Shohei Otani tossed eight solid innings and Brandon Laird hit a two-run home run Wednesday to help the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters edge Fukuoka SoftBank 2-1 and overtake the Hawks again at the top of the Pacific League standings.
Otani (9-4) gave up one unearned run on four hits and three walks over eight innings in his 112-pitch outing at Yafuoku Dome, picking up his first win since July 3, while Anthony Bass and Keisuke Tanimoto (2) combined to shut down the Hawks offense in the ninth.
Nippon Ham, which led the PL earlier this month, notched its fourth straight win to emerge in the lead for the first time since Sept. 13.
Laird's 38th homer of the season, coming against SoftBank starter Kodai Senga (12-3), accounted for the Fighters' lone scoring output.
Marines 2, Eagles 0
At Chiba's QVC Marine Field, Yoshifumi Okada and Alfredo Despaigne each hit an RBI single and Jason Standridge (7-8) scattered five hits and struck out five over 6-1/3 innings to pick up his first win since Aug. 2 in third-place Chiba Lotte's shutout of Tohoku Rakuten.
Buffaloes 5, Lions 2
At Osaka's Kyocera Dome, Orix pinch hitter Shunta Goto drove in two runs off reliever Kazuhisa Makita (7-1) with two outs and the bases loaded in the eighth to break a 2-2 tie with Seibu.
The Lions have ended among the bottom three teams in the PL for the third straight year.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
Giants 5, Dragons 2
At Tokyo Dome, Miles Mikolas (4-2) threw a complete game for the first time this season, with three hits, one walk and nine strikeouts, while Garrett Jones was 2-for-4 with four RBIs in Yomiuri's defeat of Chunichi.
