Veteran catcher Atsuya Furuta went 4-for-5 to drive in five runs and lefty Masanori Ishikawa tossed a seven-hitter over seven-plus innings as the Yakult Swallows overpowered the Yomiuri Giants 10-2 on Thursday to move into a share of second place with Yomiuri in the Central League standings.
Yakult jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning as Tetsuya Iida and Shinya Miyamoto belted solo homers in back-to-back at-bats.
The lead was extended to 4-0 in the second inning on back-to-back solo roundtrippers by Furuta and Atsunori Inaba, all off Giants starter Masumi Kuwata (2-2).
Yakult added two runs in the third, sending Kuwata to the showers, and stretched its lead to 9-1 in the fifth on Furuta's three-run blast off reliever Gary Rath.
Ishikawa (4-4), using an effective combination of curve balls and fastballs, struck out four and walked two.
Akira Eto hit a solo homer in the fourth for Yomiuri, and the Giants scored a run in the eighth with Takayuki Saito's grounder to first.
The Giants loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, but Swallows reliever Ryota Igarashi got Tomohiro Nioka into a double play to end the game.
BayStars at Carp -- ppd.