The top half of the Hanshin Tigers’ lineup mauled the Yakult Swallows to tighten the Central League pennant race with a 9-1 win on Friday. The Tigers took a 2-1 second-inning lead at Tokyo’s historic Jingu Stadium before breaking the game open with three runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth on Teruaki Sato’s grand slam, his 12th home run of the season. The win moved the defending CL and Japan Series champions to within 2-1/2 games of the league-leading Yomiuri Giants, who were idle. The second-place Hiroshima Carp fell a full game off the lead with a 3-0 loss to the Chunichi Dragons. H…