Lions eat up Hawks ...

Nakajima uses arm, bat to down Hawks

Seibu showed the heart of a Lion on Sunday night, coming back from three runs down to beat the SoftBank Hawks and move back into first place, thanks to Hiroyuki Nakajima.
The All-Star shortstop made a key relay throw to nail the potential go-ahead run at the plate in the plate in the eighth inning and put the Lions ahead in the bottom of the frame with an RBI double that keyed a three-run rally giving the Lions a 7-4 win and a sweep of three at Seibu Dome.
The Lions are a half-game ahead of the Hawks in the Pacific League.
Takumi Kuriyama led off the eighth with a double off Brian Falkenborg (3-2), who had only allowed two runs in his previous 42 games, and Nakajima doubled him home. Jose Fernandez doubled in Nakajima and Dee Brown’s single capped the rally.
With the score tied in eighth and a runner on second, more often than not hitters are asked to lay one down. Not the Lions' No. 3 hitter.
“The skipper didn’t ask me to bunt, so I really wanted to take advantage of a situation in which he let me swing away,” said Nakajima, who also had an RBI single in the fifth.
“This was a big game, so I’m just really very happy.”
Brian Sikorski extended his career-best save total by retiring the side in order for his 27th.

EAGLES 7, FIGHTERS 1
Sho Nakata stayed hot, homering for the fourth straight game, but that was the only run off Masahiro Tanaka (10-6), who scattered seven hits, walked none and fanned 11 as Rakuten knocked off Nippon Ham at Sapporo Dome.
Takeshi Yamasaki had three hits and drove in three, and Teppei Tsuchiya also had three hits and an RBI.
The red-hot Nakata has eight homers in 11 games.

MARINES 8, BUFFALOES 6
Kazuya Fukuura homered, doubled and drove in three to help Lotte, which saw its 6-1 lead shrink to one in the seventh, held off Orix at Kyocera Dome Osaka.


CENTRAL LEAGUE
GIANTS 7, CARP
Rakuten castoff Hideki Asai tossed seven scoreless innings in his season debut, and Alex Ramirez stroked his lead-high 36th homer as the Giants extended their CL lead to 1.5 games by avoiding a sweep by lowly Hiroshima.

SWALLOWS 11, BAYSTARS 4
Ryoji Aikawa had a two three-run homers and an RBI single for a career-best seven RBIs as Yakult swept host Yokohama.
The BayStars dropped to 30 games under .500, allowing 55 hits in a series in which they gave up double digits in runs over three games for the first time since June 1984.

DRAGONS 10, TIGERS 0
Kenichi Nakata (4-2) fired his second shutout, a four-hitter, and Hidenori Kuramoto tripled and drove in three as Chunichi swept Hanshin at Nagoya Dome.