Like Fish out of water ...

Carp can’t hold lead as Giants come back

The Hiroshima Carp were headed for a win until their bullpen got in the way. Actually, it was Alex Ramirez’s bat that smacked their hopes in an 8-7 win for Yomiuri at Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.
The Carp had leads of 5-2 and 7-4, but Ramirez capped a four-run seventh with a two-run go-ahead blast that shocked the Fish seemingly out of the water.
Yuya Kubo fanned two in the eighth, and Marc Kroon struck out one in the ninth while nailing down his 15th save as the Giants stole one.
The shot tied Ramirez with two others, including teammate Shinnosuke Abe, for the Central League lead in longballs with 28.
Hideki Kishimoto allowed two runs in 1.2 innings, and Koji Hiroike (0-1) served up Ramirez’s line-drive homer before recording his only out.
Michihiro Ogasawara’s two-run single got the Giants within one in the eighth. Edgar Gonzalez also had his fifth homer, a two-run shot in the second, for Yomiuri, which was outhit 13-6.
Satoshi Fukuda (1-1) worked two scoreless innings in relief to pich up his first win since April 30 last year.

DRAGONS 5, BAYSTARS 4
Chen Wei-yin (6-7) held Yokohama to a run on eight hits and two walks to send the BayStars to their fifth-straight loss.
Pinch-hitter Takehiro Naomichi’s two-run double in the eighth was the difference.
Yokohama newcomer Brett Harper homered in his debut.

TIGERS 6, SWALLOWS 1
Second-year righty Jason Standridge (5-1) won his fourth straight decision, pitching around 10 hits, two hit batters and a walk for his first complete game in Japan as host Hanshin beat Yakult.
Standridge, who was with SoftBank the past two seasons, tossed a career-high 145 pitches, fanning eight along the way.

PACIFIC LEAGUE
LIONS 7, BUFFALOES 6
Dee Brown slugged a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth inning as Seibu came back to top Orix at Kyocera Dome and move two games above Lotte in the PL.
The Buffaloes scored four times in the eighth inning to take the lead, but Mamoru Kishida (5-5) couldn’t get the final out before Brown slugged his 18th homer.

EAGLES 6, MARINES 0
Darrell Rasner (2-7) scattered four hits and fanned nine over seven scoreless innings and stopped a personal four-game skid at the Kleenex Box.
Randy Ruiz had two hits, including a two-run homer in the fourth for all the runs Rasner would need for his first win since April 23.

HAWKS 12, FIGHTERS 0
Toshiya Sugiuchi (11-3) dominated Nippon Ham, allowing seven hits and walking one, while fanning nine as SoftBank got a shutout out Tokyo Dome.
Hitoshi Tamura had three of SoftBank’s 16 hits and three RBIs to back Sugiuchi, who didn’t allow a runner to reach third.