Nakamura, G.G. Sato lead Seibu past Rakuten

Saturday 04th July, 04:53 AM JST

TOKYO —

Takeya Nakamura hit his Japanese baseball-leading 26th homer and Takahiko G.G. Sato added a go-ahead double in a four-run eighth inning as the Seibu Lions rallied to beat the Rakuten Eagles 11-2 on Friday. Nakamura ended Masahiro Tanaka’s (8-3) shutout bid with a tying two-run homer before G.G. Sato’s run-scoring double and Tomoaki Sato’s RBI infield single put Seibu up 4-2 at Kleenex Stadium. The Lions then put the game out of reach with a seven-run ninth off reliever Koji Aoyama.

‘‘All of Tanaka’s pitches are quality pitches, so I got myself ready for any kind,’’ said Nakamura, who sent a 2-2 slider over the center-field wall. ‘‘With a runner on second, I wanted to come through. I never expected we could score that many runs from there, though.’’ Hideaki Wakui (9-3) pitched his fifth complete game of the season, allowing seven hits and striking out four. Hiroyuki Nakajima had four of Seibu’s 18 hits and G.G. Sato had three. Tanaka was charged with four runs on 10 hits in eight innings for Rakuten, which has dropped four games in a row.

In other games: Buffaloes 6, Marines 2; Giants 4, Dragons 3; Tigers 7, Swallows 2 and Carp 8, BayStars 1

Kyodo