Back home in northeastern Japan, Yusei Kikuchi threw a five-hitter for his second shutout of the season in the Seibu Lions' 5-0 Pacific League win over the Rakuten Eagles on Friday.
Kikuchi (8-4), from neighboring Iwate Prefecture, struck out 14, while allowing two walks in a 140-pitch effort in which he did most of his damage with his slider changeup and curve.
The home team's loss before 24,106 at Sendai's Kobo Park Miyagi, saw the Eagles lose their season-long grip on first place.
Although the Eagles had back-to-back singles to open the bottom of the first inning, Kikuchi made his escape with two flyouts and a groundout, and the Lions took charge in the third.
Ginjiro Sumitani led off with a single off lefty Wataru Karashima (6-4). After a one-out walk, a throwing error by veteran catcher Toru Hosokawa allowed Sumitani to score. Hideto Asamura's two-out single made it 2-0.
The third-place Lions, who started the evening eight games back of the Eagles, tacked on three more runs to chase Karashima in the sixth.
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Hawks 4, Fighters 1
At Sapporo Dome, Yuki Yanagita, the PL's player of the month for June, capped a three-run third inning with his 22nd home run, a two-run shot off complete-game loser Kohei Arihara (5-6), and SoftBank held on to beat Nippon Ham and take over first place.
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Marines 3, Buffaloes 1
At Kyocera Dome, Hideaki Wakui allowed a run in seven innings, allowing Lotte to tie it in the seventh on Jimmy Paredes' sixth homer and take the lead for good on Kazuya Fukuura's ninth-inning sacrifice fly. Orix closer Yoshihisa Hirano (2-4) gave the game away with four ninth-inning walks.
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Central League
Giants 5, Tigers 1
At Koshien Stadium, Yomiuri right-hander Miles Mikolas (7-4) held Hanshin to a run in eight innings and doubled and scored a run. Giants leadoff man Hisayoshi Chono went 3-for-5, homered and scored twice.
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Dragons 2, BayStars 1
At Nagoya Dome, Yudai Ono (3-5) allowed a run in seven innings and third-inning doubles by Masato Matsui and Kyohei Kamezawa off Joe Wieland (3-2) broke up a scoreless pitchers' duel as Chunichi held off DeNA.
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Carp 9, Swallows 8
At Jingu Stadium, three-straight, two-out hits, culminating in Takahiro Arai's three-run, ninth-inning pinch-hit homer, completed league-leading Hiroshima's six-run, last-ditch comeback win over Yakult.
