Esteban German broke a scoreless deadlock with a two-run single in the sixth inning, Yusei Kikuchi threw seven gritty innings and the Seibu Lions beat the Orix Buffaloes 2-0 to resume league play with a victory on Friday night.

The Lions improved to 4-3 in head-to-heads this season against their Pacific League rivals, while PL ERA leader Kikuchi improved to 8-2 on the season and 3-0 against Orix in his career. The lefty scattered five hits — all singles — struck out seven and walked three but lacked his usual sharp stuff.

"I was just pitching on emotion," said Kikuchi, who threw a one-hit 10-0 shutout against the Chunichi Dragons in his previous start on June 12. "I felt like I needed to pitch at least as well as I did in my previous start. But today it was about winning, no matter how we went about it, even if it wasn't a pretty win."

Trouble found Kikuchi in the top of the second, when he yielded consecutive singles to Aarom Baldiris and Shinji Takahashi. The runners advanced to second and third on a sacrifice bunt, but the lefty zeroed in for his next three pitches against Mitsutaka Goto, who stared at three straight fastballs for the second out.