Taiwanese pitcher Chang Chi-chie tossed a one-hitter over the distance Saturday to lead the Seibu Lions to a 3-0 victory over the Lotte Marines.
Chang, who improved to 4-2, struck out 10 and walked only two batters at Chiba Marine Stadium. Lotte's only hit came on a double by Takashi Kita in the third.
Alex Cabrera, formerly of the Arizona Diamondbacks, belted a solo home run in the second inning for his 18th homer of the season. Designated hitter Taketoshi Goto went 2-for-3 at the plate and drove in a pair of runs.
Ham Fighters 13, BlueWave 4
At Tokyo Dome, veteran Yukio Tanaka went 4-for-5 and belted a two-run homer in the fifth to lead the Nippon Ham Fighters to a 13-4 win over the Orix BlueWave.
Michihiro Ogasawara, former Cincinnati Red DT Cromer and Ken Yamada also homered for the Fighters.
Nippon Ham starter Hiroyuki Sekine picked up the win after holding the BlueWave to three runs on seven hits over five innings as the Fighters snapped a four-game losing skid.
Hawks 3, Buffaloes 2
At Fukuoka Dome, Kazumi Saito improved to 8-2 after giving up two runs on seven hits over eight innings as the Daiei Hawks edged the Kintetsu Buffaloes 3-2.
Jeremy Powell, formerly of the Montreal Expos, took the loss despite striking out nine over eight innings.
Dragons 11, BayStars 2
In the Central League, Takayuki Onishi belted a two-run homer in the eighth inning and Masahiko Morino followed with another two-run homer in the top of the ninth as the Chunichi Dragons cruised to an 11-2 win over the Yokohama BayStars.
Former St. Louis Cardinals infielder Ivan Cruz, Hirokazu Ibata and So Tsutsui also homered for the Dragons.
Carp 12, Swallows 3
In Fukushima, Shigeru Morikasa and Yoshiyuki Ishihara both hit two-run homers to lead the Hiroshima Carp to a 12-3 victory over the Yakult Swallows. Itsuki Asai hit a solo homer in the fourth and added a three-run blast in the ninth to complete the rout.
Hawks 9, Bufaloes 2
Pedro Valdes slammed a three-run homer Sunday as the Pacific League-leading Daiei Hawks scored seven runs in the second inning on their way to a 9-2 victory over the Kintetsu Buffaloes.
Valdes, formerly of the Texas Rangers, connected off of Kintetsu starter Hisashi Iwakuma with a blast into the right field stands at Fukuoka Dome. It was his 12th homer of the season.
Lions 7, Marines 4
In Chiba, Kazuhiro Wada connected for a solo homer in the top of the seventh inning as the Seibu Lions defeated the Lotte Marines 7-4. Lotte scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth to pull to within a run but Wada gave the Lions an insurance run with his 12th homer of the season.
Koji Mitsui picked up the win after holding the Marines to three runs on seven hits over 5-2/3 innings.
Former European champions Celtic exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifiers after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty on Tuesday, following two goalless legs in the playoff tie. Kairat are to compete in the competition proper for the first time, while Norway’s Bodo/Glimt and Cyprus’s Pafos also secured debut appearances after coming through the playoffs. Celtic’s night ended in disappointment as they missed three penalties in the shoot-out, Daizen Maeda failing with the decisive spot-kick. The slugfest of a match went into extra-time with neither side finding the net and few overall chances, echoing the first
Rangers on Wednesday bowed out of the UEFA Champions League playoffs with a humiliating 6-0 defeat at the hands of Club Brugge which piles further pressure on head coach Russell Martin, while SL Benfica secured a place in the competition proper at the expense of Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce. The Glasgow giants traveled to Belgium right up against it after losing 3-1 at home in last week’s first leg, when they conceded three times in the opening 20 minutes. They never looked like turning the tie around as Club Brugge took the lead inside five minutes at the Jan Breydelstadion through Nicolo Tresoldi
Australian Alex de Minaur reached the second week of the US Open for the third year in a row with little fanfare on Saturday and said he intended to keep winning until the tournament organizers were forced to give him better billing. Despite being the eighth seed and a quarter-finalist last year at Flushing Meadows, De Minaur’s third-round match against German Daniel Altmaier was scheduled for Court 17 — the smallest of the four stadium venues in the precinct. “It is a little bit of a headscratcher for me. I’m not gonna lie,” he told reporters after progressing 6-7 (9/7), 6-3, 6-4,
Noah Lyles on Thursday warmed up for the upcoming athletics world championships by chasing down Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo to win the 200m at the Diamond League final. Lyles trailed Tebogo at the start, but gradually erased the deficit over the final 100m and pipped the Botswana sprinter to the line by centimeters. Lyles, the Olympic 100m champion and reigning world champion in both the 100m and 200m, clocked 19.74 seconds in a slight headwind. Tebogo was 0.02 seconds behind. It was Lyles’ sixth Diamond League title, a record for track athletes. “Six, that’s a big number,” Lyles said. “Shoot, that’s another record on
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