Feels like the first time ...

Carp's foreigners band together

TOKOROZAWA, Saitama--It hardly every happens for the Hiroshima Carp, but their foreign players came up big in the same game.
Giancarlo Alvarado (1-3) allowed a run over six innings for his first win in Japan, Jeff Fiorentino knocked in the go-ahead run in the fourth inning and Justin Huber smacked a two-run home run as the Carp topped the Saitama Seibu Lions 4-2 before 31,647.
Reliever John Bale, in his second stint with the club, gave up a run in the ninth inning but close it out for his first save since May 10, 2006.
The Carp are nine games under .500 and in fourth place in the Central League, and Huber was brought back to replace the power lost when cleanup hitter Kenta Kurihara was deactivated because of a broken bone in his right forearm.
The loss highlighted another poor finish against the CL for the Pacific League’s first-place Lions, who had a chance to claim the interleague title, but have now lost three straight, allowing the Orix Buffaloes to claim their first interleague title.
Takayuki Kishi suffered the loss. Five of the righty’s first six outs were strikeouts, but the Carp chased him after scoring four runs on seven hits and two walks in five innings. The Lions, who hit into three double plays on Saturday, wrapped into three more to kill off any chance they had of coming back.

BUFFALOES 7, BAYSTARS 2
Alex Cabrera had three hits and two RBIs, and Takahiro Okada slugged a two-run homer as Orix topped Yokohama at Dome Kyocera Dome Osaka to win the interleague title.

SWALLOWS 3, EAGLES 1
Jamie D’Antona’s eighth-inning sac fly tied the score and Ryoji Aikawa drew a bases-loaded walk to force in the eventual game-winner as Yakult got past Tohoku at the Kleenex Box.

FIGHTERS 5, DRAGONS 0
Bobby Keppel (8-1) fired a two-hitter and Tomohiro Nioka doubled and drove in four as Nippon Ham blanked Chunichi.

HAWKS 7, GIANTS 5
Nobuhiko Matsunaka hit a fourth-inning grand slam and Hitoshi Tamura went deep for the second straight game as SoftBank held off Yomiuri at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.

MARINES 9, TIGERS 8
Tadahito Iguchi went 4-for-6, including a walk-off 10th-inning solo shot, and had three RBIs as Chiba outlasted visiting Hanshin in 10 innings.