JAPAN – The Yomiuri Giants continued their winning ways on Sunday with a 2-1 victory over the Hiroshima Carp. The Giants, which boast the league’s best record at 25-10-3, will open interleague play on Tuesday against the Pacific League-leading Nippon Ham Fighters at the Sapporo Dome.

Yomiuri went ahead 1-0 in the fourth on Ryota Wakiya’s solo home run, and held the slim lead until the eighth when the Toyo Carp tied the score on a Daisuke Ochi wild pitch. But an inning later, a pair of miscues doomed Hiroshima.

Pinch-hitter Shinnosuke Abe singled with one out and motored to third base when right-fielder Jun Hirose let the ball past him. Yomiuri manager Tatsunori Hara trotted out pinch-runner Takahito Kudo who scored the winning run on Katsuhiro Nagakawa’s wild pitch.

Marc Kroon earned his eighth save by striking out all three batters in the bottom of the ninth to seal the victory.

The Chunichi Dragons completed a three-game sweep over Yokohama with a 4-1 win over the BayStars, while the Yakult Swallows earned its fifth win in a row with a three-game sweep against the Hanshin Tigers.

In other action, the Lotte Marines topped the Seibu Lions, 8-5, and the Orix Buffaloes snapped a nine-game losing streak with a 6-0 victory over Nippon Ham.

HONOR ROLL

Kazuhiro Wada, Chunichi Dragons
Collected three hits and a two-run double in 4-1 win against Yokohama.

Atsuhiro Mitsuhara, Orix Buffaloes
Pitched five shutout innings in his season debut against Nippon Ham.

Ryo Kawashima, Yakult Swallows
Scattered one run over seven innings in 2-1 win against Hanshin.

Tomoya Satozaki, Lotte Marines
Drove in four runs with a pair of RBI doubles in 8-5 win against Seibu.

Shinji Shimoyama, Orix Buffaloes
Was 3-for-4 with a homer, two doubles, and three RBIs in 6-0 win against Nippon Ham.

Yudai Kawai, Chunichi Dragons
Allowed one hit and two walks over six shutout innings to beat Yokohama.

HITTING LEADERS
.373 – Makoto Kaneko, Nippon Ham
.361 – Hayato Sakamoto, Yomiuri
.357 – Tadahito Iguchi, Lotte
.356 – Yuya Hasegawa, Softbank
.347 – Naoyuki Ohmura, Orix
.338 – Atsunori Inaba, Nippon Ham
.336 – Eiichi Koyano, Nippon Ham

PITCHING LEADERS
0.90 – Kan Ohtake, Hiroshima
1.05 – Masahiro Tanaka, Rakuten
1.24 – Yu Darvish, Nippon Ham
1.46 – Daisuke Miura, Yokohama
1.50 – Wei-Yin Chen, Chunichi
1.61 – Shohei Tateyama, Yakult
1.63 – Hideaki Wakui, Seibu

NPB STANDINGS

Pacific League

Central League

Photo courtesy of old.japanfocus.org

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