Swallows' big guns destroy Dragons

Alex Ramirez hit two home runs and teammate Roberto Petagine connected for his Central League-leading 30th homer as the Yakult Swallows trounced the Chunichi Dragons 12-1 at Jingu Stadium on Saturday.

With their fourth straight win, the Swallows are ahead of the second-place Yomiuri Giants in both number of wins and also in win percentage.

Yakult starter Hirotsugu Maeda held the Dragons to one run on nine hits over eight innings and cruised to his sixth win, backed by the Swallows' 19-hit barrage.

Atsuya Furuta went 4-for-5 with three RBIs while Ramirez went 3-for-3, including a two-run clout in the third inning off Chunichi starter Masahiro Yamamoto (7-7) and a solo homer in his next at-bat.

The Dragons lost their fourth straight.

BayStars 7, Dragons 1

Daisuke Miura tossed a four-hitter over the distance and won his seventh decision as red-hot Yokohama beat Yomiuri at Yokohama Stadium.

Hideki Matsui was 0-for-3, and his on-base streak came to a halt at 65 games, four shy of the Japanese pro ball record set by Ichiro Suzuki when he played for the Orix BlueWave.

Yomiuri hurler Koji Uehara gave up six runs over 42/3 innings and took his sixth loss.

Hitoshi Nakane had three hits and Takahiro Saeki drove home three runs for the BayStars.

Carp 6, Tigers 3

Kenjiro Nomura doubled home the tie-breaking run in Hiroshima's three-run eighth inning as the Carp put an end to their eight-game losing streak by beating Hanshin at Hiroshima Stadium.

Hanshin rookie Norihiro Akahoshi went 3-for-4, including a first-career home run in the second inning off Masayuki Hasegawa.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

Buffaloes 6, BlueWave 1

Kintetsu starter Jeremy Powell (2-3) limited Orix to one run over 51/3 innings and two relievers blanked the BlueWave the rest of the way as the Buffaloes won at Green Stadium Kobe.

Tuffy Rhodes belted a two-run homer -- his 38th of the year -- in the first inning off Orix hurler Edward Yarnall (2-1).

With Kintetsu up 3-1 in the eighth, Fumitoshi Takano cracked a three-run blast off reliever Masao Kida.

The BlueWave managed to score one run on a solo homer by Joseph Vitiello as their win streak came to a halt at four.

Fighters 4, Hawks 3

Yutaka Nakamura doubled home the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning as Nippon Ham beat Daiei at the Tokyo Dome with its second "sayonara" win of the season.

Tomokazu Iba, the Fighters' No. 1 draft pick for this season, pitched two scoreless innings in relief and picked up his first career win.

With the Fighters leading 3-0 in the fifth, the Hawks tied the game with Pedro Valdez's three-run blast.

Marines 4, Lions 3

Frank Bolick, who went 3-for-4, smashed a "sayonara" solo home run off Seibu reliever Takehiro Hashimoto (0-2) in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift Lotte over Seibu at Chiba Marine Stadium.