MLB 4; Japan 0

TOKYO, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- The Major League Baseball All-Stars finally got a solid performance from a starting pitcher Friday as Randy Wolf tossed six scoreless innings on the way to a 4-0 victory over the Japan League All-Stars.

It was the second straight win for the major leaguers, who dropped the previous three games of the eight-game international series, allowing eight runs each time.

Wolf, the Philadelphia Phillies' lefthander who ended the year as one of the hottest pitchers in baseball, faced just one batter over the minimum, giving up only one hit and a walk.

In Sunday's 8-4 loss, Wolf allowed three runs over 3 1/3 innings, but Friday he returned to the form that led him to win four consecutive late-season starts while yielding just one run. He finished the year 11-9 with a 3.20 ERA.

"I have such respect for all these guys after watching them the last four or five days," Wolf said. "The last time I came out of the bullpen and was throwing the ball all over the place. The biggest difference tonight was that I was just throwing strikes."

San Francisco slugger Barry Bonds, the National League MVP, won a pregame home run-hitting contest against Japanese counterpart Hideki Matsui, then opened the scoring in the fourth inning with an opposite-field RBI double.

"It was a slider away and I just went with it," Bonds said. "I didn't get it all but just enough to do some damage."

Bonds, who led the Giants to the World Series, is 8-for-23 with five homers and 10 RBI in the series. He beat Matsui, 8-5, in the home run contest at the Tokyo Dome.

Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Junior Spivey led off the fifth with a homer to make it 2-0. It was the 11th home run of the series for the major leaguers, and the first by someone other than Bonds, Jason Giambi or Torii Hunter.

Ichiro Suzuki, who left Japan to sign with the Seattle Mariners two years ago, added an RBI double. He had two hits in the game, giving him five in his last nine at-bats after opening the series with a 1-for-13 slump.

The Japanese stars made three infield errors behind lefthander Shugo Fujii, leading to three unearned runs.

The series concludes with games at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday and Sunday. The major leaguers need to win both to avoid losing a series to Japan for just the third time in 36 tours.