Wind beneath their wings ...

Eagles starting to take off

Masahiro Tanaka -- better known as Ma-kun -- is helping the Rakuten Eagles overcome a sluggish start to the season.
The right-hander allowed a cheap three-run homer down the line in left to Shinnosuke Abe in the first inning, but went seven innings and held the Yomiuri Giants scoreless until departing from an eventual 10-4 win at Tokyo Dome.
Norihiro Nakamura gave the Pacific League’s fourth-place Eagles a boost, hitting two of their single-game, club-record six homers.
Veteran Takeshi Yamasaki hit a solo blast, Yusuke Takasu had a three-run shot, Motohiro Shima added a two-run blast and Randy Ruiz also had a two-run homer as the Eagles stayed atop the interleague standings.
They are 7-1-1 in their last nine games.
Tanaka (8-3) allowed eight hits and a walk, while fanning seven to win at his 12th venue.
“The team is doing well now and I just wanted to go out and ride that momentum and throw well,” Tanaka said. “The way the guys swung the bats today, hitting all those home runs, allowed me to settle down and just throw.”

LIONS 9, DRAGONS 0
Takayuki Kishi (8-3) fired a two-hitter and Hiroyuki Nakajima hit his ninth homer to lead Seibu past Chunichi at Nagoya Dome.
Kishi struck out nine and walked none, and Toru Hosokawa had three hits and one RBI.

FIGHTERS 2, BAYSTARS 1
Shota Ono’s RBI single in the eighth inning scored the go-ahead run, and Masaru Takeda (4-4) tossed a three-hitter in his third career complete-game as Nippon Ham downed host Yokohama.
Yoshio Itoi had three hits for the Fighters, who sent the BayStars to their fourth straight loss.

BUFFALOES 6, CARP 1
Kenji Obiki got Orix even with an RBI infield single in the second and his RBI double in the fourth put the Buffaloes on top to stay as Hiroshi Kisanuki (5-5) held Hiroshima to one run over sevenin innings at the Zoom.

SWALLOWS 6, MARINES 1
Hiroyasu Tanaka’s three-run homer in the seventh inning turned a two-run deficit into a lead, and Yakult held off Lotte at Jingu.

TIGERS 9, HAWKS 2
Matt Murton had four hits and three RBIs, and Yasutomo Kubo (4-4) allowed two runs -- one earned -- on six hits and a walk in his 11th career complete game as Hanshin downed SoftBank at Koshien.