The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters reduced their magic number to five and tied a franchise record with 83 victories in a 4-1 win against the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles on Saturday.

The Fighters improved to 83-52 to stay in first in the Pacific League, one game ahead of the second-place Fukuoka Softbank Hawks.

Hirotoshi Masui (9-3) gave Nippon Ham six shutout innings, striking out eight and holding the Eagles to two hits.