Slamming the door ...

Fighters pop pair of slams to rip B’s

Nippon Ham’s Eiichi Koyano cracked an eighth-inning grand slam to break open a close game. Makoto Kaneko hit a slam a few minutes later to slam the door.
It was just the fourth time in Japan pro baseball that a team hit two slams in one inning and the longballs propelled the defending Pacific League champs to an 11-1 win at Kyocera Dome.
It was the third straight win for the Fighters, who saw Kensuke Tanaka extend his hitting streak to 20 games and take over the PL in batting at .344.
Bobby Keppel (9-1) worked six innings and allowed only an unearned run on four hits and four walks with four strikeouts for the PL’s last place team .

MARINES 3, EAGLES 1
Tomoya Satozaki’s RBI single tied the score, and Toshiaki Imae followed with a two-run double as Lotte used one inning to edge Rakuten at Chiba Marine Stadium.

LIONS 6, HAWKS 4
Toru Hosokawa ripped a grand slam, his third longball in as many days, and Brian Sikorski saved his Japan-best 21st game as Seibu topped SoftBank at Seibu Dome.

GIANTS 5, DRAGONS 2
Red-hot Shinnosuke Abe homered, his fourth in three games vs. he Dragons, and Shugo Fujii (5-1) allowed just two hits in six innings as Yomiuri cruised at Tokyo Dome.

BAYSTARS 14, TIGERS 6
Hanshin’s Craig Brazell took over the CL lead with two homers, given 21, but Terrmel Sledge cracked a pair of his own as host Yokohama outslugged the Tigers.
Sledge had a perfect day, going 4-for-4 with five RBIs.

SWALLOWS 4, CARP 2
Ryoji Aikawa capped a four-run eighth inning with a two-run single as Yakult came back to defeat Yakult.