Swallowed up ...

Fighters KO Swallows behind Inaba

Atsunori Inaba nearly single-handedly put a halt to the Yakult Swallows’ longest winning streak of the season, belting a pair of homers as Nippon Ham romped 10-2 in the rain at Jingu Stadium on Tuesday.
The interleague makeup game marked the end of a five-game winning streak for the Swallows, who are in fifth place in the Central League.
Inaba belted his 11th and 12th homers -- solo blasts in back-to-back at-bats in the first and third innings -- and Yoshio Itoi had his first five-hit game and tied an NPB record with four doubles.
The PL's defending champion Fighters, in last place in the Pacific League, collected a season-high 17 hits.
Ryo Sakakibara (1-0), who was an emergency replacement when starter Hirotoshi Masui had to leave after one inning with shoulder pain, earned his first pro win. The third-year righty tossed two scoreless innings, walking two.
Meanwhile, the six Pacific League teams claimed the top half of the interleague standings, with the Fighters in sixth just ahead of the CL-leading Yomiuri Giants.

BAYSTARS 5 HAWKS 2
Seiichi Uchikawa blasted his first career grand slam, off Shinsuke Ogura (3-3) in the fourth inning, as Yokohama halted a nine-game skid by beating visiting SoftBank.
The BayStars still finished in last place in interleague play for the third straight year.
SoftBank’s Hitoshi Tamura homered for the third straight game in a losing cause.