Oh, no ... no no-no ...

Yamai comes close … again

The Chunichi Dragons’ Daisuke Yamai didn’t just flirt with a no-hitter, he proposed.
But the 32-year-old righty, who went eight perfect innings in Chunichi’s Game 5 Japan Series clincher in 2007, had to settle for a wait-and-see after he carried a no-no into the ninth inning before giving up a solo shot in the Dragons' 3-1 win over the Yomiuri Giants 3-1 on Wednesday at Nagoya Dome.
Yamai (5-4) hung a slider to Hayato Sakamoto, who drove it out to left for his 22nd longball. Skipper Hiromitsu Ochiai then went to closer Hitoki Iwase, who walked a batter before slamming the door for his 32nd save.
It was a Nagoya Dome-record 11th straight win (their sixth straight overall), but the first thing Yamai did was poke fun at himself.
“It figures -- I could only go eight innings. I apologize for that,” said Yamai, who admitted thinking about a no-no.
“I had walked some guys and hit a guy, but around the sixth or seventh inning, I was aware I had a no-hitter," said Yamai, who walked two and hit one, while fanning eight.
“We found a way to win yesterday and we wanted to win today to clinch the series against the Giants, who are above us in the standings, so we can overtake them. That was my mindset when I took the mound today.”
Yamai was yanked in Game 5 of the Series, with long-suffering Chunichi fans dying to see a championship on home turf after a drought of more than 50 years, so Ochiai went to his closer that day. This time, Yamai -- who was missing catcher Motonobu Tanishige’s target badly in the eighth but got through -- had his chance but couldn’t make history.
The Dragons, who were eight games back of then-front-running Yomiuri on Aug. 1, pulled to within a half-game of the second-place Giants in the Central League, and can shove them into third with a series sweep.
Yamai, the had been up and down the first half of the season, but was the hurler who kicked off Chunichi’s club- and league-record string of five consecutive shutouts and a NPB-record 50 straight scoreless innings pitched in July.
He was trying to be the first hurler in Japan to toss a no-no since teammate Masahiro Yamamoto no-hit Hanshin at Nagoya Dome on Sept. 16, 2006.

SWALLOWS 14, CARP 5
Norichika Aoki had four hits and four RBIs, and Kazuhiro Hatakeyama homered and drove in four as Yakult toyed with Hiroshima at The Zoom.

TIGERS 11, BAYSTARS 2
Craig Brazell and Lin Wei-chu each homered twice as front-running Hanshin pounded host Yokohaha senseless.

PACIFIC LEAGUE
LIONS 4, HAWKS 3
Kazuhisa Ishii (7-4) went 6.1 innings for his first win since May 26 and Brian Sikorski survived a double and a walk in the ninth inning to earn his 30th save as front-running Seibu topped SoftBank and increased its PL lead over the Hawks to 2.5 games.
The Lions improved to 4-1 against PL wins co-leader Tsuyoshi Wada (14-6) with a four-run fourth, capped by Takumi Kuriyama’s two-run single.

FIGHTERS 7, MARINES 5
Yoshio Itoi had two hits, including his 14th homer -- one off his career best -- and Nippon Ham used two three-run innings to top Lotte in a home game at Tokyo Dome.

EAGLES 11, BUFFALOES 1
Teppei Tsuchiya had three hits and two RBIs, and one of Takeshi Yamasaki’s two hits was his 22nd homer, a two-run shot that helped Rakuten batter Orix at Skymark Stadium.