Rip-roarin’ Lions …

Kikuchi shuts down Eagles, Ortiz & Carter supply the punch

Yusei Kikuchi said his fastball was as good as it has been all year. Jose Ortiz and Chris Carter were as good as usual.

The combination, along with a hire-wire act by Randy Williams in the eighth inning, helped the Seibu Lions edge the Rakuten Eagles 3-2 on Tuesday night at Seibu Dome.

The Pacific League’s second-place Lions gained a half-game on the Nippon Ham Fighters, who tied the Lotte Marines, and kept pace with the third-place SoftBank Hawks, who won on the road. The Lions are one game back of the Fighters.

“My fastball was the best it has been in recent games,” Kikuchi said in the hero interview. “I hope I can go out and do it again when my turn comes up.”

The third-year lefty (4-2) handcuffed the Eagles on two hits, with a walk and two Ks, over seven-plus innings to match last year’s career-best victory total of four.

Ortiz just missed a homer in the fourth, but got all of a Yoshinao Kamata (7-3) first-pitch fastball in the sixth and sent it out to center for his seventh homer. Carter's RBI single in the seventh proved to be the difference.

Williams came on in the eighth after Kikuchi allowed a leadoff walk and a single, and Ken Togame allowed an RBI double to Jose Fernandez. The big southpaw from Texas walked Motohiro Shima to load the bases with no outs and after getting a shallow flyout, he plunked Ryo Hijirisawa as Rakuten pulled within a run.

But Williams induced a pair of harmless groundouts to halt the rally and help Seibu keep the lead, and Hideaki Wakui kept the bases clean with a 1-2-3 ninth for his 27th save.

HAWKS 7, ORIX 0

Rookie Shota Takeda (7-1) fired his first shutout, blanking hapless Orix on four hits and a walk with seven Ks as SoftBank won at Kyocera Dome.

It was the 12th consecutive loss for Orix, the longest in team history, and the 12th time it has been shut out this season. Earlier in the day, outgoing skipper Akinobu Okada decided to step aside to let the last-place team focus on getting ready for next year.

MARINES 3, FIGHTERS 3, 10 INNINGS

Only one of Atsunori Inaba’s three hits drove in a run, and Lotte’s Josh Whitesell [this week’s guest on JBW] connected for his ninth homer, a tying solo blast in the eighth, as the Marines and Nippon Ham played to a time-limit deadlock at Sapporo Dome.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

GIANTS 3, CARP 2

Shinnosuke Abe clubbed his 27th longball [two shy of the league lead] to break a 2-2 tie in the eighth and move into fourth place all-time in club history -- seventh place in NBP -- by reaching base safely for the 41st consecutive game as Yomiuri edged Hiroshima at The Zoom.

Abe also became just the second catcher to post multiple 100-RBI seasons [Katsuya Nomura did it seven times]. Meanwhile, Shota Dobayashi set a Hiroshima club record by striking out for the 140th time.

SWALLOWS 3, TIGERS 0

Shohei Tateyama (12-8) tossed eight scoreless innings, allowing three hits and two walks, and Shinya Miyamoto doubled in a run and singled as Yakult blanked Hanshin at Jingu.

BAYSTARS 2, DRAGONS 2, 11 INNINGS

The last of Yokohama slugger Alex Ramirez’s three hits drove in the tying run in the third inning as Yokohama and Chunichi played to a 11-inning tie.