Kimiyasu Kudo struck out eight in six shutout innings and four relievers held off Yokohama's comeback attempts Thursday as the Yomiuri Giants beat the BayStars 3-1 for a sweep of their three-game series at Yokohama Stadium.

Central League
 WonLostTied Pct.GB
Yomiuri 54 35 0 .607 -
Chunichi 44 41 0 .518 8.0
Hiroshima 42 44 1 .488 10.5
Yokohama 40 44 1 .476 11.5
Yakult 37 44 1 .457 13.0
Hanshin 39 48 1 .448 14.0
 
Pacific League
 WonLostTied Pct.GB
Daiei 48 38 2 .558 -
Orix 44 38 1 .537 2.0
Seibu 44 39 3 .530 2.5
Nippon Ham  45 44 1 .506 4.5
Lotte 39 47 2 .453 9.0
Kintetsu 36 50 1 .419 12.0

Yomiuri took the lead in the fourth inning on a bases-loaded groundout by Yoshinobu Takahashi and an RBI single by Tomohiro Nioka and made it 3-0 on a Daisuke Miura (5-4) wild pitch in the seventh.

Kudo (11-3) held Yokohama to three hits with no walks and Hideki Okajima worked the ninth, helping the Giants win their fifth straight.

Tigers 4, Dragons 3

At Koshien Stadium, Hiroshi Yagi drew a bases-loaded walk off Chunichi reliever Hitoki Iwase (6-5) in the bottom of the ninth inning as Hanshin overcame a 3-0 deficit to rally past the Dragons with a "sayonara" victory.

Minoru Kasai (5-3), who inherited a two-on, one-out situation in the top of the ninth, retired the next two batters to get the win.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

BlueWave 5, Marines 0

Nobuyuki Ebisu (4-0) threw a four-hitter and Yuji Goshima went 3-for-5, including a bases-clearing double, to lead Orix over Lotte.

Ebisu, a second-round draft pick in 1991, struck out three and walked two in his first career complete-game shutout to help Orix narrow the gap with the front-running Daiei Hawks to only two games.