Hurlers put on show

Hokkaido Nippon Ham ace Yu Darvish and Rakuten No. 1 hurler Hisashi Iwakuma fired blanks for the teams for nine innings at Sappor Dome on Saturday.
The moment they left the mound, the game was decided. Atsunori Inaba’s RBI single to center in the 10th inning gave the Fighters a 1-0 walk-off win in a pitchers’ duel that saw Darvish throw 156 pitches while Iwakuma tossed 127.
Dravish scattered six hits and a pair of walks and Iwakuma allowed seven hits with no walks. Darvish fanned 11 and Ikakuma seven as both got a no-decision.
The win did little to help the struggling Fighters, who are in the Pacific League cellar at 13-25 after winning the league pennant last season.

HAWKS 3, LIONS 1
Jose Ortiz continued his hot start to the season, slugging his PL-best 13 th homer in the first inning, and Hitoshi Tamura had an RBI double and a homer as Fukuoka got past Seibu at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
Toshiya Sugiuchi (7-1) won his fifth straight decision, allowing a run on eight hits and three walks while fanning five over six innings.

MARINES 9, BUFFALOES 3
Tomoya Satozaki stroked a pair of homers and drove in four, and South Korean Kim Tae Kyun added a three-run blast as front-running Lotte pounded Orix at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Lotte ace Yoshihisa Naruse (5-3) allowed three runs over 6.2 innings to earn the win.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

DRAGONS 1, SWALLOWS 0
Yakult rookie right-hander Masato Nakazawa (3-1) allowed two just hits, but the second one was a two-out ninth-inning solo blast to Kazuhiro Wada as Chunihi downed the Swallows at Nagoya Dome.
Chunichi starter Soma Yamauchi didn’t get the win, but surrendered just three hits over eight inning to send the Swallows to their sixth straight loss.

CARP 11, TIGERS 8
Jeff Fiorentino was 3-for-3 with three RBIs and Kenta Kurihara doubled, homered and drove in two as Hiroshima topped Hanshin at Koshien.

GIANTS 4, BAYSTARS 3
Ryota Wakiya capped a three-run fifth inning that proved to be the difference as Yomiuri held off host Yokohama.