There’s a reason …

Giants not in 1st for nothing

Good things happen to good clubs. Bad things happen to losers.
Hayato Sakamoto gave the Central League-leading Yomiuri Giants a happy ending to a tough night, slugging a walk-off two-run homer to give the Giants a come-from-behind 7-6 over Nippon Ham at Tokyo Dome.
The Pacific League’s last place Fighters had piece together their pitchers and ended up blowing a 6-3 lead.
It was Sakamoto’s third career walk-off b last, and the fifth homer of the night for the Giants, tying their season high for a game.
Sakamoto had struck out, popped out and flied out twice before cracking his 13th longball and collecting his 34th and 35th RBIs.
“The fact that he had made outs up to that point meant odds were he would get a hit,” said Yomiuri skipper Tatsunori Hara.
“The fact that it was a home run was wonderful.”
The Fighters had the lead and looked in position to get away with their third straight interleague win over the Giants after sweeping them in Sapporo last month. Takayuki Kanamori got the spot start, but was gone after allowing three runs in four innings.
Former Giant Masanori Hayashi allowed two runs -- one earned -- in two innings, and Nippon Ham closer Hisashi Takeda (0-4), who came on in the eighth, served up Sakamoto’s sayonara shot.
It was the first walk-off homer he has allowed in his career.
Yomiuri slugger Michihiro Ogasawara, a former Fighter, went deep to give him homers against 13 ball clubs -- the sixth player to do that.

DRAGONS 5, MARINES 4, 11 innings
Tony Blanco singled in the game-winning run, making Lotte pay for an error in the eighth inning that allowed the Dragons to tie the score on Kazuhiro Wada’s three-run blast, as Chunichi won at Nagoya Dome.
Masafumi Hirai (1-1) worked two scoreless innings to earn his first win since Sept. 14, 2008.

TIGERS 6, BUFFALOES 2
Veteran lefty Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi (3-4) twirled seven scoreless innings at Orix and knocked in a run with a single as Hanshin topped the Buffaloes at Koshien Stadium.
Kenji Jojima collected three of Hanshin’s 15 hits.

CARP 5, HAWKS 4
Eric Stults (3-3) worked into the seventh inning and doubled in a pair of runs en route to winning his third straight decision as Hiroshima edged SoftBank at the Zoom.

SWALLOWS 12, LIONS 6
Aaron Guiel had three hits, including his 14th homer, and drove in five runs as Yakult drubbed Seibu to stop a six-game skid at Jingu.

EAGLES 12, BAYSTARS 0
Rakuten’s 3-4-5 hitters each went deep, and Ryohei Isaka (1-0) fired six shutout innings in a win at Yokohama.