Yu Darvish won his fifth straight decision with eight solid innings as the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters beat the Orix Buffaloes 4-2 on Friday.
Darvish (5-1) held the struggling Buffaloes to two runs and six hits with a walk and four strikeouts at Kyocera Dome. Hisashi Takeda closed out the ninth for his eighth save.
Nippon Ham built a 3-0 lead on Eiichi Koyano's two-run double in the third inning and Kensuke Tanaka's RBI single in the fourth before Orix pulled within a run in the bottom half.