Right back at it ...

Giants return to CL play with whitewash on washout night

Yomiuri Giants ace Tetsuya Utsumi hadn’t beaten the Chunichi Dragons in three years. He hadn’t even won a game since May 9.
But the southpaw shut out all the negativity as he shut out the Dragons 5-0 on Friday at Tokyo Dome.
Utsumi (6-2) fired a two-hitter, fanning nine and walking none to stop a personal six-game skid vs. the Dragons.
Michihiro Ogasawara had an RBI single in the third inning and a three-run homer -- his 15th -- in the seventh in support of Utsumi. Shinnosuke Abe also homered -- his 18th -- in the sixth as the front-running Giants returned to Central League play with a victory.
All three outdoor games were wiped out by rain, but the Giants beat up on Chen Wei-yin (4-6) last year’s CL ERA leader, who gave up eight hits.

LIONS 8, HAWKS 1
Ace Hideaki Wakui (9-3) scattered seven hits, a walk and a hit batter over eight innings, and two four-run innings propelled Seibu past SoftBank at Seibu Dome.
Toru Hosokawa’s grand slam in the eighth helped the Lions stop a three-game skid and put Wakui in a tie atop the PL with nine wins.

FIGHTERS 3, BUFFALOES 0
Keisuke Itokazu left the mound after 2.1 innings because of shoulder pain, and five relievers combined to hold Orix to three hits the rest of the way in a win at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Kensuke Tanaka had an RBI double in the third and Yoshio Itoi hit his sixth homer in the fourth to provide the offense.