’Stars and Stripes …

BayStars top Tigers, inch closer to CL’s fifth spot

Yokohama is close enough to Hanshin in the standings that the Tigers are starting to see ’Stars.

Shugo Fujii (5-2) helped send the tumbling Tigers to their seventh straight loss with 5.2 effective innings as the Central League's last-place club got past Hanshin 3-1 for its second win in as many nights at Koshien Stadium.

The Tigers, in their striped home uniforms, were shaking their heads after another loss, giving them a collective eight runs in the seven consecutive losses. They scored three of those runs in one game [a 4-3 loss to Yomiuri on July 17].

Fujii, who has come out of nowhere to win five games, won his fourth straight decision. The lefty allowed five hits with no walks and two Ks and the bullpen combined to work 3.1 hitless innings to preserve it.

“We've won back-to-back games now, so I hope the guys can get it done tomorrow and we can keep it going,” Fujii said.

Shigeru Kaga pitched out of a jam in the sixth before Kazumasa Kikuchi and Hitoshi Fujie each tossed a scoreless inning to set up Shun Yamaguchi, who notched his 13th save.

GIANTS 9, CARP 2

Hisayoshi Chono had three hits and three RBIs, and Shuichi Murata homered and drove in three as Yomiuri trampled all over top-three hopeful Hiroshima at The Zoom to move a season-high 24 games over .500.

Yoshitomo Tani added his fifth-career pinch-hit homer, a solo shot, to back Tetsuya Utsumi (9-6), who threw seven innings of two-run ball.

SWALLOWS 4, DRAGONS 4

Kazuhiro Hatakeyama doubled to open the ninth and pinch-runner Yoshiyuki Noguchi carried home the tying run -- the first earned run off reliever Jorge Sosa this season -- on former Dragon Ryosuke Morioka’s suicide squeeze as Yakult and Chunichi played to a draw at Nagoya Dome.

It was the 12th tie for the Dragons, the most the club has had since 1985. Sosa had gone 40 innings without allowing an earned run, and his ERA calculates at 0.22.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

LIONS 5, EAGLES 4

Takumi Kuriyama had four hits and an RBI, and added a good catch in foul territory to end the game as Seibu held off Rakuten at The Kleenex Box.

Esteban German had two hits and two RBIs as the third-place Lions moved 1.5 games ahead of the fourth-place Eagles.

FIGHTERS 3, BUFFALOES 1

Pinch-hitter Tomohiro Nioka’s RBI single in the seventh tied the score, and Shota Ono’s two-run tiebreaking double in the ninth was enough for Nippon Ham to rally past host Orix.

Hisashi Takeda worked a scoreless ninth for his 14th save.

HAWKS 2, MARINES 2

Yuya Hasegawa’s RBI single in the ninth [his third hit] got SoftBank even and Masahiko Morifuku got the final four outs in a draw with Lotte at The Q.