Rakuten Eagles Beat Seibu Lions, 7-2

JAPAN - Rick Short doubled in two crucial runs and Takeshi Yamasaki homered twice as Rakuten held off the Pacific League front-running Seibu, 7-2, at the Seibu Dome.

Trailing the Lions 2-0, Yamasaki hit a solo homer in the fourth and Short’s two-run double ignited a four-run fifth before Yamasaki capped the scoring two innings later with a two-run clout.

Hisashi Iwakuma (17-3) limited Seibu to two runs on eight hits and struck out eight in seven innings to pick up a league-leading 17th win. Matt Kinney (2-2) gave up five runs in 4-2/3 innings.

Fighters 3, Marines 2

At Chiba Marine Stadium, Eiichi Koyano hit a tiebreaking RBI single and Brian Sweeney pitched seven strong innings as Nippon Ham edged Lotte.

Kensuke Tanaka and Atsunori Inaba helped Nippon Ham even out a 2-0 deficit with a pair of RBI doubles in the sixth before Koyano put the Fighters ahead in the same frame.

Sweeney (11-3) allowed two runs on four hits and struck out eight while Micheal Nakamura picked up his 20th save.

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