Hayato Sakamoto and the Giants went on the home run warpath, the Hawks are struggling again, Ariel Martinez left a mark for the second straight day, when there were lots of contributions all over the place from Japan’s foreign legion.

Wednesday’s games

Giants 9, Swallows 2: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Yomiuri had to come from behind against Keiji Takahashi (4-7) who made it easy by serving up four homers and six runs in the first two innings. Hayato Sakamoto put the Giants on the board with his 11th home run, Kazuma Okamoto made it 3-2 with his 23rd. Lewis Brinson‘s eighth made it 4-2 in the second, when Sakamoto hit his 12th with a man on. Okamoto, not content to have fewer than twice as many homers as his predecessor as Giants captain, hit his NPB-leading 24th in the sixth inning to make it 8-2.

Foster Griffin (5-5) surrendered a two-run Domingo Santana double in the first and contributed to a Swallows threat in the second when with one on and no out, he failed to get a grip on a comebacker. But he responded to that threat by retiring the next 11 hitters, and 18 of the next 19, when he left after seven. Tyler Bede worked a 1-2-3 eighth for the Giants.

Carp 4, Deniers 2: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, manager Takahiro Arai batted Takashi Uemoto, a 32-year-old utility infielder with a .317 career slugging average fourth, and as they say in the Japanese media, he fulfilled his duty as the cleanup hitter by singling in a first-inning run.

Kaito Kozono doubled and scored another in the third on a groundout by pitcher Shohei Mori (4-2), who allowed a run on eight hits over six innings, with Taishi Ota’s no-out bases-loaded single in the fourth accounting for DeNA’s only run off the rookie lefty.

Ryuhei Matsuyama and Kozono each singled in an eighth-inning insurance run, allowing new closer Takuya Yasaki to give up a run and still secure his 21st save.

Dragons 3, Tigers 1: At Nagoya Dome, new Dragon Humberto Mejia made an unexplained early exit after doubling in a run and allowing a run over three innings, with Koji Chikamoto tying it 1-1 in the top of the third. Six Chunichi relievers retired all but one of the 19 batters they faced, and the hosts broke the tie in the fifth. Yohei Oshima singled and scored on a double by Yuki Okabayashi, who came home on a Shingo Usami single. Dragons closer Raidel Martinez earned his 24th save.

Dragons-Giants highlights

Lions 2, Hawks 0: At Seibu Half Dome, right-hander Kaito Yoza (2-2) kept SoftBank scoreless for August with a two-hit shutout that finished in 2 hours, 8 minutes. He needed 102 pitches and faced just one batter over the minimum since he walked none and got a double play. Seibu broke the ice in the third, when Wu Nien-ting drew a leadoff walk and scored on Mark Payton‘s two-out single. Wu made it 2-0 in the fourth with a two-out RBI double.

Fighters 8, Marines 6: At Chiba Marine Stadium, a day after his a ninth-inning solo homer broke a 2-2 and lifted Nippon Ham to a 3-2 victory, Ariel Martinez didn’t leave it till late. He singled in two runs to break a 2-2 third-inning tie, and doubled in two more in the fourth to break a 5-5 tie.

James Marvel (1-0) threw five innings of scoreless long relief to earn his first win in Japan, while Gregory Polanco came off the bench for the Marines, drew a pinch walk and hit his 13th home run, in the ninth.

Buffaloes 3, Eagles 2: At Osaka Flying Saucer Dome, Orix’s Sho Gibo went 3-for-5 and twice tied it with RBI singles. Rakuten reliever Tomohito Sakai pitched out of a one-out bases-loaded jam in the eighth, but Yoshihisa Hirano () overcame a leadoff single in the ninth to pick up the win after rookie Tokumasa Chano, who entered as a pinch-runner, singled in the winning run to walk off the Eagles.