No magic in Fukuoka ...

Lions’ magic number stays at 4 after beatdown from Hawks

The SoftBank Hawks were up to old tricks as they cooled the Seibu Lions’ magic talk on Sunday.
A pair of veterans, Hitsohi Tamura and Nobuhiko Matsunaka, each went deep and SoftBank’s shutdown bullpen fired five scoreless innings in an 11-4 beating of the Lions at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
Tamura blasted his 27th homer, and Matsunaka, who was recently activated, slugged his 11th to lead a 16-hit attack that brought SoftBank to within 1.5 games of the Pacific League’s front-running Lions.
After losing a game they led the night before, the Lions started like a house of fire. Leadoff man Yasuyuki Kataoka became just the 14th player to open back-to-back games with a home run, belting his 13th.
Jose Fernandez, who went 5-for-5, cracked his ninth homer since rejoining Seibu in June, for a 2-0 lead after a half-inning.
But Tamura took Kazuyuki Hoashi deep for a three-run bomb that gave SoftBank the lead in the bottom of the frame.
Matsunaka’s solo shot broke a 4-4 tie after the Lions got even, and Tamura added an RBI single in a five-run seventh that broke the game open.

BUFFALOES 4, FIGHTERS 0
Chihiro Kaneko continued his amazing run, tossing 7.2 scoreless innings as Orix topped defending PL champion Nippon Ham as the righty won his 13th straight decision, the franchise’s longest winning streak by a hurler since 1958.
Kaneko (17-7), pitching on four days’ rest, took a liner off his pitching shoulder in the first inning, but worked through it to move the Buffs a half-game out of third.

EAGLES 8, MARINES 6
Yosuke Takasu’s walk-off, three-run homer in the ninth lifted Rakuten past Lotte for the 16th straight time at The Kleenex Box.

CENTRAL LEAGUE
GIANTS 6, TIGERS 4
Shinnosuke Abe’s first-inning two-run double highlighted a five-run first inning as Yomiuri rebounded from Saturday’s loss with a big win over Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.
The Giants and Tigers are in a virtual tie for the second place, with Hanshin just percentage points ahead.

DRAGONS 6, SWALLOWS 2
Kazuhiro Wada homered twice and drove in three, and Kenichi Nakata (7-3) fired eight strong innings as Chunichi topped Yakult at Jingu Stadium.

CARP 3, BAYSTARS 2
Shogo Kimura broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth with an RBI triple and scored when Kenta Kurihara singled as Hiroshima won at Yokohama.