Swallowing up the competition ...

Yakult stays on roll, beats Yomiuri for 9th straight

The Yakult Swallows eating up the competition on a daily basis, and it has them headed for new heights.
Yasushi Iihara slugged his third homer in two nights, a two-run shot, and Kazuhiro Hatakeyama also went deep to power the Central League’s fourth-place Swallows past front-running the Yomiuri Giants to complete a three-game sweep 6-3 at Jingu Stadium on Thursday.
It was the first time the Swallows have swept three straight series since 1997.
Red-hot Yoshinori Sato (8-6), worked into the eighth inning for his third straight win, as Yakult won its ninth straight at home and beat the Giants for the fourth straight time. The third-year righty extended his career-best win total, allowing three runs -- two earned -- on seven hits and four walk, while fanning nine in 7.2 innings.
The Swallows smacked around Shun Tone (12-4) for six runs, four earned, on nine hits, three walks and a hit batter in six innings.

DRAGONS 1, BAYSTARS 0
Maximo Nelson (3-4) worked 6.2 scoreless innings, scattering four hits and five walks with two strikeouts, and Masahiko Morino plated the game’s only run with a seventh-inning sac fly as Chunichi avoided a sweep at Yokohama.
TIGERS 10, CAPR 6
Kenji Jojima had two of Hanshin’s five homers, and Yasutomo Kubo (10-5) earned double digits in wins for the first time in five years as Hanshin cruised at The Zoom.
The Tigers, who hits three homers when they scored seven runs in the sixth, came from behind for the win.

PAICIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 5, FIGHTERS 2
Tadahito Iguchi’s RBI single in the first sparked a four-run outburst, and Yuki Karakawa (4-3) went six strong innings as Chiba topped Nippon Ham at Chiba Marine Stadium.


BUFFALOES 6, HAWKS 6
Alex Cabrera slugged a grand slam in the sixth inning after hitting a solo shot in the fourth, and Mitsutaka Sakaguchi’s infield RBI single in the seventh tied it as Orix and SoftBank played to a 12-inning deadlock.

LIONS 4, EAGLES 3
Reserve catcher Tatsuyuki Uemoto got a rare start and used it to blast his third homer of the season in the seventh inning, putting Seibu back up after it lost a 3-2 lead in the bottom as the Lions edged Rakuten at The Kleenex Box.