All good things …

Birds swoop in, halt Dragons’ streak

The Chunichi Dragons’ winning streaks and climb toward the top of the Central League standings came to fiery end on Friday at Nagoya Dome.
Shohei Tateyama handcuffed the Dragons on four hits over the distance, and Norichika Aoiki homered and walked to help the fourth-place Yakult Swallows halt Chunichi’s club-record-tying home winning streak at 12 in a 3-0 shutout.
The win was the sixth straight for Yakult over Chunichi, which in turn had its seven-game winning string snapped.
The Dragons’ short stint in second place, a half-game ahead of the three-time defending CL champion Yomiuri Giants, lasted less than 24 hours.
Tateyama (7-5) won for the fifth time in six starts, fanning six and walking none. He retired his last nine batters, punching out four along the way.
Chunichi starter Maximo Nelson (2-2) wasn’t sharp, allowing three runs on four hits, four walks and three hit batters in 5.1 innings.
Two of three Chunichi relievers each a batter as the Dragons tied the single-game CL record with five.

GIANTS 12, TIGERS 5
Alex Ramirez went 3-for-4, hit his CL-best 39th homer and drove in three, and Edgar Gonzalez homered and also had three RBIs as Yomiuri crushed Hanshin at Tokyo Dome.
The win moved the Giants back into second place, a half-game ahead of Chunichi.
Shinnosuke Abe extended his career-best longball total to 36 with a solo blast in the fifth, and Hayato Sakamoto increased his career-high homer total to 23 with a two-run shot in the second.

BAYSTARS 4, CARP 3
Toshiki Kurobane's two-run single to center in the seventh were his first runs driven in as a pro and gave Yokohama the lead, and the BayStars got four scoreless innings of relief to edge Hiroshima at The Zoom.

PACIFIC LEAGUE
FIGHTERS 5, LIONS 4, 10 INNINGS
Yuji Iiyama slugged a clutch game-tying, three-run homer in the ninth off Seibu closer Brian Sikorski, and Takayuki Takaguchi drove in the game-winner with a 10th-inning, walk-off double as Nippon Ham came back at Sapporo Dome.

MARINES 3, BUFFALOES 1
Kazuya Fukuura had a two-run single in the fourth and Tadahito Iguchi singled in a run in the fifth to back Yoshihisa Naruse (10-10), who pitched one-run ball over 7.2 innings for a win over Orix at Chiba Marines Stadium.

HAWKS 5, EAGLES 2
Hiroki Kokubo went 3-for-4 with a homer, a double and four RBIs to lead SoftBank past Rakuten at The Kleenex Box.