Sunday, April 23, 2006

Tetsuya Utsumi pitched a complete game to win his third straight start and Kenji Yano capped a five-run third inning with a three-run homer as the Yomiuri Giants defeated the Hanshin Tigers 6-1 on Saturday.

Kenji Yano of the Yomiuri Giants belts a three-run homer during the third inning of Saturday;s game against the Hanshin Tigers at Tokyo Dome.

Utsumi, who threw his first career complete game a week ago against the Yokohama BayStars, held the Tigers to one run and eight hits with five strikeouts and a walk in Central League action at Tokyo Dome, backed by early run support.

Tomohiro Nioka gave Yomiuri a 1-0 lead in the first with his first of two doubles on the night after Takahiro Suzuki and Makoto Kosaka had back-to-back singles leading off the inning.

Lee Seung Yeop made it 2-0 in the third on an RBI grounder with runners on second and third, followed by a Hiroki Kokubo run-scoring single to left.

Two batters later, Yano hit his third home run of the season over the left-center fence with two runners on and chased Yuya Ando (2-1), who surrendered six runs and nine hits in 2-1/3 innings.

The defending league champion Tigers lost their fifth straight game as Osamu Hamanaka's RBI single in the fourth proved to be their only run of the night. Yomiuri moved 12 games above .500 for the first time in four years.

Dragons 7, Carp 5 (12)

Catcher Yoshikazu Kura allowed a passed ball with two out and the bases loaded to score the tiebreaking run in the 12th inning as Chunichi squeezed past Hiroshima.

With Kosuke Fukudome at the plate, Kura allowed Hidenori Kuramoto, who reached on a leadoff walk, to score from third on a Mike Romano (0-1) pitch at Yonago municipal stadium. Fukudome, who hit a solo blast in the third inning, then cushioned the lead with a two-run single to right.

A total of 16 pitchers were used by both teams to match a Japanese baseball record in a game that lasted 5 hours, 34 minutes -- the longest this season in either league. Hitoki Iwase surrendered a home run to Takahiro Arai in the bottom of the 12th but picked up his sixth save.

BayStars 11, Swallows 6

At Jingu Stadium, Katsuaki Furuki homered twice and went 3-for-4 with six RBIs as Yokohama used an eight-run seventh inning to break open a close game against Yakult.

Furuki tied the game 3-3 in the fourth with a three-run shot, led off the seventh with his second blast to cut Yakult's lead to 5-4 and added a two-run bases-loaded single in the same inning.

Yokohama sent 12 batters to the plate in the seventh and scored eight runs on six hits and three walks, with Tatsuhiko Kinjo's infield single driving in the go-ahead run.

Former major leaguer Shingo Takatsu (1-1) was charged with six runs, four hits and two walks in only one-third of an inning. Shawn Sonnier (1-0) got his first win in Japan.

Asai solid as Eagles blank Lions

SENDAI (Kyodo) Right-hander Hideki Asai pitched seven shutout innings and Teppei Tsuchiya hit his first career homer Saturday, helping the Rakuten Eagles snap a three-game losing skid with a 1-0 victory over the Seibu Lions in the Pacific League.

Fukuoka Softbank Hawks hurler Kazumi Saito pitches against the Orix Buffaloes at Osaka Dome.

Asai (1-3) allowed five hits with five strikeouts, four walks and a hit batsman to notch his first win of the season and Tsuchiya crushed a 1-0 fastball from Fumiya Nishiguchi (2-2) into the right-field seats with one out in the seventh inning at Fullcast Stadium.

Nishiguchi threw a complete game but failed to get run support, scattering seven hits with seven strikeouts and two walks as Seibu suffered its first shutout this season. Kazuo Fukumori got his fourth save after retiring three in the ninth.

Marines 3, Fighters 2

Tomoya Satozaki went 2-for-3 with an RBI single and run-scoring double to help make a winner of Shingo Ono (2-1), who yielded one run and five hits in seven innings of work at Sapporo Dome.

Satozaki and Benny Agbayani had consecutive RBI singles with one out in the opening frame. After Nippon Ham cut the deficit to 2-1 in the fifth, Satozaki doubled to right to drive in an insurance run in the eighth.

Nippon Ham pulled within a run in the bottom of the eighth but Fernando Seguignol and Atsunori Inaba both struck out to end the inning after runners reached first and second with one out.

Hawks 13, Buffaloes 2

Four of the staring nine had multi-hits and Naoyuki Omura keyed a five-run sixth with a bases-clearing double as Softbank romped over Orix at Osaka Dome scoring a season high.

Softbank took leads of 4-0 and 9-2 before rookie infielder Nobuhiro Matsuda hit his first career homer with a two-run drive to left in a four-run seventh, completing the rout in a 13-hit attack.

Kazumi Saito (2-1) gave up two runs on five hits in seven strong innings to post his first win since opening day and two relievers held Orix hitless the rest of the way. Yoshihisa Hirano (2-1) took the loss.

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