The Fish spoil party …

Carp douse Lions’ interleague title hopes

TOKOROZAWA, Saitama--Kan Otake wriggled off the hook and so did the Hiroshima Carp, sinking early and rising to toss water on the Seibu Lions’ interleague title hopes on Saturday.
Otake allowed two runs early, but escaped two bases-loaded jams, and Akihiro Higashide had two hits and two RBIs, and Yoshiyuki Ishihara belted a two-run homer as the Central League’s fourth-place team knocked off the Pacific League leaders 6-2 before 31,618.
Otake (1-0) eventually settled down, going six innings and allowing two runs on five hits, six walks and a hit batter, while fanning three.
The loss cost the Lions their hold on their first interleague title. The PL has won all five previous battles vs. the CL, and are guaranteed the top spot this year. But the Lions have to beat the Carp at home today and hope the interleague-leading Orix Buffaloes fall to
The Lions would win the tiebreaker, based on last year’s 11-11-2 finish. Orix was 8-16.
Each team recently deactivated their cleanup hitters. Seibu slugger Takeya Nakamura has a bad right elbow, and Hiroshima No. 4 man suffered a break in his right wrist when he was hit by a pitch last week at Chiba.
Nakamura’s return is in the air while Kurihara will be out at least a month.

BUFFALOES 7, BAYSTARS 1
Alex Cabrera smacked a three-run, third-inning homer and had four RBIs, and Takahiro Okada also had a three-run homer as Orix topped Yokohama at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
The win means the Buffaloes can win the interleague title with a victory today over the BayStars, who have lost eight straight.

SWALLOWS 4, EAGLES 1
Hiroyasu Tanaka broke a scoreless tie with a two-out infield RBI single and Aaron Guiel followed with a two-run base knock to lift Yakult past Rakuten.
Lefty Masanori Ishikawa (2-7) allowed one run on 10 hits over seven innings for the win.

TIGERS 4, MARINES 2
Yasutomo Kubo (5-4) haunted his former club by holding it to a run over eight innings as Hanshin topped Lotte at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Craig Brazell moved into a tie for the CL lead in homers with his 18th, a bases-empty shot, and Kenji Jojima and Tomoaki Kanemoto also had solo blasts to back Kubo, who scattered five hits and a walk, while fanning six.

FIGHTERS 9, DRAGONS 0
Yu Darvish (5-4) looked more like his old self, firing seven shutout inning and fanning seven as Nippon Ham routed visiting Chunichi.
Atsunori Inaba homered twice and drove in five to back Darvish, who allowed three hits and walked one.

HAWKS 4, GIANTS 2
Yuya Hasegawa’s two-run single in the first inning capped a three-run rally the carried SoftBank past Yomiuri at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
Tsuyoshi Wada (9-3) blanked Yomiuri on four hits and three walks with seven strikeouts over seven innings to earn the victory.