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Lions climb back atop PL behind Nishiguchi

TOKOROZAWA, Saitama --The Seibu Lions’ Fumiya Nishi turns 38 at the end of the month. He turned back the clock on Thursday at Seibu Dome.
The righty fired six shutout innings, escaping a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the first as the Lions jumped back into the Pacific League’s top spot with a 3-0 shutout of the Orix Buffaloes.
Nishiguchi (3-2), who brought a 5.95 ERA into the game, earned his second win since a return from farm banishment.
He allowed five hits and three walks, punching out three, and closer Brian Sikorski allowed a hit and a walk in a scoreless ninth for his 31st save, tying Alex Graman's club record for a foreign stopper.
Nishiguchi followed a strong performance the previuos night by a veteran hurler lefty Kazuhisa Ishii, who turns 36 on Sept. 9.
“It’s a burst of old-guy power,” joked Nishiguchi, who worked to keep Orix off the board while waiting for run support.
“I just competed. I knew our guys would score if I just battled out there.”
Tomoaki Sato broke the scoreless tie when he yanked a shot inside third and down the line for an RBI double. Ryo Sakata followed with an RBI single and Takuya Hara took one for the team, getting an RBI after he was plunked with the bases loaded.
The SoftBank Hawks fell at Sapporo Dome, but Seibu skipper Hisanobu Watanabe rejected the idea of scoreboard watching and the signifance of taking over first place.
“The team at the top of the standings changes all the time, so I’m not thinking about that. I'm more concerned about us playing good games,” he said.

FIGHTERS 2, HAWKS 1
Shota Ono’s solo shot in the bottom of the fourth inning, just after SoftBank had tied the score, was the difference as Masaru Takeda (12-6) held the Hawks to a run over eight innings.
Hisashi Takeda became the 52nd pitcher to record a one-pitch save, inducing a game-ending double play from Nobuhiro Matsuda.

MARINES 4, EAGLES 2
Tsuyoshi Nishioka recorded his 22nd three-hit game -- tying him for third on the PL's single-season list -- to back Yoshihisa Naruse (11-11), who allowed Rakuten just two runs over 7.1 innings at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Nishioka homered, his eighth, and doubled while driving in two as the Marines moved into second, a half-game back of Seibu.

CENTRAL LEAGUE
DRAGONS 6, CARP 0
Righty Maximo Nelson (3-2) had his best night as a Dragon, tossing his first complete game -- a shutout, to boot -- and collecting his first hit, with an RBI to top it off as Chunichi blanked Hiroshima at Nagoya Dome.
The Dominican scattered four hits and two walks, fanning eight to win just his third game after starting the season with a team ban for bringing a bullet into the country in his luggage.
Nelson didn’t allow a runner to reach third and got four double plays behind him.
The third-place Dragons took over the league lead in wins with 66 and moved a half-game behind second-place Yomiuri, which was idle.

TIGERS 6, BAYSTARS 3
Pinch-hitter Shinjiro Hiyama’s two-out, two-run single in the sixth put host Hanshin in front, and the Tigers added three more in the seventh to beat Yokohama going away for their fifth straight win.