Seibu moundsman Junichi Kawahara made his first start since Spetember, 2005 Wednesday and was shelled for six runs on eight hits in 4.2 innings, but the Lions order destroyed Buffaloes starter Hidetaka Kawagoe for seven runs, six earned, on seven hits in three innings and then tagged three of his successors for at least one run each in an 11-8 slugfest at Seibu Dome. Koji Mitsui tossed a scoreless inning of relief for the winners and was given his third shiroboshi. 

The Lions were quick in going after Kawagoe, as shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima singled to left with two outs in the first and first baseman Alex Cabrera singled to center. Leftfielder Kazuhiro Wada singled to right to cash Nakajima in. DH Jeff Liefer homered to rightcenter and Seibu had a 4-0 lead. All five of Liefer's roundtrippers this season have been at home. 

Orix DH Tuffy Rhodes responded to that by booming a shot into the rightfield bleachers in the second to make it 4-1. 

But in the third, Kawagoe walked Nakajima and Cabrera howitzered one into the centerfield stands. Two outs later, rightfielder Takahiko Sato yanked one over the leftfield wall and the home side was firmly in control at 7-1. Or so they thought. 

The herd reacted with a run in the top of the fourth, as leftfielder Arihito Muramatsu singled to center and third baseman Greg LaRocca singled to left. One out later, first baseman Hirotoshi Kitagawa singled to center and Muramatsu tooled home to shave it to 7-2. Rightfielder Shinji Shimoyama shortcircuited the uprising with a double play ball. 

Seibu got that run back in their turn, as third baseman Hiroshi Hirao doubled to right against Yasunari Takagi and, one out later, centerfielder Kazuki Fukuchi singled to center. Nakajima singled to center to slingshot Hirao in and put it at 8-2. Cabrera walked to load the bases, but Wada grounded into a double play. 

Then the wheels fell off for Kawahara in the fifth. Shortstop Keiji Obiki singled to left and, following a pair of forceouts at second, centerfielder Hiroaki Onishi singled to center. Muramatsu tripled to right and plated a pair. LaRocca socked a homer to left and it was 8-6. LaRocca now has ten dingers. 

The Lions had two on and two out in the fifth and didn't convert nor did they do so with a two on and two out chance in the sixth after Orix had frittered away a men on second and third and one out opportunity in the top of that inning thanks to a groundout and a strikeout. 

But in the seventh, Sato singled to center against Dan Serafini and, one out later, Hirao walked. Lance Carter spelled Serafini and Hiroyuki Oshima doubled to left and Sato and Hirao sojourned to the promised land. One out later, Nakajima singled to right and Oshima rounded third and headed home to take it up to 11-6. Cabrera walked. Wada singled to left and Nakajima lit out for home, but was gunned down at the dish for the third out. 

The problematic Shuichiro Osada took over for Mitsui in the eighth and soon had men on second and third with one out, but a lineout, a shallow flyout and a popup interrupted the rally. 

Chikara Onodera, who has been a little too exciting for manager Tsutomu Itoh's taste, went to the center of the diamond for the ninth and Onishi singled to right and Muramatsu singled to left. LaRocca doubled to left and Onishi raced home. Rhodes struckout. Kitagawa grounded to second and Muramatsu crossed to narrow the gap to 11-8. Shimoyama, though, grounded out and that was the ballgame. 

The Buffaloes have lost five straight and dropped into last place. Manager Terry Collins called a team meeting after the game and demanded that his charges play with more passion. 

For Orix, LaRocca was 3-5 and is at .369. Rhodes was 2-5 and is at .267. 

For Seibu, Cabrera was 3-3 with two walks and is at .311. Liefer was 1-5 and is at .250. 

Chiba Lotte Marines submariner Shunsuke Watanabe twirled a complete game seven hit shutout and was helped out by two tremendous defensive plays to do it in a 4-0 victory Wednesday over Nippon Ham at Chiba Marine Stadium. Fighters starter Brian Sweeney was afflicted with his fourth loss after four innings of three run, six hit ball. 

Watanabe one hit the opposition over the first third of the match, so his teammates in the batting order staked him to a 1-0 lead in the third when third baseman Toshiaki Imae doubled to left and went to third on a sacrifice. With leftfielder Takeshi Aono at the plate, manager Bobby Valentine ordered up a squeeze and Aono got it down to bring Imae in. 

In the fourth, that was padded a bit when Marines DH Matt Watson got a 2-1 pitch over the fat part of the plate and crushed it over the centerfield wall to make it 2-0. 

In the fifth, Imae got a 1-0 hanging breaking ball and torqued it into the leftfield seats to widen it to 3-0. 

But Nippon Ham threatened in the sixth when centerfielder Hichori Morimoto singled to right and, one out later, rightfielder Atsunori Inaba singled to left to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of DH Fernando Seguignol, but he grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to quiet things down. 

They would pose another problem for Watanabe in the seventh, as shortstop Tsuyoshi Nishioka kicked shortstop Makoto Kaneko's one out grounder. Leftfielder Tomochika Tsuboi grounded one between first and second that first baseman Julio Zuleta picked off and lobbed to Watanabe covering, but Watanabe failed to touch the bag and Tsuboi was very generously given an infield hit by the official scorer. Watanabe then atoned for that by inducing a popup and a groundout and retired six of the next seven to wrap it up for his first whitewash in two years. 

In the bottom of the seventh, Imae got a 1-2 middle-in fastball and parked it in the leftfield seats for the final tally of the night. 

Zuleta cut a potential first inning Nippon Ham rally off at the knees in the first when, with a man on and one out, he made a diving grab of a shot near the line off the bat of Inaba and shoveled to Watanabe for the out. 

Imae, in addition to the two homers, also got freaky with the leather in the ninth, making a diving stop of Kaneko's ground ball into the third base-shortstop hole and getting up and firing to first to beat the speedy Fighters gloveman. 

For Nippon Ham, Seguignol was 0-4 and is at .252. Third baseman Yang Chung-shou was 0-2 and is at .238. 

For Lotte, Zuleta was 0-4 with three strikeouts and is at .248. Watson was 2-3 with a walk and is at .286. Rightfielder Benny Agbayani was 0-2 with a walk and is at .247. 

Rakuten rookie righthander Masahiro Tanaka was outstanding Wednesday, as he assembled seven innings of two run, five hit ball and struckout seven while walking only one on a fairly economical 98 pitches and was supported by two bombs from first baseman Yamasaki, making his first start in the field this season, for a 4-2 victory at Fukuoka Dome that ended the Eagles five game losing skein. It also deep sixed a nine game win spree by the Hawks. 

Tsuyoshi Wada, in his first start since suffering back trouble, wasn't sharp, as he was touched for four runs on seven hits and 104 pitches for his first defeat of 2007. 

Rakuten jumped in front in the second when leftfielder Rick Short singled to left and Yamasaki got a fastball and clobbered it into the leftfield seats for a 2-0 lead. 

Tanaka no hit the Hawks over the first three innings and was given more room for error in the fourth, as Yamasaki hung a slider and air mailed it into the leftfield bleachers to make it 3-0. 

That was improved to 4-0 in the fifth when catcher Motohiro Shima singled to right and second baseman Yosuke Takasu pushed a bunt to the right of the mound. Wada backhanded it and threw to second to just get Shima for the force. But that also left a faster man on first and Takasu immediately stole second. Third baseman Tatsuya Shiokawa singled to center and Taksu negotiated his way home. 11 of the next 12 Eagles batsmen were then retired to stall the offense.

Tanaka served up a double down the leftfield line to rightfielder Hiroshi Shibahara in the bottom half, but that was nullified on two grounders to third and a grounder to short. 

But in the seventh, Shibahara doubled to rightcenter with one out and Tanaka fed DH Brian Buchanan a hanging slider, which was pasted into the rightcenterfield stands to halve the Rakuten advantage to 4-2. Tanaka struck the next two men out and relievers Koki Watanabe and Hisashi Ogura allied for a perfect eighth. 

Kazuo Fukumori then came on for the ninth and struck the first two men out. Shibahara singled to right for his third hit and Buchanna was now up with a chance to tie it up, but he grounded to third and that was that. 

Tanaka was clocked at 93mph and put his team into fifth place. 

For Softbank, Buchanan was 1-4 and is at .284. Leftfielder Adam Hyzdu was 1-4 with two strikeouts and is at .286. C.J. Nitkowski also got into the game and posted a scoreless eighth. 

For Rakuten, Jose Fernandez was 0-4 with two strikeouts and is at .235. Short was 1-4 and is at .318. 

Orix Down on the farm, Surpass (the Buffaloes farm team) pitcher Kazuki Kondo had a perfect game with two outs in the ninth Wednesday and then beaned a hitter and was ejected due to NPB dangerous pitch rule. So Kazuo Yamaguchi was brought in to relieve Kondo and got the next batter to complete the no hitter in a 5-0 final.