Abe hits 37th as Giants power toward top
The Hanshin Tigers are riding high as the Central League front-runners, but they had to send a rookie debutant to the mound Saturday in a showdown against the three-time defending league champion Yomiuri Giants.
Hanshin righty Takumi Akiyama (0-1) flopped as Ryota Wakiya tripled in a pair of runs in the sixth to put Yomiuri in the lead, and Giants won going away 8-3 to shave the Tigers’ CL lead to one game.
Shinnosuke Abe cracked his 37th homer, a three-run blast in the seventh, and Yasunori Takagi (1-0), an offseason pickup from the Orix Buffaloes, earned his first CL win with a socreless sixth.
Wakiya, whose wife delivered a daughter on Thursday, made up for being hitless in a recent three-game sweep to the third-place Chunichi Dragons in Nagoya.
He added a sinlge in the eighth to raise his average to .296.
Matt Murton’s solo shot in the third got the Tigers even, and Tomoaki Kanemoto hit a solo blast to give Hanshin the a 3-2 lead in the fourth.
But Akiyama, who allowed four runs on six hits and three walks, couldn’t hold the lead.
DRAGONS 3, SWALLOWS 2
Lefty Masahiro Yamamoto (2-0) wobbled through 5.1 innings, but got the win as Tony Blanco homered and Kyohei Oda hit a scoring flyball in a three-run second to power Chunichi past Yakult at Nagoya Dome.
A day after having their 12-game home winning streak snapped, the Dragons bounced back to win on only fout hits.
The 45-year-old Yamamoto became the first hurler since 1948 to win back-to-back decisions at his age.
CARP 5, BAYSTARS 4
Soichiro Amaya’s RBI single in the sixth capped a four-run rally, and Hiroshima hung up to edge Yokohama at The Zoom.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 7, BUFFALOES 6, 11 INNINGS
Shoitsu Omatsu capped a comeback from an early five-run deficit with his first walk-off homer as Lotte ended a 4-hour, 37-minute struggle with Orix at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Tadahito Iguchi answered Francisco Caraballo’s fourth-inning grand slam with a bases-loaded shot of his own in the fifth to power the Marines.
FIGHTERS 5, LIONS 4
Sho Nakata broke a 4-4 tie in the sixth with a scoring flyball as Nippon Ham edged front-running Seibu at Sapporo Dome.
The Lions’ lead is down 1.5 games over SoftBank, which beat Rakuten.
HAWKS 13, EAGLES 1
Tomoaki Egawa led four players with two hits by driving in three as SoftBank routed Rakuten at The Kleenex Box.
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