Smells like rotten fish ...

Carp drowning

The Hiroshima Carp are making the Central League’s last-place Yakult Swallows look watchable.
An ugly error-aided inning was bad enough, but the subsequent poor pitching, and all-around general fan-repelling play ended in a 10-7 Seibu Lions win in interleague action in the pouring rain at the Zoom.
Fifth-place Hiroshima, which allowed a runner to advance to third on the catcher’s toss back to the pitche and gave up two hits to Lions starter Hsu Ming-chie among their miscues, fell behind 8-1. The Carp put together a five-run rally in the eighth inning, but coulnd’t come up with the key hit to put them on top.
Hsu (3-4), getting a spot start, held the Carp to two runs on six hits and no walks with two strikeouts. He also had two hits and an RBI for the Pacific League’s second-place Lions.
“I was able to locate and keep the ball downn and that worked for me tonight,” Hsu said. “I did my job and the batters came through.”
About his hits, Hsu said: “I don’t know what to say about them. I’m happy -- the first one was my first career hit and my first career RBI.”
Takeya “Okawari” Nakamura bopped a grand slam, and Hiroyuki Nakajima homered and drove in four runs.
But the Carp battled back to within a run at 8-7 when Tomonori Maeda singled in a pair with the bases loaded in the eighth inning.
Brian Sikorski, though, came on to escape the eight-inning jam, and finished off the Carp in the ninth for his Japan career-best 16th save.

TIGERS 8, MARINES 0
The Tigers scored six runs in the first two innings, led by Takahiro Arai’s two hits and three RBIs, and blew out Lotte at Koshien Stadium.
Lotte righty starter Shingo Ono (3-1) fired just 16 pitches before being forced out of the game after a Craig Brazell liner struck him on the pitching shoulder.
He left the game as a precaution.

BAYSTARS 8, HAWKS 0
Naoyuki Shimizu (5-3) fired Yokohama’s first complete game of the season, scattering six hits and two walks to blank visiting SoftBank.
It was the first interleague win for Yokohama over the Hawks in three years.