Yoshinobu Takahashi hit his Central League-leading eighth homer and Seth Greisinger combined with Marc Kroon on a shutout as the Yomiuri Giants edged the defending Japan Series champion Chunichi Dragons 1-0 on Thursday.

Takahashi led off the fourth with a drive over the right-field wall to back Greisinger (2-1), who scattered eight hits — all singles — in 7 1/3 innings before Kroon retired all five batters he faced with three strikeouts at Nagoya Dome.

With the potential tying run on second in the eighth, Kroon struck out Lee Byung Kyu and Tyrone Woods to end the inning.

Daisuke Yamai (0-1) was charged with one run and five hits in seven strong innings.

Yomiuri won for the first time in three games while snapping Chunichi's three-game winning streak.

Carp at Tigers — ppd.

BayStars at Swallows — ppd.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

Eagles 11, Marines 2

At Chiba Marine Stadium, Teppei Tsuchiya homered and drove in six runs and Hisashi Iwakuma allowed two unearned runs in eight innings as Tohoku Rakuten routed Chiba Lotte for its first win in three games.

Tsuchiya opened the scoring with a two-run double in the second inning, hit a three-run homer to push Rakuten's lead to 7-2 in the eighth and added a sacrifice fly.

Iwakuma (3-1) struck out 10 and allowed six hits with a walk, lowering his season ERA to 0.46. Yasutomo Kubo (1-3) gave up four runs in 5 1/3 innings.

Hawks at Buffaloes — ppd.