Hear them roar ...

Tigers set up chance to sweep while gaining ground on Giants

The Hanshin Tigers mean business, and they showed it with their fifth straight win over the front-running Yomiuri Giants on Saturday on Tokyo Dome.
Craig Brazell launched his Central League-leading 28th homer in a five-run fourth inning that propelled the Tigers past the three-time defending CL champs 8-2.
Takashi Toritani belted his ninth, and Kenji Jojima cracked his 14th and added an RBI double in the ninth as the Tigers won their second straight at the Big Egg, their third straight overall.
Right-hander Naoto Tsuru, the team’s top pick in 2005, earned just his second pro win with 5.2 effective innings. He also had his first pro hit, an infield single on a bunt, for his first RBI.
The Giants have dropped three straight and their lead over the Tigers has slipped to two games.

SWALLOWS 4, DRAGONS 2
Josh Whitesell doubled in two in the eighth inning to break a 2-2 tie as Yakult took down visiting Chunichi.
The game between Hiroshima and Yokohama was rained out at the Zoom.

PACIFIC LEAGUE
LIONS 7, MARINES 2
Hiroyuki Nakajima slid into the cleanup spot for the first time this season, and slugged a solo blast, his 12th homer, and two RBIs to lead Seibu past Lotte at Chiba Marine Stadium.
The Lions cracked three two-out homers in the fifth inning. Dee Brown hit a two-run shot, his 17th, followed by Hiroshi Hirao, who hit his second.

FIGHTERS 2, EAGLES 1
Yu Darvish (8-4) fired a 132-pitch five-hitter to beat Rakuten at the Kleenex Box.
Darvish fanned 10 and walked two for his 25th career complete game.

HAWKS 3, BUFFALOES 1
Tsuyoshi Wada (11-4) scattered four hits and walk over seven innings as SoftBank downed Orix at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
Hidenori Tanoue’s RBI groundout in the seventh broke a 1-1 tie, and Jose Ortiz hit his 19th homer in the eighth.