Baseball: Tongu homers power Buffaloes past Hawks

Yuma Tongu, whose offense carried Orix early in the season, homered twice and drove in four runs to boost the Pacific League-leading Buffaloes to an 8-4 win Wednesday over the SoftBank Hawks. Batting in the first inning at Fukuoka's PayPay Dome with two outs and two on, Tongu hit the first pitch from Kohei Arihara (6-4), a hanging splitter up in the zone and launched it into the left-field stands for his 14th homer of the year. "There was a runner in scoring position, and the best thing was being able to put a good swing on the ball," Tongu said. The two-time defending league champs scored thr...