Tearing up at The Box ...

Linden’s late HR lift Eagles past Marines

The Rakuten Eagles gave the Chiba Lotte Marines a reason to want a box of Kleenex tissues.
A guy who hadn’t homered since April took a guy who is arguably their best reliever deep on Thursday to win a game at the Kleenex Box.
Talk about a tearjerker.
Todd Linden smacked a two-run shot, his fourth, to dead center off Yasuhiko Yabuta (1-2) as the Eagles came back from an early 3-0 deficit that grew to 4-0 in the fifth inning.
It was the 11th straight loss for Lotte at the Kleenex Box. The Eagles, who made the playoffs for the first time in their young history last season, are in the Pacific League cellar.
“We were kind of in this situation last year, and we turned it up a little bit in these later months, and hopefully we do it again this year,” said Linden, whose last homer came on April 11.
“We’re just going to go out and fight ever day and give it our all and see we’re at come September.”
Right-handed reliever Koji Aoyama (3-1) got the win with a scoreless eighth, and Shinichiro Koyama worked a 1-2-3 ninth, retiring Tadahito Iguchi for the final out and his third save.

FIGHTERS 7, HAWKS 0
Yoshio Itoi had a two-run blast, Hichori Morimoto added a three-run shot, and Masaru Takeda (6-6) tossed eight scoreless innings as Nippon Ham won its second straight home game at Tokyo Dome.
SoftBank wasted scoring chances in the first, putting runners on second and third with one out, and the fifth, when they had three singles, and got blanked for the fifth time this season.

BUFFALOES 6, LIONS 0
Chihiro Kaneko (6-7) came up with his second-straight and Japan-best fourth shutout, firing a three-hitter to beat front-running Seibu at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Kaneko walked one and fanned a half-dozen, and got support from Aarom Baldiris, who had two hits -- including a solo blast -- and drove in two.

CENTRAL LEAGUE
SWALLOWS 10, TIGERS 6
Third-year lefty Mikinori Kato (1-2) went five innings for his first pro win, backed by a seven-run fourth inning capped by a grand slam off the bat of Kazuhiro Hatakeyama.
Kato allowed three runs on six hits and two walks, but the Swallows batted around in the fourth, including Kato helping his own cause with an RBI infield single to put the Swallows ahead.
Craig Brazell hit his 29th longball in the ninth to take over the CL lead in homers.

BAYSTARS 6, DRAGONS 3
Stephen Randolph continued his dominance over Chunichi, and slugger Shuichi Murata cracked a pair of homers -- including one out of the stadium -- as Yokohama topped the visiting Dragons to snap a five-game slide.
In about one full season in Japan, Randolph (2-7) has seven victories, four against the Dragons.