Giants’ use big bats at Big Egg ...

Sakamoto, Ogasawara lead homer binge in slugfest

Hayato Sakamoto, who hit 18 longballs last season, had four hits including his third homer in four games, and Michihiro Ogasawara reached base five times and also went deep as the Yomiuri Giants outslugged the Lotte Marines 10-8 at Tokyo Dome on Sunday.
Sakamoto cracked his 10th longball, and the Giants hit five over the fence to tie a club record for interleague longballs in a game.
Shinnosuke Abe hit his ninth, Alex Ramirez his 14th and Yoshinobu Takahashi his second to offset Kim Tae Kyun, who homered twice and drove in four as the Marines battled back with four runs in the ninth inning.
The late Lotte rally forced Giants skipper Tatsunori Hara to call upon Marc Kroon for a second straight day for the save. Kroon allowed a hit before getting a groundout and a punchout to end the game and push the Giants a season-high 14 games over .500.

DRAGONS 4, BUFFALOES 1
Rookie Yohei Oshima sparked a four-run fourth with a bases-loaded RBI single, and starter Soma Yamauchi (2-0) followed with a two-run single to help his own cause as Chunichi swept Orix at Nagoya Dome.
Yamauchi’s hit came on a check-swing on a pitch that bounced a foot in front of the plate.
The Dragons, notorious for stumbling in interleague action, have won four straight to start play against the Pacific League and moved into second place in the Central League.

HAWKS 6, SWALLOWS 5
Struggling Yakult scored three runs in the eighth inning on Aaron Guiel’s homer, but Yuichi Honda’s RBI single in the 10th inning gave SoftBank a win at Jingu Stadium.
Hiroki Kokubo homered twice and drove in five for the Hawks, who gave second-year skipper Koji Akiyama his 100th managerial win. The Swallows have lost four straight.

LIONS 6, BAYSTARS 5
Hisashi Takayama’s RBI single in the ninth pushed Seibu past host Yokohama and made the Lions’ lead in the PL 1.5 games.

EAGLES 7, TIGERS 3
Daisuke Kusano’s three-run homer in the third inning backed Masahiro Tanaka (5-3), whose quality start helped Rakuten down Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.

FIGHTERS 6, CARP 2
Makoto Kaneko hit a two-run homer, his first since March 21 and second of the season, added a two-run double as Nippon Ham downed Hiroshima at the Zoom.