Sinking their teeth …
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Makita leads Lions past Hawks
The Seibu Lions had to do more than show their teeth to avoid a sweep in the finale of pivotal three-game set against the SoftBank Eagles on Wednesday.
Second-year submariner Kazuhisa Makita helped them do just that, gritting out a 2-0 win with 7.1 scoreless innings for a win that kept them two games ahead of SoftBank in the Pacific League.
Makita (12-7) scattered seven hits with no walks and a half-dozen Ks, and Hideaki Wakui nailed down his 24th save by recording the final five outs [and giving Lions fans high-blood-pressure symptoms by loading the bases with two outs in the ninth before shutting it down] as Seibu stayed within 2.5 games of front-running Nippon Ham.
Esteban German broke up a scoreless battle with a triple into the right-field corner off Nagisa Arakaki (6-4) that was enough to push slow-running Jose Ortiz around from first. German scored on Masato Kumashiro’s dunker down the left-field line.
The Lions stopped a four-game slide, while the Hawks saw their three-game winning streak snapped.
EAGLES 13, MARINES 2
Akihisa Makida hit his first career grand slam to cap a seven-run first inning, and added a three-run shot in the eighth for a club-record-tying seven-RBI night as host Rakuten enjoyed a laugher at the expense of Lotte at Tokyo Dome.
It was the first two-homer game for Makida, a 12th-year veteran, and Ginji Akaminai had four hits and an RBI, while Ryo Hijirisawa had three hits and drove in a run to lead a 16-hit attack that gave the Eagles double digits in runs for a second consecutive game.
FIGHTERS 4, BUFFLAOES 2
Yoshio Itoi’s RBI single in the third put Nippon Ham up for good, and Atsunori Inaba and Eiichi Koyano capped the three-run rally by driving in a run apiece as the Fighters downed Orix at Sapporo Dome.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
GIANTS 3, DRAGONS 2
Shinnosuke Abe belted his 25th homer with two aboard in the third inning and three relievers fired 3.2 scoreless innings to help Dickey Gonzalez (4-1) beat Chunichi to put Yomiuri on the brink of its first league title since 2009.
The Giants finished 11-10-3 against the Dragons while reducing their magic number to one. Yomiuri can clinch at home on Friday.
SWALLOWS 3, CARP 1
A funky seventh inning that featured catcher’s interference, a player hit by a pitch in the head – resulting in the ejection of debut starter Shota Nakazaki (0-1) -- a bunt that went for a hit, a single on the only ball hit to the outfield and a groundout to the pitcher doomed host Hiroshima, which suffered a sweep in its showdown for third against Yakult.
Yuhei Takai bounced a soft single through the left side and Hiroyasu Tanaka added an RBI groundout in the two-run seventh, carrying third-place Yakult past Hiroshima for a six-game lead in the race for the final CLCS spot.
The Swallows have won six straight, the Carp have dropped five in a row.
TIGERS 1, BAYSTARS 0
Kentaro Sekimoto drew a bases-loaded walk in the seventh for the game’s only run, and Kazuya Tsutsui picked up his first career save with a perfect ninth as Hanshin blanked Yokohama at Koshien Stadium.