Wednesday, May 31, 2006

NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo Pref. (Kyodo) Tomoaki Kanemoto hit a tiebreaking three-run home run in the eighth inning Tuesday, lifting the Central-League leading Hanshin Tigers to a 5-2 win over the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in interleague play.

Hanshin Tigers starter Kei Igawa delivers a pitch against the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles Tuesday at Koshien Stadium.

Shane Spencer led off the frame with a pinch-hit homer to right and after Norihiro Akahoshi singled and Andy Sheets drew a walk to put runners at first and second with one out, Kanemoto connected off Hiroki Yamamura (2-5) on a first pitch forkball for the come-from-behind win at Koshien Stadium.

Kei Igawa (4-3) struck out 12 batters, allowing two runs -- one unearned -- on seven hits and two walks for the win. Tomoyuki Kubota pitched a perfect ninth with two strikeouts to earn his 11th save.

Rakuten opened the scoring on a Jose Fernandez RBI single in the first before Sheets hit a sacrifice fly to tie it in the bottom half. Akihisa Makida gave Rakuten the lead again with a run-scoring single in the fourth before Spencer's shot to left retied the game.

Marines 8, Swallows 1

At Chiba Marine Stadium, Pacific League leader Lotte jumped out to a 6-0 lead after two innings en route to its fifth straight win with a season-high 16 hits and right-hander Shingo Ono cruised to his first complete game victory of the season.

Tomoya Satozaki, Saburo Omura, Toshiaki Imae and Kazuya Fukuura all hit RBI doubles off Masanori Ishikawa (6-4) in the first two innings to back Ono (4-2).

Dragons 3, Buffaloes 1

At Skymark Stadium, Hiroyuki Watanabe drove home the go-ahead run in the seventh inning and Kenshin Kawakami threw eight strong innings as Chunichi won its third game in a row and climbed into second place in the CL.

Fighters 12, Giants 2

At Sapporo Dome, Fernando Seguignol and Atsunori Inaba provided the power with three homers and seven RBIs between them, leading Hokkaido Nippon Ham to a rout of Yomiuri, which dropped to third in the CL standings with its fifth loss in as many games.

Lions 3, Carp 2

At Invoice Seibu Dome, Hideaki Wakui threw 7 2/3 strong innings and Takumi Kuriyama and Koji Tahara hit RBI hits to turn the game around in a three-run second as the Lions downed Hiroshima.

Hawks 8, BayStars 3

At Kusanagi Stadium in Shizuoka, Fukuoka Softbank sent 10 batters to the plate in a five-run second inning, featuring RBI singles from catcher Katsuki Yamazaki, Munenori Kawasaki and Hiroshi Shibahara.

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