A sinking feeling ...

Tigers fall to lowly Yokohama

The Hanshin Tigers are in a fight for their playoff lives. The Yokohama BayStars are putting pride on the line.
Pride won the battle on Tuesday as Naoyuki Shimizu worked six innings and Shuichi Murata homered for a 6-3 win over the Central League’s second-place Tigers at Yokohama Stadium .
The loss dropped Hanshin into a virtual tie for second place with the Yomiuri Giants.
Shimizu (10-11) pitched around nine hits and three walks, fanning two as the BayStars snapped a nine-game skid against the Tigers.
Hiroki Sanada came on with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh inning, and a rare relay-throw on a flyout got him out of the jam. Seiichi Uchikawa in right made the catch and rushed the ball toward the infield. Jose Castillo caught the throw, turned and fired to the plate to cut down Takashi Toritani.
“Hey, Shu-san had just hit a home run to get us the lead so I thought, ‘If blow this, they’re going to kill me,’” joked Sanada, who recorded a hold.
“I just went out there pumped up and got the job done.”
Shimizu reached double digits in wins for the first time in two years as the bullpen tossed three scoreless innings.
Hanshin's Craig Brazell took over the CL lead in homers by hitting his 43 rd in a losing cause.

DRAGONS 10, CARP 1
Chen Wei-yin (12-10) scattered seven hits and a walk over eight scoreless innings, and Masahiro Araki and Masahiko Morino each had two hits and three RBI as first-place Chunichi cruised past Hiroshima at The Zoom.
The Dragons have won five straight overall, 10 in a row over Hiroshima.

GIANTS 3, SWALLOWS 2
Michihiro Ogasawara had three hits, inclduing homer No. 33, and two RBIs and Hideki Asai (3-1) held Yakult to four hits and a walk over six as Yomiuri won at Jingu Stadium.

PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 5, HAWKS 4, 11 INNINGS
Tsuyoshi Nishioka had three hits, raising his average to .336, and pushed the game-winner home in the 11th inning as Lotte outlasted second-place SoftBank at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Hiroki Kokubo kicked Nishioka’s grounder for a walk-off error as SoftBank missed a chance to gain ground on Seibu.

BUFFALOES 3, LIONS 2
Chihiro Kaneko (16-7) continued his red-hot streak, tossing seven quality innings to win his 12th straight decision as Orix topped visiting Seibu.
Kaneko moved into the PL’s top spot in wins.

EAGLES 9, FIGHTERS 0
Satoshi Nagai (9-10) tossed a four-hitter with three walks and seven Ks as Rakuten blanked Nippon Ham at Sapporo Dome.
Takeshi Yamasaki went 3-for-5 with homer No. 25 and three RBIs.