Extra effort …

Lions make Wakui winner with walk-off

TOKOROZAWA, Saitama -- Two of Wednesday's six games went to extra innings, but Hideaki Wakui was the one who went the extra mile to win.
Wakui (8-3) held the Hanshin Tigers to one run over nine innings, firing 149 pitches to earn the win on Yasuyuki Kataoka’s clutch walk-off single in a 2-1 win at Seibu Dome.
When asked if he was ready to work the 10th, the one-time Sawamura Award winner said coolly, “Of course.”
“I wasn’t going to depend on the bullpen for this one,” said the righty, who surrendered four hits, fanned 10 and walked two for his league-leading eighth win.
Lions skipper Hisanobu Watanabe said Wakui, who improved to 5-0 lifetime against Hanshin, wanted to pitch the 10th if Seibu hadn’t ended it, but “He said he was going to pitch. I planned to take him out,” the manager said.
Kataoka made it a moot point with his walk-off hit, giving him two of the Lions’ three sayonara hits this year and giving the club its fourth straight win.
“Wakui had worked really hard out there and we wanted to end it for him then. I was ready for the opportunity if it came and I’m glad we won it,” said Kataoka, whose triple in the fifth inning scored Seibu’s first run.
With three games left against the Central League, the Pacific League-leading Lions are in position to nab their first interleague title.

HAWKS 4, BAYSTARS 3, 10 innings
Roberto Petagine’s first homer in his second stint in Japan was a walk-off solo shot in the 10th inning that gave Fukuoka SoftBank a win over Yokohama at home.
It was the fifth career walk-off shot here for Petagine, the 2001 CL MVP and a two-time homer leader who had a two-run single in a three-run first.

EAGLES 4, DRAGONS 1
Satoshi Nagai (4-3) worked around eight hits and a walk to hold Chunichi to one run over eight innings as Rakuten stayed a half-game behind interleague-leading Seibu with a win at the Kleenex Box.
Motohiro Shima broke a scoreless tie in the fourth with a clutch bases-loaded single to score two, and Naoto Watanabe followed with a two-run double to cap a four-run rally in support of Nagai.

SWALLOWS 6, FIGHTERS 1
Shohei Tateyama (3-4) frustrated Nippon Ham, allowing a season-worst 11 hits but stranding nine runners as Yakult won at Sapporo Dome.
Yasushi Ihara hit his first pro grand slam and drove in five to back Tateyama.

GIANTS 9, BUFFALOES 2
Yoshiyuki Kamei had three hits and two RBIs, and Michihiro Ogasawara had a pair of hits and two RBIs as Yomiuri routed Orix for its fifth straight win at Kyocera Dome Osaka.

CARP 2, MARINES 2, 12 innnings
Lotte’s Shoitsu Omatsu spoiled Kenta Maeda’s bid for a shutout with a two-out, two-run double, and the Marines played Hiroshima to a inning-limit tie at Chiba Marine Stadium.