Feel the burn ...

Fire-hot Dragons post record-tying 4th straight shutout

The Dragons’ pitchers are torching batters.
The Central League’s third-place team posted its fourth straight shutout, second-year right-hander Shinji Iwata (1-0) winning his first pro start by holding the Yokohama BayStars to three hits over 7.1 innings in a 5-0 win at Nagoya Dome.
It was the 17th time in Japan pro baseball -- the third time for the Dragons -- a team has won four straight shutouts.
Kohei Oda’s bases-clearing double in the sixth broke a scoreless tie, and Iwata carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning.
He allowed a clean single with one out in the seventh to Jose Castillo before getting the next two batters.
“It wasn’t on my mind,” Iwata said of the notion of a no-hitter. “I figured I’d give up a hit at some point, so I just pitched.”
The native of nearby Gifu Prefecture departed after allowing one-out back-to-back singles in the eighth. Takuya Asao got him out of that jam and Akifumi Takahashi walked one before getting a groundout to end the game.
The BayStars didn’t get a runner past season base.

GIANTS 14, SWALLOWS 8
Rookie Hisayoshi Chono slugged his 15th homer and drove in five runs as Yomiuri came back to down Yakult at the Big Egg.
Chono’s 15 longballs tie him for fifth on the franchise list for most by a rookie. He also had a two-run single in a seven-run sixth that brought Yomiuri back from a 7-4 hole.
Reliever Micheal Nakamura (1-0) worked a perfect seventh inning to earn his first win in more than a year.
The Giants, though, allowed five or more runs for the 10th straight game, a franchise worst.

TIGERS 2, CARP 0
Jason Standridge (6-1) extended Hiroshima’s run of scoreless futility to a club-record-tying 36 innings by tossing a two-hitter as Hanshin edged the Carp at Koshien Stadium.
The Carp tied their own record for consecutive shutout losses, set in May 1959, and fell a season-worst 16 games under .500.

PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 5, FIGHTERS 3
Tadahito Iguchi led three others with two hits and added two RBIs as Lotte topped Nippon Ham at Sapporo Dome.

HAWKS 11, LIONS 4
Munenori Kawasaki went 3-for-3 with an RBI, and D.J. Houlton (6-4) tossed six sharp innings as SoftBank won at Yahoo! Japan Dome.

BUFFALOES 11, EAGLES 8
Aarom Baldiris’ second hit of the game was a clutch bases-clearing double in the eighth that lifted Orix past Rakuten at Kyocera Dome Osaka.