The ‘Sho’ is finally on ...

Nataka’s 2 blasts power Fighters past Eagles

Third-year Nippon Ham slugger Sho Nakata was the talk of the town before he ever took a swing in Japan pro baseball. Unfortunately for him it was all talk.
But he’s being talked about now for all the right reasons. The 21-year-old had his first two-homer game, cracking a pair of longballs in back-to-back at-bats Friday and driving in four to help the Fighters come back to top the Rakuten Eagles 10-4 at Sapporo Dome.
Nakata’s sixth homer over his past 10 games backed Yu Darvish, who went eight innings to earn double digits in victories for the fifth straight season.
“Up to now, he [Darvish] has just gotten mad at me all the time. So I thought he was going to say something nice to me after the game, but he just said, ‘Don’t be satisfied with two homers,’” said Nakata, who fanned in his first two trips to the plate.
“I struck out easily my first two at-bats, so I just wanted to get on base and I wanted to take a good swing,” he said of his third at-bat.
Darvish (10-5) needed the support. He wasn’t sharp, allowing seven hits, two walks and hitting two. The righty fanned 12 and is five behind PL leader Toshiya Sugiuchi of SoftBank with 155.
The only negative for the Fighters came when Kensuke Tanaka had to leave the game in the eighth after being hit in the head by a throw while running the bases. He was removed for precautionary reasons. Tanaka had played every inning of every game since 2007, but that string was snapped.

LIONS 10, HAWKS 4
Hiroyuki Nakajima homered, doubled and drove in five runs as Seibu beat up SoftBank at Seibu Dome.
Ace Hideaki Wakui (12-6), coming off his worst beating as a pro, wasn’t his usual dominant self but worked around nine hits and a walk with a half-dozen Ks to earn the win.

MARINES 3, BUFFALOES 2
Rookie Ikuhiro Kiyota’s three-run double in the ninth -- after Hiroshi Kisanuki (9-7) walked the bases loaded -- broke a scoreless tie and lifted Lotte over Orix at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Yoshihisa Naruse (9-9) went the distance, allowing Alex Cabrera’s two-run homer in the ninth before closing out the Buffaloes to snap a seven^game skid.

CENTRAL LEAGUE
CARP 4, GIANTS 1
Kenta Maeda (12-5) battled through eight innings and Soichiro Amaya belted a two-run homer to break a 1-1 tie in the fifth as Hiroshima downed Yomiuri at Tokyo Dome.
Maeda, tied for the league lead in victories, has all three of the Carp’s wins over the Giants this season. He allowed seven hits and a walk, while punching out three.
The Giants, who remained in first place, left four runners at third base.

DRAGONS 4, TIGERS 1
Kazuhiro Wada, the CL’s leading hitter at .364, doubled in the tie-breaking run in the fifth and brothers Naomichi and Takehiro Donoue each had RBIs as third-place Chunichi topped second-place Hanshin to stop a five-game slide.
Kazuki Yoshimi (9-6) went 7.2 innings, allowing a run on four hits and two walks, while fanning five.

SWALLOWS 16, BAYSTARS 4
Kazuhiro Hatakeyama had a homer among his three hits, and even starter Shohei Tateyama (5-5) went deep as visiting Yakult embarrassed Yokohama.