Rookie Eishin Soyogi homered and drove in two runs to support an effective outing by veteran right-hander Hiroki Kuroda as the Hiroshima Carp held off the Hanshin Tigers in a 5-2 victory in the Central League on Thursday.
Hiroshima Carp infielder Kenta Kurihara (center) is congratulated by teammates after hitting a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning of the Carp's 5-2 win over Hanshin on Thursday at Koshien Stadium.
KYODO PHOTOSoyogi hit a one-out blast off Chris Oxspring (4-2) to the seats in left to get Hiroshima on the board in the opening frame and added a run-scoring double in the fifth inning at Koshien Stadium.
Hanshin tied the game at 1-1 on an Akihiro Yano clutch single with runners on the corners in the second but Takahiro Arai's sacrifice fly gave the Carp the lead for good in the fourth.
Kuroda (8-6) limited the damage to two runs, despite scattering nine hits in seven innings, with five strikeouts. Katsuhiro Nagakawa worked the ninth for his 12th save of the season.
Shigenobu Shima and Shigeru Morikasa also drove in runs for Hiroshima. The Tigers could muster only two runs and stranded seven runners on the night.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
Buffaloes 5, Hawks 2
At Osaka's Kyocera Dome, Ryota Aikawa hit a leadoff homer in the fifth inning, and Hiroaki Onishi and Hirotoshi Kitagawa followed with consecutive one-out RBI singles as Orix rallied.
Yuki Tanaka (1-0), the second pitcher for the Buffaloes, won his first decision since October 2002, pitching 1 1/3 scoreless innings, while Masanobu Okubo allowed two singles in the ninth but induced a double play and got a flyout to end it for his 13th save.