Akinori Iwamura hit a grand slam home run in the fifth inning Tuesday to lead the Yakult Swallows to a 10-3 come-from-behind win over the Central League-leading Hanshin Tigers in Tokyo.
Despite the loss, the Tigers kept a 16.5-game lead over the Yomiuri Giants, who lost to the Yokohama BayStars. The Hanshin's magic number to clinch the league pennant shrank to four.
Iwamura's shot off Hanshin starter Hideki Irabu capped a seven-run inning. It was Iwamura's ninth homer of the season, and extended Yakult's winning streak to five.
Hideki Sato, who relieved Yakult starter Yuhei Takai in the fourth, got the win and improved to 5-4 after holding Hanshin scoreless for 1-2/3 innings. Irabu, formerly of the New York Yankees, picked up the loss and fell to 13-7 after giving up eight runs on seven hits over 4-2/3 innings.
At Yokohama Stadium, Seiichi Uchikawa's RBI single in the seventh inning led the Yokohama BayStars to a 8-4 victory over the Yomiuri Giants.
With the game tied at 4-4, Uchikawa hit a looper into left field, capping a four-run rally. Reliever Masahiro Tazaki got the win and improved to 4-2 after joining in the sixth inning and holding Yokohama hitless for two innings.
In Onomichi, Masafumi Hirai went the distance as the Chunichi Dragons blanked the Hiroshima Carp 3-0.
Catcher Motonobu Tanishige blasted a two-run shot in the fifth -- his 12th homer of the season -- off Hiroshima, and Kosuke Fukudome followed with his 25th homer in the sixth inning, both off Hiroshima starter Ken Takahashi.
Hirai improved to 8-6 after striking out nine, walking one and allowing only three hits over nine innings. Takahashi (9-7) took the loss after giving up three runs on five hits while striking out three.
In the Pacific League, Munenori Kawasaki drove in the winning run with a single in the fourth as the league-leading Daiei Hawks edged the Kintetsu Buffaloes 3-2 at Fukuoka Dome.
It was the Buffaloes' fifth straight loss. With the win, the Hawks opened up a 5.5-game lead over the second-place Seibu Lions, who lost to the Lotte Marines. The Daiei's magic number to clinch the league pennant was cut to 12.
Brandon Knight, formerly of the New York Yankees, picked up the win to go to 5-4 after allowing two runs on ten hits while striking out seven over 6 2/3-innings. Takayuki Shinohara picked up his eighth save after working for the last two innings.
Tuffy Rhodes, formerly of the Boston Red Sox, connected for his league-leading 45th homer -- a two-run shot -- in the fifth inning. But his batting was too little too late for the Buffaloes.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but