Raging Tigers ...

Hanshin gives up two in top of 10th, gets 3 in bottom for walk-off

Takeshi Toritani and the Hanshin Tigers never say die. Instead, they’re focused on the kill.
Toritani blasted a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the10th inning on Tuesday as the Tigers rallied after falling two runs behind for a 5-4 win over the Hiroshima Carp at Koshien Stadium.
Pinch-hitter Lin Wei-chu opened the inning with a solo blast, his first longball, off Hirofumi Ueno (0-1), and Kentaro Toritani followed with a single before Toritani ended the game with his 11th homer.
“I didn’t go up there looking to hit one out. I just wanted to get on base for the next guy. I got the hit sign, so I just wanted to be aggressive. I thought it was gone when I hit it and I’m glad it went out,” Toritani said of his third career sayonara blast.
The Carp had taken a 4-2 lead on the Tigers in the top of the inning on Masato Akamatsu’s two-run double. But Ueno faced three in the ninth and didn’t retire a batter.
“In principal, I would like us to avoid getting tied or giving up the lead, and be able to close out wins,” said skipper Akinobu Mayumi, whose team has won four straight.
The Tigers moved a season-best 13 games over .500.

DRAGONS 1, BAYSTARS 0, 11 INNINGS
The Dragons used seven pitchers to keep Yokohama scoreless for an NPB-record fifth straight shutout, and Kazuhiro Wada singled home the game-winner for a walk-off in a win at Nagoya Dome.
The Dragons stretched their consecutive scoreless string to a club-record 47 innings. Maximo Nelson started and went five scoreless before handing it over to the bullpen. Masafumi Hirai (2-1) got the win with a 1-2-3 11th as Chunichi won its fifth straight.

GIANTS 4, SWALLOWS 3, 10 INNINGS
Righty Tatsuyoshi Masubuchi (1-3) picked up Hayato Sakamoto’s bunt and fired it wildly down the third-base line, allowing the winning run to come around from second as Yomiuri outlasted Yakult at Tokyo Dome.
The third CL walk-off win of the night kept the Giants in first place, a half-game in front of the Tigers.

PACIFIC LEAGUE
HAWKS 2, LIONS 0
Toshiya Sugiuchi (12-4) tossed a four-hitter, fanning 10 along the way, as SoftBank moved to within 1.5 games of front-running Seibu with a win over the Lions at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
Seibu’s 47-year-old lefty Kimiyasu Kudo got two outs to pitch in his NPB record 29th season.

BUFFALOES 11, EAGLES 7
Aarom Baldiris went 4-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs, and Takahiro T.O. Okada homered twice and had four RBIs and Orix topped visiting Rakuten.

FIGHTERS 12, MARINES 6
Atsunori Inaba had three hits and four RBIs, and three others had homers as Nippon Ham hammered Lotte at Sapporo Dome to halt a three-game skid.