|
|
|
Giants' Houlton does it all in win over Swallows
|
|
 email this
 print this
|
TOKYO, Aug. 11 (18:08) Kyodo
|
|
D.J. Houlton hit his first home run as a professional and
pitched seven innings to lead the Yomiuri Giants to a 9-1 win over
the Yakult Swallows on Saturday at Tokyo Dome.
Houlton, whose last extra-base hit was a triple for Triple-A Las
Vegas in 2007, hit a solo homer in the second. The right-hander, who
turns 33 on Sunday, allowed a run on eight hits and a walk, while
striking out eight. He improved his record to 9-6.
His homer was the second of three by the Central League-leading
Giants, who are 7-0 with one tie since their last defeat on Aug. 2.
"I got really lucky," said Houlton of his home run. "I was just
going up there swinging. I didn't really know what I was doing. The
home run was a good birthday present for myself."
Shinnosuke Abe belted a two-run homer in the first inning off
Swallows starter Shohei Tateyama (6-8), who surrendered three runs in
the inning on two walks and four hits. Houlton led off the second
with his homer, and Yoshinobu Takahashi hit a grand slam in the fifth
to put the game away.
"The offense scored a lot of runs, so I was just able to throw
strikes and not worry about getting hit," Houlton said.
-----
Hawks 2, Eagles 1
At Yahoo Dome, Softbank southpaw Kenji Otonari (10-4) allowed a
run on two hits in seven innings to reach double digits in wins for
the first time in four years and the Hawks came from behind to halt
Rakuten's winning streak at three.
Softbank, which had just four hits, tied it in the bottom of the
fifth on a hit batsman, a single and a throwing error. Yuichi Honda
set up the go-ahead run in the sixth with a leadoff walk and a stolen
base. Seiichi Uchikawa singled him home off unlucky loser Kelvin
Jimenez (5-9). |
|
back to Headlines >>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
