Pinch-hitter Toshiaki Inubushi lofted a three-run homer over the left-field fence at the Seibu Dome on Thursday giving the Seibu Lions a 5-4 "sayonara" victory over the Daiei Hawks.

Inubushi's homer made a winner of Seibu closer Kiyoshi Toyoda (4-0), who was perfect in the top of the ninth inning, and helped the Pacific League-leading Lions salvage a split of the two-game series with the Hawks.

Kazuo Matsui gave Seibu the early lead with a solo homer in the first inning before Daiei rallied for single runs in four straight innings to take a 4-1 lead in the seventh.

Seibu pulled one back in the eighth and Inubushi gave the Lions their 10th win in the last 12 games.

Buffaloes 6, BlueWave 5
At Green Stadium Kobe, Tuffy Rhodes belted his 26th and 27th homers of the season and Norihiro Nakamura connected for No. 23 as Kintetsu rolled to its 12th win in 13 games with a triumph over stubborn Orix.

Kintetsu starter Hisashi Iwakuma (4-3) struck out eight over six innings to pick up the win, but the Buffaloes needed six relievers to close out the game as Orix scored single runs in the final five frames.

Fighters at Marines -- ppd.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

Swallows 3, Dragons 1
At the Nagoya Dome, rookie Masanori Ishikawa (5-4) and Ryota Igarashi combined on a four-hit shutout through eight innings and defending champion Yakult grabbed a share of second place in the standings with a win over Chunichi.

Shinichi Sato scored twice on a single and a triple and Akinori Iwamura hit a solo homer in the ninth for Yakult.

Shingo Takatsu surrendered a homer to Kosuke Fukudome in the ninth inning, but came back to earn his CL-leading 17th save.

Carp 3, Tigers 2
In Toyama, Koichi Ogata hit a pair of homers and accounted for all three Hiroshima runs as the Carp held on for a win over slumping Hanshin at Alpen Stadium.

Ogata hit a solo homer in the fourth inning and came back with a two-run clout in his next at-bat in the sixth to make the most of Hiroshima's five hits.

Hiroshima starter Shinji Sasaoka (3-4) went 6 1/3 innings to pick up his first win since April 12, while the Tigers were saddled with their second four-game losing streak in the month of June to slip another half-game behind the front-running Yomiuri Giants.

Giants at BayStars -- ppd.

Matsui takes lead

Yomiuri Giants outfielder Hideki Matsui surpassed Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes slugger Tuffy Rhodes with the most fan votes for this summer's baseball all-star series and now leads both the Central and the Pacific League, baseball officials said Thursday.

Matsui has collected a total of 848,664 votes thus far in the fan voting while Rhodes, who has led the vote-count since voting began on April 19, is second with 833,696.

A total of 3,983,094 valid ballots -- the highest mark ever -- had been submitted through noon Thursday.