7th Heaven ...

Birds get walk-off for seventh straight win

It hurt so good for Kazuki Fukuchi on Tuesday at Jingu Stadium, but it felt a lot better for his teammates.
Fukuchi got plunked with the bases loaded as the Swallows extended their season-best winning streak to seven games with a walk-off win over the three-time Central League champion Yomiuri Giants 4-3 in 11 innings.
Jamie D’Antona started the rally by beating out an infield single -- yes, Jamie D’Antona with an Ichiro. With bags packed, Fukuchi never had a chance to avoid a fastball from Tetsuya Yamaguchi (5-3), forcing in Norichika Aoki with the winning run.
Michihiro Ogasawara put the Giants on top in the eighth inning, belting his 23rd of the season to make it 3-2. Little-used outfielder Yoshitomo Tani helped preserve the lead, at least for an inning, by gunning down a runner at the plate in the bottom of the frame.
The Swallows eventually tied it in the ninth on a one-our solo shot by Aoki, his ninth.

CARP 7, TIGERS 6
Lefty Junpei Shinoda (6-4) tripled over a drawn-in outfield to clear the bases and break a tie as Hiroshima scored four in the fourth and held off Hanshin at The Zoom.
Shinoda held the Tigers to three runs on seven hits, two walks and a hit batter over seven innings.

BAYSTARS 4, DRAGONS 0
Brett Harper and Kazuya Fujita each hit solo blasts, and Naoyuki Shimizu (9-9) tossed eight scoreless innings as host Yokohama blanked Chunichi.

PACIFIC LEAGUE
LIONS 9, EAGLES 3
Jose Fernandez had a solo blast and a two-run single, and Hiroyuki Nakajima and Hideto Asamura each had solo shots -- the first pro homer for Asamura -- as Seibu lit up Rakuten ace Hisashi Iwakuma (7-7) to cruise at The Kleenex Box.
The Lions extended their PL lead to 1.5 games.

FIGHTERS 3, MARINES 1
Atsunori Inaba tripled in a run and scored on Eiichi Koyano’s double in the first and Bobby Keppel (12-4) made those runs stand up, holding Lotte to a run over seven-plus innings at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Inaba also singled in an insurance run in the seventh.

BUFFALOES 5, HAWKS 4
Alex Cabrera doubled in a pair of runs in the first and cracked a two-run blast in the fifth after Aarom Baldiris put Orix ahead with a second-inning solo blast, and SoftBank couldn’t rally at home.