Fired up …

Iwasaki fires up Dragons with walk-off HR

Tatsuro Iwasaki is a light-hitting middle infielder who could easily be knocked over by a good gust of wind.
But he blew the Carp out of the water with his first pro home run, a walk-off, two-run shot in the ninth inning that lifted the Chunichi Dragons past Hiroshima 3-1 Wednesday at Nagoya Dome.
Iwasaki, a fourth-year player, was sent in as a pinch-hitter and asked to bunt in the eighth inning but eventually struck out after failing to lay one down.
He wanted to make up for that mistake when he came to the plate in the 10th. He pumped his fist after leaving the batter’s box, but never saw the ball disappear among the fans in left.
“I didn’t know what happened,” Iwasaki said. “I wasn’t sure if it made it into the stands or not,” said Iwasaki, often a late-inning defensive replacement who upped his average to .175 with the homer for the Cental League's third-place Dragons.
Takuya Asao (9-3) fired two perfect innings to earn the win in relief, his ninth straight victory at the dome.

TIGERS 10, BAYSTARS 3
Craig Brazell smacked his 40th homer to become the first import since Randy Bass in 1986 to reach that figure as first-place Hanshin hammered Yokohama at Koshien Stadium.
Brazell hit a two-run shot, and Takahiro Arai went 5-for-5 with four RBIs in his fourth career five-hit game.

GIANTS 3, SWALLOWS 3, 12 INNINGS
Yakult’s Shinya Miyamoto’s eighth-inning infield single evened the score and Yomiuri went scoreless over the final six innings in a tie at Toyama.

PACIFIC LEAGUE
LIONS 7, BUFFALOES 4
Ryo Sakata had a three-run homer and an RBI single, and Kazuhisa Ishii (8-4) worked seven strong as Seibu topped Orix at Seibu Dome.

FIGHTERS 6,HAWKS 2
Yang Zhong-shou’s bases-clearing triple highlighted a four-run sixth as Nippon Ham rallied past Orix at Sapporo Dome.
The Fighters hung six runs on Tsuyoshi Wada (14-8) on nine hits and two walks.

MARINES 16, EAGLES 6
Tsuyoshi Nishioka had four hits and two RBIs to lead a 20-hit Lotte barrage that wiped out Rakuten at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Four other Marines had two RBIs.