Monday, Sept. 1, 2008

OSAKA (Kyodo) Alex Cabrera hit a tiebreaking three-run homer and Chihiro Kaneko pitched one-run ball over eight innings Sunday, leading the Orix Buffaloes to a 5-1 win over the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters to move into sole possession of third place in the Pacific League.

Good decision: Chiba Lotte Marines shortstop Tsuyoshi Nishioka throws to get Tohoku Rakuten Eagles baserunner Naoto Watanabe tagged out at Kleenex Stadium on Sunday. The Marines won 4-2. KYODO PHOTO

Atsunori Inaba's fourth-inning drive gave the Fighters a 1-0 lead, but a Shinji Shimoyama RBI single in the fifth tied the game before Cabrera homered in his third consecutive game with a shot over the left-center wall at Kyocera Dome.

Kaneko (9-8) allowed four hits, struck out four and walked three, helping his team return to .500 for the first time since April 1.

Kazuhito Tadano (7-6) yielded five runs in six innings for Nippon Ham, which lost its fourth straight.

Marines 4, Eagles 2

At Sendai's Kleenex Stadium, Saburo Omura homered and Jose Ortiz hit a pair of solo shots as Chiba Lotte held off Tohoku Rakuten to win its third in a row.

Omura hit a solo blast off lefty Hiroshi Katayama (2-4) to put Lotte on the scoreboard for a 1-0 lead in the second inning but Motohiro Shima's RBI double tied it in the bottom half.

Ortiz homered leading off the sixth and Shoitsu Omatsu had a run-scoring single to make it 3-1. The Golden Eagles cut the deficit to one run in the bottom of the sixth before Ortiz went deep again two innings later.

Lions 0, Hawks 0 (12)

At Yahoo Dome, front-runner Seibu and second-place Softbank played each other to a 12-inning tie for the third day in a row with both teams' pitching staff shutting down the offense.

Lions starter Takayuki Kishi allowed six hits with seven strikeouts and four walks in nine innings while lefty Tsuyoshi Wada fanned 10 while scattering nine hits over 10 innings for the Hawks.

Dragons 7, Carp 3

At Nagoya Dome, Tyrone Woods homered twice and drove in five runs and right-hander Akinobu Shimizu won his first career start as Chunichi beat Hiroshima.

Woods followed Lee Byung Kyu's RBI single with a two-run shot in the first inning off Kenta Maeda (5-2) and singled in two runs to push the Dragons' lead to 5-0 in the second.

The three-time Central League home run leader also went deep leading off the bottom of the seventh, his 28th home run of the season, after Hiroshima got within 5-3 in the top half.

Swallows 17, BayStars 5

At Yokohama Stadium, Kazuhiro Hatakeyama and Kazuki Fukuchi each had four hits and drove in eight runs between them, leading the Swallows to a rout of the BayStars.

Hatakeyama drove in Yakult's first five runs with a three-run homer in the first inning and base hits in his next two at-bats, while Fukuchi had a two-run single in the fifth and a solo homer in the seventh.

Swallows lefty Masanori Ishikawa (9-9) allowed four runs on four hits — all home runs — in seven innings of work.

Giants 6, Tigers 1

At Koshien Stadium, Noriyoshi Omichi hit a pinch-hit, three-run double to open up a one-run game in the eighth inning as Yomiuri downed Hanshin for its sixth win in seven games.

Omichi's double off Jeff Williams (4-4) came moments after Shinnosuke Abe drew a bases-loaded walk to put the Giants ahead 2-1.

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