Giant obstacles ...

Tigers fall to Giants, have to win out

The three-time defending Central League champion Yomiuri Giants, with their title hopes on a ventilator, fought to keep the plug in the wall.
The Giants jumped all over the second-place Hanshin Tigers early and stomped out a rally midway through Tuesday's game for a 7-5 win at Koshien Stadium.
The Giants s, who have to hope the front-running Chunichi Dragons lose their finale to the Yakult Swallows at home on Saturday, need a lot to happen to win the title.
The Giant first have to win out over their final five games to have a chance.
Meanwhile, the Tigers, who have eight games to play, also have to win out if the Dragons beat the Swallows to close out their season.
Hanshin will need a better start than it had against Yomiuri in their penultimate meeting. Loser Jason Standridge (10-5) suffered through a rough first inning and took a seat on the bench after the final out of the third, in which he allowed opposing starter Tetsuya Utsumi (11-8) a two-out, two-run single to fall behind 5-1.
Giants rookie Hisayoshi Chono, just back from his first stint on the farm, had an RBI single in a three-run first. Utsumi plated a pair with an opposite-field looping liner that gave him some breathing room.
The lefty, though, surrendered three runs in the sixth without recording an out and departed.
Yomiuri’s Shinnosuke Abe extended his career-high homer total by slugging his 43rd, a solo blast in the seventh.
Matt Murton continued his pursuit of Ichiro Suzuki’s 210-hit season with two singles for 205. He moved one past Giants slugger Alex Ramirez’s CL record.

SWALLOWS 4, BAYSTARS 0
Norichika Aoki homered and singled to tie his career-best hit total of 202 to lead Yakult past host Yokohama.
Lefty Masanori Ishikawa (13-8) tossed a three-hitter for his first shutout in about two years, extending his club-record winning streak to 11 for a career-best 13th win.
The BayStars were blanked for the 14th time and set a NPB record with their third straight 90-loss season.

PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 7, EAGLES 2
Tsuyoshi Nishioka had two hits to push his season total to 203 and added two runs batted in, and Toshiaki Imae had three hits and two RBIs as Lotte routed visiting Rakuten.

FIGHTERS 4, BUFFALOES 0
Five Nippon Ham hurlers combined on a six-hitter, and Sho Nakata had a pair of RBI doubles in a win over host Orix.
The third-place Fighters finished their season and have a half-game lead over Lotte, which has two games to play.
Lotte has to win its final two games to keep the Fighters out of the postseason for the fifth straight year.