dropped three straight.
Sho Iwasaki (5-10) came out of the bullpen to toss three scoreless innings, and Masahiko Morifuku wriggled out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the seventh to protect a two-run lead, and the Hawks tacked on a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning to pull away late.
The two-time defending PL-winning Hawks are just 3.5 games out of first with a little more than two weeks to play in the regular season.
FIGHTERS 6, BUFFALOES 2
Yoshio Itoi cracked his first homer in about a month, and Micah Hoffpauir also went deep to back Masaru Takeda (11-7), who threw a four-hitter for his second complete game of the season as Nippon Ham downed Orix at Sapporo Dome.
Itoi had three hits and Eiichi Koyano also had a two-run double to back Takeda, who fanned nine with no walks.
EAGLES 11, MARINES 6
Former Yokohama infielder Kazuya Fujita put together the second five-hit game of his career [three singles and two doubles] and drove in a career-high four runs to help Rakuten batter Lotte at The Kleenex Box.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
SWALLOWS 2, CARP 1
Shohei Tateyama (11-8) fanned a season-high 13 while scattering six hits with two walks and a hit a batter, and Wladimir Balentien smacked his Japan-leading 29th homer [a two-run shot] as Yakult won at The Zoom.
The victory boosted Hiroshima’s advantage for the third and final Climax Series spot to five games with about two weeks to play in the regular season.
GIANTS 9, DRAGONS 5
Hayato Sakamoto brought Yomiuri back from a 5-1 deficit with a third-inning grand slam [the fourth of his career], and Yoshihito Ishii’s bases-loaded single in the seventh was the difference as Yomiuri topped Chunichi at Nagoya Dome to reduce its magic number to three.
The BayStars and Tigers were rained out at Koshien Stadium.