Eagles rise up against Darvish ...

Yamasaki’s 3-run shot helps Rakuten top Nippon Ham

The Pacific League’s bottom-feeders had a taste of the high life on Saturday, beating Yu Darvish and the defending league champs at The Kleenex Box.
Veteran Takeshi Yamasaki slugged a three-run homer in the sixth inning to give them the lead and Kohei Hasebe (3-1) and a mountain of relievers made it stand up in a 4-2 win.
The relievers, who all have mountain (or yama) in their names, worked a combined 3.1 scoreless frames to close it out. Koji Aoyama started the relief effort with 1.1 perfect innings, Hiroshi Katayama got two outs in the eighth and Shinichiro Koyama notched his fifth save, getting the final four outs.
But it was Yamasaki’s first longball in about a month that got drew the loudest cheers. He took Darvish (9-5) deep to center with the Eagles down 1-0.
“I just closed my eyes, swung, and the ball hit the bat,” joked the 41-year-old Yamasaki, who’s in his 24th season.
“My lower back and back have been feeling better recently, so I figured I’d have a homer sometime soon. To get a homer off a pitcher who is the face of the league gives even a 24th-grader like me confidence.”
Hasebe, whose bad knee kept him off the first team for three months, scattered six hits with no walks over 5.2 innings.

LIONS 9, MARINES 3
Jose Fernandez had three hits, including two homers, and three RBIs to power Seibu past Lotte at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Fernandez, in his second stint with the Lions, hit his first homers since being brought back last month and activated on Wednesday.

HAWKS 9, BUFFALOES 2
Yuichi Honda had three hits and four RBIs, and Hidenori Tanoue doubled and homered to drive in four as SoftBank drubbed Orix at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Tsuyoshi Wada (12-4) held Orix to a run over six innings to become Japan’s first 12-game winner.

CENTRAL LEAGUE
BAYSTARS 7, GIANTS 5
Closer Shun Yamaguchi made his third pro hit count, rapping a bases-loaded chopper to right, and worked the final two innings for the win as host Yokohama stopped a three-game skid by downing Yomiuri.
Hitoshi Fumie wriggled out of a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the seventh, allowing just one run to score to set up the BayStars.

DRAGONS 4, CARP 0
Kenichi Nakata (3-2) scattered eight hits and two walks over the distance his first shutout outside of Nagoya Dome, blanking Hiroshima at The Zoom.
Mr. Three Run, Masahiko Morino, belted a three-run shot to back Nakata, who fired a 148 pitches.