Sho Nakata belted a sayonara solo home run in the 10th inning to lift the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters to a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over the Orix Buffaloes on Saturday night and give themselves some breathing room in their push for the postseason.
Nakata's 27th homer of the season, off closer Yoshihisa Hirano (1-6), knocked Orix a full game back of first-place in the Pacific League standings behind the idle Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. The Fighters, currently in third place, moved 5-1/2 games clear of the fourth-place Tohoku Rakuten Eagles.
The Buffaloes broke though for two runs in the top of the third inning off rookie Naoyuki Uwasawa on a line-drive, RBI double off the center-field wall by former Fighter Yoshio Itoi and a sacrifice fly by Takahiro Okada.