Lions overpower Swallows in three-homer ninth inning

Takeya Nakamura, Hotaka Yamakawa and Wu Nien-ting homered in the ninth inning on Saturday to power the Pacific League’s Saitama Seibu Lions to a 6-3 come-from-behind interleague win over the Central League’s Tokyo Yakult Swallows.

Nakamura led off the ninth at Tokyo’s Jingu Stadium with his fifth home run, off reliever Scott McGough (2-1) to tie it 3-3. Yamakawa, whose seventh-inning home run had made it a one-run game, put Seibu in front with a two-run shot, his eighth. Wu followed with his third home run of the season.

Hard-throwing Lions right-hander Kaima Taira pitched the ninth and recorded his fourth save.

Munetaka Murakami drove in all three Swallows runs off Lions starter Tatsuya Imai, with a two-run first-inning single and a sixth-inning leadoff homer, his 17th home run of the season.

Both starting pitchers went seven innings. The Swallows’ Yasuhiro Ogawa allowed two runs, Seibu’s Imai three.

At Yokohama Stadium, the Yokohama DeNA BayStars lit up Chiba Lotte Marines starter Manabu Mima (3-3) for 11 runs over five innings and held on for an 11-9 win.

At Nagoya’s Vantelin Dome, Dayan Viciedo homered twice and drove in three runs for the Chunichi Dragons in a 6-3 win over the Orix Buffaloes.

At Koshien Stadium, Nick Martinez (5-1) allowed two runs over six innings and the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks offense sprung to life in a 10-2 come-from-behind win over the CL-leading Hanshin Tigers.

At Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium, Hiroaki Shimauchi broke a 3-3 tie with his eighth home run as he led off a four-run eighth inning in the Tohoku Rakuten Rakuten Eagles’ 7-3 win over the Hiroshima Carp.

At Tokyo Dome, Wang Po-jung hit a two-run home run and Yuto Takahama hit a grand slam as the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters scored six seventh-inning runs in a 6-4 win over the Yomiuri Giants.

Source : Baseball – The Japan Times