Hideaki Wakui went the distance and Yamaico Navarro drove in four runs as the second-place Chiba Lotte Marines defeated the Pacific League-leading Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 9-6 on Monday evening.
Wakui (7-3) didn't allow the Hawks much until the seventh inning, when he was sitting on a 9-0 lead. The right-hander allowed 12 hits, but just one walk, while striking out three in a 135-pitch night before a packed house of 46,776 at Tokyo Dome.
Navarro put the Marines on the board in the first with a two-run double off Shota Takeda (8-2). The right-hander, who lost for the first time since April 3, allowed six runs, four earned, in a three-inning stint that was his shortest start of the season. The Marines effectively ended the game in a four-run third, when Takeda issued three no-out walks.
"I ruined the game and I owe an apology to the team," Takeda said.
Struggling middle reliever Edison Barrios, took over in the fourth and surrendered Navarro's seventh home run of the season, a two-run shot, and another run in the fifth.
Fighters 8, Lions 7
At Sapporo Dome, Hokkaido Nippon Ham overturned a three-run deficit in a five-run seventh inning, with Brandon Laird — the ninth man to bat in the inning, singling in the go-ahead run. Seibu ace Takayuki Kishi (2-4) held the hosts to three runs over the first six innings, but surrendered four hits, two walks and committed an error to let the game get away.