Thursday, Sep. 29, 2011

Nice job: Rakuten's Luis Garcia is greeted at home plate by coach Koichi Sekikawa after hitting a game-tying solo homer in the sixth inning against the Lions on Wednesday. Garcia added a two-run shot in the eighth inning of the Eagles' 4-2 win. KYODO

FUKUOKA — Tsuyoshi Wada threw seven scoreless innings and Kenji Akashi had three RBIs as the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks routed the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 7-0 to see their magic number to clinch the Pacific League title fall to three on Wednesday.

Wada (14-5) scattered six hits — all singles — struck out eight and walked two, and two relievers finished off the shutout at Yahoo Dome. Masaru Takeda (10-11) was tagged for six runs in six innings in the loss.

Akashi had a sacrifice fly to open the scoring in the second and added a two-run single in a four-run fourth. Shuhei Fukuda went 3-for-4 with a run-scoring single.

The reeling Fighters are winless in their last 10 games, including one tie.

Buffaloes 6, Marines 0

At Kobe's Hotto Motto Field, Hayato Terahara threw his third shutout of the season in an eight-strikeout effort, Takahiro Okada hit a three-run homer and hot-hitting Orix beat Chiba Lotte to win its fifth in a row.

Terahara (12-9) allowed just two singles and walked one in a 119-pitch outing and matched a career high for wins. He retired the last 16 batters he faced after walking Tadahito Iguchi in the fourth. Lotte is winless in its last 12 games, including one tie.

Eagles 4, Lions 2

At Sendai's Kleenex Stadium, Luis Garcia hit a game-tying solo homer in the sixth inning and followed that with a go-ahead two-run blast off Hsu Ming-chieh (6-2) in the eighth as Tohoku Rakuten rallied past Seibu, which saw its undefeated streak end at 12 games, including two ties.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

Giants 2, BayStars 1

At Yokohama Stadium, Yomiuri's Shigeyuki Furuki hit a two-run double to overturn a 1-0 deficit in the ninth inning, lifting the Giants over Yokohama for their third win in a row.

Swallows 8, Tigers 5

Dragons 1, Carp 1 (10)

Sarfate done for season

Hiroshima — Hiroshima Carp closer Dennis Sarfate was deactivated on Wednesday due to joint pain in his groin and will be out for the remainder of the season as he might require surgery.

The hard-throwing right-hander apparently has been experiencing pain in his groin for about one month and aggravated the injury in a game against the Chunichi Dragons on Tuesday.

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