Veteran right-hander Hiroki Kuroda threw eight scoreless innings to pick up his ninth win of the season as the Hiroshima Carp beat the Hanshin Tigers 3-0 on Friday night.
The former New York Yankee (9-6) allowed just two hits while striking out eight and walking one in a 104-pitch outing. Shota Nakazaki closed out the ninth for his 23rd save of the season.
"I thought I did OK today and my teammates played well," said the 40-year-old Kuroda, who admitted he would have liked to go the distance.
"The team winning is the main thing. I would have liked to continue pitching, but that is the team policy so that is just the way it is."
The result moved Hiroshima within four games of the Central League-leading Tokyo Yakult Swallows. Hanshin is a half-game behind the Swallows, dropping to second place for the first time since Aug. 7.
Hiroshima broke open the game in the third inning before a crowd of 42,327 at Koshien Stadium. Takahiro Arai reached first to put two on base following a throwing error by Minoru Iwata and Brad Eldred singled to left to send home Ryosuke Kikuchi.
With two out and the bases loaded in the sixth, Yoshihiro Maru extended the Carp lead with a single off Iwata, scoring Seiya Suzuki.
Suzuki doubled off Kazuhito Futagami to make it 3-0 in the top of the seventh.
Iwata (7-9) gave up two runs on five hits over 5-2/3 innings to take the loss.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
Marines 4, Buffaloes 3
At Chiba's QVC Marine Field, Chiba Lotte rallied to tie the game in the sixth through Kazuya Fukuura's RBI single, and the Marines pulled ahead with three more runs in the eighth.
Tatsuya Uchi (1-1) got the win in relief for his first decision in two years.
Hawks at Eagles — ppd.