Soft landing ...

SoftBank seizes PL title

The SoftBank Hawks have landed atop the Pacific League.
The Hawks entered Sunday with a magic number of one, and clinched the club’s 14th title, first since 2003, when the Seibu Lions lost in Sapporo.
The Hawks also fell 8-3 to the Rakuten Eagles at The Kleenex Box, but they topped the highly competitive PL.
“It’s a relief to look back on the season now that’s it over,” said second-year skipper Koji Akiyama.
“We lost tonight in this last game, but it just goes to show how competitive the PL was this season.
“It wouldn’t have been a surprise if any of the teams won it. This was a tough season.”
The Hawks did it with balance -- the second best team ERA at 3.89 and the third-most runs -- behind a pair of strong starters and a career year from Hitoshi Tamura. The 14-year veteran has played in a career-best 140 games, and his.324 average and 165 hits are also pro highs. In addition, he socked 27 homers.
Lefties Tusyoshi Wada (17-8) and Toshiya Sugiuchi (16-7) led the way and a shutdown bullpen, featuring Tadashi Settsu, Brian Falkenborg and closer Takahiro Mahara, shortened games.
Munenori Kawasaki, an 11-year pro, has a career-best 189 hits and 53 RBIs from the leadoff spot.

FIGHTERS 4, LIONS 3
“Mr. Second Helping” couldn’t help Seibu from falling to Nippon Ham at Sapporo Dome. The slugger hit two HRs, but Yoshio Itoi’s RBI double in the bottom of the ninth lifted the Fighters into the third place.
The loss pushed Seibu into second in the playoff seeding, and means Nippon Ham and Lotte will battle for the final spot.

BUFFALOES 6, MARINES 4, 10 INNINGS
Mitsutaka Goto cracked a walk-off two-run homer to lift Orix past Lotte at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
The loss dropped Lotte a half-game behind third-place Nippon Ham.

CENTRAL LEAGUE
BAYSTARS 3, GIANTS 2
Jose Castillo drilled a clutch RBI single in the eighth inning to down visiting Yomiuri for the second time in four days as Yokohama won at home.
Alex Ramirez blasted a pair of homers, the second of which was career-best 46th, but that was all the three-time defending CL champion Giants could muster.

SWALLOWS 3, DRAGONS 1
Despite a rain delay, righty Yoshinori Sato recorded 19 straight out and Norichika Aoki blasted a homer to become the first two-time 200-hit batter as Yakult continued its mastery of visiting Chunichi.
Chunichi’s loss gave the idle Hanshin Tigers a magic number of eight.