The Yomiuri Giants were behind 3-0 with one out in the seventh, but outfielder Kenji  Yano connected for a pinch hit grand slam and they added three more in the eighth to down the Softbank Hawks 7-3 at Tokyo Dome Thursday. Tetsuya Utsumi started for the home nine and lasted only 3.2 innings of three run, eight hit ball, so credit for the win went to reliever Satoshi Fukuda, who got the one man he faced in the contest. 

Nagisa Arakaki started for Softbank and went 6.1 innings of two run, five hit ball in a no decision. 

The Hawks put two on with two out in the first, but a strikeout foiled that scoring attempt, and Utsumi struckout two more in the second after Yomiuri had placed a man on second with one gone. 

But in the third, Softbank leftfielder Naoyuki Omura singled to right and went to second on a sacrifice. Centerfielder Hitoshi Tamura blasted an Utsumi offering into the leftfield seats for a 2-0 lead. 

They tacked on another in the third when catcher Hidenori Tanoue hammered another Utsumi delivery over the leftfield wall to stretch it to 3-0. Two outs later, Omura singled to left and second baseman Yuichi Honda singled to right. That was all for Utsumi,. who was replaced by Kentaro Nishimura, who induced a groundout out of Tamura. The Giants pen would no hit the Hawks from that point forward. 

Arakaki was dominant over the first five innings, allowing only two hits and one of those was erased on a double play ball. But in the sixth, pinch hitter Ryota Wakiya outran a ground ball with one away and, following another out, leftfielder Yoshitomo Tani walked. Arakaki then spun and tried to pick Wakiya off and believed he had, but Wakiya was judged safe. Manager Sadaharu Oh leapt out of the dugout to object, but the call stood. It was academic, as third baseman Michihiro Ogasawara grounded out. 

Yomiuri, though, would be more successful in the seventh. First baseman Seung-yeop Lee singled to center and, one out later, catcher Shinnosuke Abe singled to center. Oh summoned Makoto Sato from the bullpen and centerfielder Damon Hollins wangled a walk out of him to load the bases. Lefthand hitting Takayuki Shimizu was sent up to pnch hit for Fukuda. Oh countered by bringing in southpaw specialist Takayuki Shinohara. Giants skipper Tatsunori Hara pulled Shimizu and ran Yano up there. Yano got a fastball that up and out over the plate and smoked it halfway up the leftfield bleachers and just like that it was 4-3. 

Oh kept Shinohara in for the eighth as well and paid for it, as Ogasawara singled to right and, one out later, stole second. They decided to put the righthand hitting shortstop Tomohiro Nioka on to get to the lefty hitting catcher Abe, who took Shinohara into the rightfield stands for a three run homer and a 7-3 advantage and this thing was effectively over for the 4,000th defeat in Hawks annals, which date back to 1938. 

Yano's roundtripper was the first time a Giants player had produced a pinch hit come from behind slam since Hara on April 19,9187. It was the team's first pinch hit granny overall since Akira Etoh (now with Seibu) on May 7, 2000. This was also only the fifth time in Central League history that there has been a pinch hit slam after a man had stood in for another pinch hitter.. Moreover, Yano called off Shinohara's string of 16 appearances where he wasn't charged with a run. Yano is hitting .462 this season against lefties and just .105 against righties. 

For Softbank, backup rightfielder Adam Hyzdu was 0-3 and is at .289. Brian Buchanan was 0-1 in a pinch hit appearance and is at .257. 

For Yomiuri, Lee was 1-4 and is at .271. Hollins was 0-2 with a walk and is at .270. 

The Chunichi Dragons victimized the Rakuten Golden Eagles pitching staff for four homers, two of them by third baseman Norihiro Nakamura, in a 10-2 rout at Toyohashi Municipal Stadium Thursday. Takashi Ogasawara started for the Nagoya crew and went five innings of two run, four hit ball while striking out four and walking three for his fourth win. 

Koji Aoyama started for Rakuten and spun four innings of four run, two earned, ball on six hits to decline to 3-7. 

The Dragons announced their presence with authority in the second, as first baseman Tyrone Woods clubbed a shot into the rightfield seats. One out later, Nakamura thundered an Aoyama pitch into the same area as Woods and it was 2-0. 

The Eagles reacted immediately with a one out walk by catcher Motohiro Shima, a two out infield single by shortstop Naoto Watanabe, and an RBI single to left by second baseman Yosuke Takasu. Isobe singled to right and that sprung Watanabe home to knot it at two all. First baseman Takeshi Yamasaki walked to load the bases, but leftfielder Rick Short grounded out to first to shut the inning down and they would amass only three scattered singles over the duration. 

Chunichi then reasserted itself in the fourth, as centerfielder Byung-kyu Lee singled to right and catcher Motonobu Tanishige punished a 3-2 delivery into the leftcenterfield stands for a 4-2 edge. 

It became a laugher in the seventh when Tanishige singled to center and was sacrificed to second. Shortstop Hirokazu Ibata doubled to left and Tanishige found paydirt. Kazuyoshi Tatsunami, pinch hitting for leftfielder Atsushi Fujii, singled to center. One out later, Woods singled to center and Ibata strode home. Second baseman Masahiko Morino singled to left and that converted Tatsunami. Nakamura pasted a shot into the centerfield seats for a three run homer to balloon it to 10-2 and that was pretty much all she wrote, Rakuten sinking to one game under .500. 

Nakamura now has 12 straight Japanese seasons with ten dingers or more. He needs four more RBIs to attain the 1000 mark for his career. 

For Rakuten, Short was 0-4 and is at .327. Third baseman Jose Fernandez was 0-3 with two strikeouts and a walk and is at .213. 

For Chunichi, Woods was 2-4 and is at .318. Lee was 2-4 and is at .271. 

Hanshin rightfielder Lin Wei-tzu and shortstop Takashi Toritani both homered in the fourth inning to bookend a four run rally that enabled the Tigers to sweep the Seibu Lions out of Koshien Stadium Thursday by an eventual margin of 6-3. Ryan Vogelsong started for the Tigers and was in for just three innings of two run (one earned), three hit ball before departing with shoulder stiffness that will see him end up on the disabled list with an inflammation there. Consequently, Yasuhiro Nakamura was inserted to provide three innings of one run, two hit relief for his second win. 

Alex Graman started for Seibu and went 4.2 innings of four run, four hit ball and struckout seven while walking four to accept his sixth loss. 

Seibu jumped out to a shortlived 2-0 lead in the second when shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima grounder was misplayed into an error and leftfielder Takumi Kuriyama brought good wood to a Vogelsong delivery and crashed it off of a seat in left.

But in the fourth, Lin torched a curve ball down in the zone into the rightfield bleachers. One out later, third baseman Makoto Imaoka singled to left. First baseman Andy Sheets walked. Toritani, who had been dropped from leadoff to seventh in the order, was partially fooled by a slider but still got it all and lined it into the rightfield stands to make it 4-2. 

They would also put two on in the fifth with two outs, but that came to nought. 

In the sixth, Seibu did the tighten up when centerfielder Tomoaki Sato singled to center and second baseman Yasuyuki Kataoka singled to right, Sato sailing into third on the play. One out later, first baseman Alex Cabrera flied out to center and Sato tagged up and crossed to put it at 4-3. 

They then aimed to tie it in the seventh, as Toritani booted third baseman Yoshihito Ishii's ground ball with one out and Ishii moved up on a sacrifice. Hiroshi Hirao pinch hit for reliever Satoshi Yamazaki and singled through the leftside. Because leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto has a mild elbow injury, the third base coach decided to send Ishii, but Kanemoto winged a one hopper to catcher Keisuke Kano, who gloved it and whipped the tag on the runner for the final out. That was their last safety of the match. 

Hanshin retaliated in their turn when second baseman Kentaro Sekimoto singled to center with one out and Lin singled to right. Kanemoto dribbled one back to the mound and Sekimoto dashed in, so the out was made at first. Imaoka singled to left. Sheets singled to center for an RBI and his first hit in 14 plate appearances and a 6-3 advantage and Seibu was basically never heard from again. 

For Hanshin, Sheets was 1-3 with a walk and is at .246. Lin was 2-3 with a walk and is at .350. He is also on the verge of qualifying for the batting title. 

For Seibu, Cabrera was 0-3 with a sac fly and is at .331. Graman struckout in both of his at bats and is at .000. 

Yoshihisa Naruse became the first Lotte lefthander to win his first six decisions to begin the season in 53 years by going seven shutout innings on four hits while striking out five and walking one in a 2-0 victory at Onomichi. Ken Takahashi started for the Carp and went five innings of two run, six hit ball for his second defeat. 

Marines shortstop Tsuyoshi Nishioka singled to center to commence the battle and second baseman Koichi Hori singled to left. First baseman Kazuya Fukuura flew out to deep right and Nishioka tagged up and advanced to third. Centerfielder Saburo Omura checked his swing on a two strike slider while Hori took off for second. Omura was rung up by the umpire and catcher Yoshikazu Kura threw to second to try to nail Hori. Nishioka busted home and Hori was safe for a successful double steal and a 1-0 lead. 

They then had two on and nobody out and the bases loaded with two out in the fourth, but Nishioka flew out to strand them. 

In the fifth, though, Fukuura doubled to left with one out and went to third on a groundout. Catcher Tomoya Satozaki singled to center and Fukuura padded in to make it 2-0. 

Naruse supressed the fish on two hits through six. However, in the seventh, third baseman Takahiro Arai singled to right and, two outs later, rightfielder Jun Hirose singled to left. But Shigeru Morikasa, pinch hitting for reliever Masayuki Hasegawa, struckout. 

Yasuhiko Yabuta banished three of the four men he saw in the eighth and handed the ball off to closer Masahide Kobayashi for the ninth. Leftfielder Tomonori Maeda singled to center with one away and, following another out, pinch hitter Go Kida walked to put the tying run on. But Morikasa lined out to right to make it a memory. 

The last time a pitcher on Naruse's team did what he pulled off was when they were still known as the Mainichi Orions and Isao Wada was the man. Wada actually won seven straight. 

For Hiroshima, Victor Marte retired both men he confronted and now sports and ERA of 7.45. 

For Lotte, rightfielder Benny Agbayani was 0-2 with two walks and is at .305. 

Yakult Swallows starter Seth Greisinger had a brief complete game assignment Thursday, as he had toiled for only five innings of one run, two hit ball in a rain shortened  4-1 victory over Orix at Meiji JIngu Stadium. Tom Davey also went the distance for the Buffaloes and incurred his fifth defeat after five innings of four run, ten hit pitching. 

Swallows centerfielder Norichika Aoki reached on an infield hit to initiate the bottom of the first and went to second on a sacrifice. One out later, rightfielder Aaron Guiel singled to right and Aoki flashed across the plate for a 1-0 lead. 

Orix, though, neutralized that with a jack into the rightfield seats from rightfielder Tuffy Rhodes leading off the second. 

Yakult nosed back ahead in the bottom half when third baseman Yasushi Iihara doubled to right with one out and, following another out, Greisinger singled to center to drive Iihara in to make it 2-1. 

In the third, Davey plunked leftfielder Alex Ramirez with one out and Guiel crunched a 93mph fastball into the rightfield stands to improve it to 4-1. They would fill the bases later in the inning, but a pair of strikeouts paralyzed the runners. 

After the second, Greisinger settled in and no hit the opposition over the final three frames, the only runner getting aboard on a walk. When it started to come down hard in following the final out of the fifth, the umpires waited for 13 minutes and then called it. 

Orix went 8-15-1 in May, but it could have been even uglier than that considering that they had lost 16 of 17 at one point.

For Yakult, Ramirez was 0-2 with an HBP and is at .332. Guiel was 2-3 and is at .253. After struggling the entire season, Guiel has to be feeling good about getting over the .250 hump. Greisinger was 1-3 and is at .136. 

For Orix, third baseman Greg LaRocca was 0-2 and is at .330. Rhodes was 1-2 and is at .280. Davey was 0-2 and is at .000. 

Miscellaneous Seattle centerfielder Ichiro Suzuki did something he had never accomplished to this point in either Japan or in MLB, stretch his hit streak to 24 games. He singled in the first as part of a 3-5 night against Texas in a 9-5 victory. ESPN analyst and former Seibu DH Orestes Destrade predicted that Ichiro would get a knock in every game in June, too, which would give him a 51 game hit string if he pulls that off. It also tied Joey Cora's team mari for longest hit spree by a Mariner and he also has the second most number of 20 game streaks in MLB history with six, just behind Pete Rose. 

Catcher Kenji Johjima also got in on the fun, too, as he went 2-3 with an HBP. 

Rangers reliever Akinori Otsuka came on for the eighth and was rocked for two runs on three hits. 

Chicago White Sox second baseman Tadahito Iguchi was 1-4 Thursday against Toronto in a 2-0 defeat. 

Rockies second baseman Kazuo Matsui was 0-4 against St. Louis Thursday in a 7-3 loss. Cardinals outfielder So Taguchi was 0-3 with a walk and an HBP. 

The industrial league team of Tokyo Gas has resumed activity after refraining from competing due to one of its pitchers, Yuta Kimura, being caught up in the Seibu payoffs scandal. However, Kimura is still on suspension. Tokyo Gas whipped the Nishi Tama Club 12-5 at Fuchu Municipal Stadium.