Wednesday, May 9, 2007

SAPPORO (Kyodo) Lefty Toshiya Sugiuchi threw a six-hitter in his second shutout of the season as the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks blanked the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 7-0 on Tuesday.

Fukuoka Softbank Hawks starter Toshiya Sugiuchi delivers a pitch against the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters on Tuesday at Sapporo Dome. The Hawks won 7-0. KYODO PHOTO

Hitoshi Tamura and Hiroki Kokubo hit solo blasts and Brian Buchanan had a two-run drive to back Sugiuchi (5-1), who struck out 10 and walked one at Sapporo Dome.

Naoyuki Omura drove in two runs for the Pacific League leaders to contribute to a 10-hit attack. Fernando Seguignol went 0-for-3 with a walk and is in a 0-for-12 slump. The Fighters saw their winning streak end after four games.

Marines 13, Buffaloes 0

At Kyocera Dome, left-hander Yoshihisa Naruse threw a two-hitter, striking out 11, setting the pace for Chiba Lotte in a 25-hit onslaught that sent Orix spiraling to its 10th loss in a row.

Chiba Lotte sent 13 batters to the plate in an eight-run second, sparked by Julio Zuleta's two-run drive. Kazuya Fukuura and Saburo Omura both had two-run singles before Zuleta added another two-run single in the big inning.

Naruse (3-0) tossed his first shutout this season, walking one in a 116-pitch outing.

Lions 10, Eagles 5

At Fullcast Stadium, Toru Hosokawa delivered a tiebreaking two-run double with one out in the sixth inning as Seibu went on to make a loser out of Tohoku Rakuten rookie Masahiro Tanaka.

Hideaki Wakui (6-1) went the distance, allowing seven hits with three strikeouts and no walks and currently leads the league in wins.

Hiroyuki Nakajima hit a two-run shot in the opening frame and Takeya Nakamura added a solo drive in the second before the Eagles tied it 3-all on a Teppei Tsuchiya bases-clearing double in the fifth.

Giants 7, Tigers

At Koshien Stadium, Lee Seung Yeop went 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBIs and Satoshi Fukuda pitched eight strong innings as first-place Yomiuri beat slumping Hanshin.

T he Giants went ahead in the second on a Luis Gonzalez sacrifice fly and made it 3-0 in the third on Lee's two-run shot off Esteban Yan (2-2) en route to sending the Tigers to their eighth loss in a row, their longest losing skid in five years.

Lee added a run-scoring single in a four-run fifth that also included RBI hits by Tomohiro Nioka and Gonzalez, providing run support for Fukuda (1-0), who earned his first victory of the season in his second start.

Fukuda scattered seven hits and held Hanshin to a run while striking out eight and walking one batter. Dominican right-hander Yan gave up seven runs on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings.

Dragons 16, Carp 4

At Fukuyama Stadium, Hiroshima Pref., Norihiro Nakamura drove in five runs with a homer and three doubles in a 4-for-5 performance, helping Chunichi stop Hiroshima's four-game winning streak.

Swallows 7, BayStars 5

At Jingu Stadium, pinch-hitter Mitsuru Manaka hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth for Tokyo Yakult.

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