Eagles on the rise ...

Last-place Rakuten takes down front-running Seibu

TOKOROZAWA, Saitama -- Randy Ruiz helped the last-place Rakuten Eagles rise above the first-place Seibu Lions on Saturday.
We’ll have to see if they can stretch their four-game winning streak to a season-long five on Sunday.
Ruiz took Seibu ace Hideaki Wakui (10-5) deep with two aboard in the eighth inning to help the Eagles past the Lions 7-1 before 29,104 at Seibu Dome.
Ruiz went 2-for-3 with a walk against last year’s Sawamura Award winner, driving a high slider out to center on Wakui’s 120th pitch.
Eagles ace Hisashi Iwakuma (6-4) got the win, holding down the Lions after allowing a first-inning unearned run.
The game seemed destined to hinge on a base-running faux pas involving Ruiz and third-base coach Atsuhiro Motonish.
Ruiz opened the second inning with a single and Norihiro Nakamura followed with a double down the left-field line.
Ruiz chugged around second and started to shut it down, with no outs. But Motonishi saw a bobble in the outfield, and after putting up the stop sign, he cranked up the arm again. Ruiz, a 1.85-meter, 112-kilogram infielder couldn’t get the engine back in high gear, and was nailed at the plate.
But Iwakuma allowed just one hit after the first inning, and finished a three-hit, two-walk, four-punchout performance with a strikeout on his 107th pitch.
The Eagles added three runs in the ninth.

HAWKS 1, MARINES 0, 11 innings
Jose Ortiz knocked in the game-winning run with a single to break a scoreless game with a walk-off.
Tsuyoshi Wada of SoftBank and Lotte’s Yoshihisa Naruse each tossed nine scoreless innings.

FIGHTERS 5, BUFFALOES 2
Nippon Ham ace Yu Darvish (8-4) fanned 13 over the distance, and Shinya Tsuruoka had two hits and two RBIs as the Fighters beat Orix at Sapporo Dome.

CENTRAL LEAGUE
DRAGONS 7, GIANTS 1
Daisuke Yamai (3-2) fanned 10 -- reaching double digits in punchouts for the first time in six years-- and held Yomiuri to a run over 6.1 innings as Chunichi cruised at Nagoya Dome.
The Dragons collected 11 hits, extending Yomiuri’s dubious club record for consecutive games allowing double digits in hits to 10.

SWALLOWS 5, CARP 2
Masanori Ishikawa (3-8) held Hiroshima to two runs over seven innings as Yakult topped the Carp at Jingu Stadium.
Kazuhiro Hatakeyama went 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs to back Ishikawa, who hadn’t won since June 12.

BAYSTARS 4, TIGERS 3
Naoyuki Shimizu (8-7) went 8.1 strong innings as Yokohama stopped a nine-game skid in one-run games with a win over Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.