Pinch hitter Kentaro Sekimoto hit a grand slam with two outs in the seventh inning, lifting the Hanshin Tigers in a rally past the Central League-leading Yomiuri Giants en route to a 6-4 victory on Sunday afternoon.

With one out in the decisive inning, Ryota Imanari singled to left and pinch hitter Takahiro Arai had a two-out single to right before Hiroki Uemoto drew a walk to load the bases, setting the stage for Sekimoto’s heroics against Hirokazu Sawamura (1-1) at Tokyo Dome.

The Giants pulled one back in the home half of the inning, but Sekimoto cushioned the lead with an RBI single in the ninth. Jose Lopez and Leslie Anderson had solo homers for Yomiuri.

Minoru Iwata (7-3) allowed three runs and seven hits while striking out six and walking none over six innings. Oh Seung Hwan picked up his 21st save.

Dragons 8, Carp 6

At Nagoya Dome, Kazuhiro Wada had a fifth-inning, game-tying two-run homer and Chunichi rallied with a three-run sixth after Hiroshima regained the lead. Hiroshima outhit its opponent 15-12, but its bullpen imploded as the team slipped into third place.

BayStars 8, Swallows 4

At Tokyo’s Jingu Stadium, Yokohama capitalized on a four-run fifth inning in support of Daisuke Miura (1-4), who won his first decision of the year after allowing one unearned run in five innings.

Yulieski Gurriel homered off Yakult starter Kyohei Muranaka (0-1) and drove in three runs for the BayStars.

The Swallows lost their fifth in a row.

PACIFIC LEAGUE
Lions 6, Buffaloes 5

At Seibu Dome, Lions catcher Ginjiro Sumitani delivered a game-winning RBI single in the ninth inning as Seibu beat Orix in its fourth walk-off victory this month.

Ernesto Mejia hit a pair of solo homers among his three hits for the Lions.

Eagles 7, Marines 4

At Sendai’s Kobo Stadium, former New York Met Zach Lutz had a bases-loaded, two-run single off Hideaki Wakui (3-8) to open the scoring in a four-run first inning and Tohoku Rakuten held off Chiba Lotte.

Sho Miyagawa (3-0) yielded one run over five innings to earn the win.

Fighters 5, Hawks 1

At Sapporo Dome, Yang Dai-kang went 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs to lead the way as Hokkaido Nippon Ham routed Fukuoka Softbank.

Kensuke Kondo had a two-run double in the seventh in support of Masaru Nakamura (4-0), who limited the damage to one run in 5-2/3 innings. Nao Higashihama (2-1) was tagged with the loss.