TOKOROZAWA , Saitama Pref. (Kyodo) Takeya Nakamura hit a grand slam in the fifth inning as the Saitama Seibu Lions hit four home runs en route to an 11-2 victory over the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters on Sunday.
Seibu went ahead 2-0 on a Yoshihito Ishii RBI double in the second inning and a Takumi Kuriyama solo homer in the third before Nakamura capped a five-run fifth with a shot off Kazuhito Tadano (6-5) at Seibu Dome.
Seibu also got solo home runs from Haruki Kurose and Taketoshi Goto and extended its Pacific League lead to five games over Nippon Ham.
Eagles 5, Hawks 4
At Yahoo Dome, Takeshi Yamasaki homered and drove in four runs to back a strong pitching performance by Hisashi Iwakuma as Tohoku Rakuten edged Softbank to pick up its first win in three games.
Yamasaki broke a scoreless tie with a three-run home run off Kenji Otonari (10-8) in the fourth inning and added an RBI groundout in the eighth.
Iwakuma (15-3) became the first 15-game winner in Japanese baseball this year after allowing one unearned run in seven innings. Softbank scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to pull within a run, but Hiroki Kokubo grounded out with two outs and the bases loaded.
Buffaloes 6, Marines 0
At Skymark Stadium, Shogo Yamamoto pitched his second shutout of the season and Takeshi Hidaka had three hits with an RBI, leading Orix over Chiba Lotte.
Yamamoto (8-2) limited Lotte to four hits and struck out seven without a walk. Hidaka singled in the first run of the game in the fourth inning.