Designated hitter Carlos Peguero struck a solo homer as he went 3-for-5 with two RBIs to help the Rakuten Eagles beat the Nippon Ham Fighters 5-1 on Tuesday.
Starter Wataru Karashima (7-4) limited Nippon Ham to one run on four hits and two walks over six innings, and three relievers combined to keep the defending Japan Series champion scoreless and claim Rakuten's fifth straight win.
"As always, I went on the mound today just thinking about concentrating on pitching to opponent batters," Karashima said after the Pacific League-leading Eagles claimed victory in their first game after the All-Star break.
"My condition was good overall, so I wasn't really conscious (about who was batting) and just aimed for the catcher's mitt," said the 26-year-old lefty who kept his calm after Fighters slugger Sho Nakata led off the fourth with a double and went on to get three straight outs from Brandon Laird, Shohei Otani and Yadir Drake.
Rakuten got on the scoreboard first, with Hiroaki Shimauchi doubling home a run in the third. Peguero hit his 21st home run of the season in the sixth off Kohei Arihara (5-7), and the Dominican also had a bases-loaded RBI hit in the visitors' three-run eighth.
Laird got Nippon Ham's only run with a solo shot in the sixth as the Sapporo-based club fell to its fourth consecutive defeat.
The weekday day game drew 10,692 spectators to Hakodate Ocean Stadium in Japan's northernmost Hokkaido.
-----
Marines 4, Buffaloes 0
At Zozo Marine Stadium, Shota Ishimine opened the scoring with an RBI hit in the sixth and pinch hitter Kazuya Fukuura cleared the bases with a double in the seventh as Lotte blanked Orix.
Marines starter Yuki Karakawa was ejected in the third for a dangerous pitch, but five relievers, including rookie Yuki Ariyoshi (1-4), kept the Buffaloes at bay, giving up only two hits in all.
-----
Hawks 3, Lions 1
At Yafuoku Dome, SoftBank's Rick van den Hurk (8-4) struck out 11 while keeping Seibu to one run on two hits and a walk over six innings to pick up his first win in about a month while teammate Tomoki Takata was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.
-----
Central League
BayStars 1, Swallows 0
At Yokohama Stadium, DeNA's Takayuki Kajitani tripled home the game's only run in the fourth while starter Joe Wieland (4-2) tossed a three-hitter for eight innings and closer Yasuaki Yamasaki yielded two walks but managed to retire the side in the ninth to shut Yakult out.
-----
Dragons 6, Giants 1
At Nagoya Dome, Nobumasa Fukuda broke a 1-1 tie with a solo home run in the fifth and Alex Guerrero blasted a two-run homer in the next inning to lift Chunichi over Yomiuri, snapping its losing streak at five.
------
Carp 9, Tigers 5
At Koshien Stadium, Kosuke Tanaka, Ryosuke Kikuchi and Ryuhei Matsuyama each drove in two runs to power Hiroshima past Hanshin, which lost for the first time in five games. Carp starter Daichi Osera (6-0) allowed three runs on four hits, two walks and a hit batsman over 7-1/3 innings.
