Kintetsu slugger Norihiro Nakamura homered in back-to-back at-bats, including a go-ahead two-run blast in the eighth, as the Buffaloes came from behind to beat the Lotte Marines 4-3 at the Osaka Dome.

Trailing 2-0 in the sixth, Tuffy Rhodes smashed a solo homer -- his 20th clout of the year -- before Nakamura followed with a solo dinger to tie the game.

In the eighth, after Rhodes drew a walk, Nakamura put the Buffaloes ahead with his 18th homer of the year.

Fighters 3, BlueWave 2

Michihiro Ogasawara belted a go-ahead solo homer in the fifth inning and lifted Nippon Ham over Orix at the Tokyo Dome as the Fighters extended their win streak to four.

Hawks 8, Lions 1 (5)

Hiroki Kokubo slammed a three-run homer to cap Daiei's six-run first-inning burst as the Hawks beat Seibu to snap their losing streak at three in a game that was called after five innings due to heavy rain at Kitakyushu Stadium.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

Dragons 4, Carp 2 (10)

Leo Gomez nailed a single into left field and drove home two runs for the go-ahead in the top of the 10th as Chunichi beat Hiroshima at Sendai Stadium to snap its losing skid a four.

With the Dragons up 2-0 in the seventh, Itsuki Asai pinch-hit a two-run single off Chunichi starter Kenshin Kawakami to tie the game.

Hitoki Iwase pitched two-thirds of an inning in relief of Kawakami and picked up the win. Eddie Gaillard worked the ninth and earned his 10th save.

Swallows 3, Giants 1

Kevin Hodges scattered four hits over seven solid innings and two relievers held Yomiuri scoreless the rest of the way as Yakult beat the Giants at Jingu Stadium.

Hodges (5-2) struck out five and walked one. Closer Shingo Takatsu pitched a perfect ninth for his 13th save.

BayStars 6, Tigers 4

Takanori Suzuki belted a three-run homer in the fifth and Yokohama scored three more runs in the seventh -- highlighted by pinch hitter Hirofumi Ogawa's two-run triple -- as the BayStars beat Hanshin at Kurashiki Stadium in Okayama Pref.

Giants dump Tokyo

The new president of the Yomiuri Giants baseball club said Tuesday that the lettering on the team's road uniforms will be changed from "TOKYO" to "YOMIURI" in July.

Yoshinori Horikawa said that the new uniforms will make their debut at the Giants' July 9 contest with the Hiroshima Carp and added that the home uniforms will not be changed.

The baseball club became an independent entity under the reorganization of the Yomiuri newspaper group with the name of the club to change from "Yomiuri-Tokyo Yomiuri Kyojin-gun (Giants army)" to the "Yomiuri Kyojin-gun," thus seeing an end to the reference to "Tokyo" in the club's name.

The club was first established in 1934 as the Greater Japan Tokyo Baseball Club and then became known as the Tokyo Giants, the Tokyo Kyojin-gun, and the Tokyo Yomiuri Kyojin-gun.

"This does not mean that we are ignoring Tokyo," said Horikawa, "We have fans in all of Japan and we don't need to limit ourselves to Tokyo."