Tomoaki Kanemoto hit a tiebreaking homer in the sixth inning Friday, helping to lift the Central League-leading Hanshin Tigers to a 3-1 victory over the Hiroshima Carp.
Kanemoto delivered a solo blast over the center-field wall off Hiroki Kuroda (12-9) with one out at Koshien Stadium and became the 26th player to mark 1,000 career RBIs in Japanese pro baseball. He drove in the third run on an RBI triple to right in the eighth.
Shinobu Fukuhara (8-13), making his first start since Aug. 24, allowed one run on four hits in 6 2/3 innings for the win. Hanshin moved a season-high 24 games over .500.
The Tigers moved four games ahead of the second-place Chunichi Dragons in the CL standings.
Giants 3, Dragons 0
At Tokyo Dome, veteran lefty Kimiyasu Kudo (11-8) pitched six shutout innings with four strikeouts and combined on a five-hitter with three relievers, sending Chunichi to its second straight loss.
Tomohiro Nioka got Yomiuri on the board with a run-scoring single in the opening frame followed by Takayuki Shimizu's RBI single in the second. Yoshinori Murata added a sacrifice fly in the fifth to extend the lead. Masahiro Yamamoto (7-8) took the loss.
BayStars 6, Swallows 5
At Yokohama Stadium, the BayStars batted around with five hits and two walks in a six-run sixth to overcome a four-run deficit en route to sending Yakult to its third defeat in five games.
The Swallows went ahead 4-0 through the third but pinch-hitter Seiichi Uchikawa had a leadoff double and Shuichi Murata followed with a go-ahead single off Masanori Ishikawa (9-7) to key the big inning.