Pacific League batting leader Katsuya Kakunaka and 41-year-old veteran Kazuya Fukuura drove in one run each in the first inning as the Chiba Lotte Marines defeated the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 4-2 on Tuesday to secure a winning record this season.
Daichi Suzuki had an RBI double in the fourth for Lotte (71-68-3) and Yoshifumi Okada tripled home another run in the seventh to give the home team a 4-0 lead at QVC Marine Stadium.
Marines reliever Masaki Minami gave up two runs in the eighth, but Naoya Masuda retired the side in the ninth for his 14th save. Starter Yuki Karakawa (6-6) held Rakuten to two hits and two walks over five innings.
The Eagles' Manabu Mima (9-9), who was looking for a 10th win for the first time in his six-year career, took the loss after allowing four runs on 12 hits in a 122-pitch outing that lasted 7-1/3 innings.
With the defeat, Rakuten ended up in fifth place in the PL this season.
"I'm glad the ball somehow came into contact with my bat," Fukuura, in his 23rd year with Lotte, said of Mima's forkball which he managed to scoop from near the ground to center with two outs and a runner on third in the first.
"It was a good thing I didn't end up stranding the runner on third," added Fukuura, who was 2-for-3 on Tuesday to put his career total hits at 1,932.
Third-place Lotte meets Rakuten (62-77-3) again Wednesday evening for the last regular-season game.
