Kentaro Sekimoto broke a scoreless deadlock with an eighth-inning sacrifice fly and Shinobu Fukuhara pitched a two-hitter over eight innings as the Hanshin Tigers edged the Yomiuri Giants 1-0 in the Central League on Wednesday.
Shogo Akada of the Seibu Lions is tagged out at home by Fukuoka Softbank Hawks catcher Katsuki Yamazaki during the sixth inning of Wednesday's game at Yahoo Dome.
KYODO PHOTOSekimoto lofted the first pitch from Koji Uehara (3-6) with one out, and Takashi Toritani, who had hit a leadoff double and reached third on an Akihiro Yano sacrifice bunt, barely beat the throw from center fielder Yoshinobu Takahashi for the go-ahead run at Koshien Stadium.
Fukuhara (7-1) held Yomiuri to two singles with seven strikeouts, two walks and a hit batter before Kyuji Fujikawa struck out three in the ninth to pick up his 10th save.
Dragons at BayStars -- ppd.
Carp at Swallows -- ppd.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
Lions 3, Hawks 1
At Yahoo Dome, Hisashi Takayama and Shogo Akada hit their first home runs of the season to lead Seibu over Softbank in the rubber match of their three-game series.
Takayama and Akada both homered into the left-field seats off Yasushi Kamiuchi (4-2) in the fourth inning to give Seibu a 2-0 lead.
Eagles at Marines -- ppd.