Shinsaburo Tawata threw his second straight shutout, allowing five hits and no walks in the Seibu Lions' 3-0 win over the Nippon Ham Fighters on Saturday afternoon.

The 24-year-old Tawata, the Lions' top draft pick in 2014, struck out six en route to winning his fifth straight decision and improving to 5-2. Although he had a little trouble locating early, the right-hander had good movement on his fastball and missed a lot of barrels.

"My pitches weren't that good early, so I focused on just throwing one strike after another," Tawata said. "When I was pitching my main focus was on the team winning -- more so than on another shutout."

"Results are something that I'm confident will come, provided I stick to my game and execute."

Tawata faced the minimum over the first three innings relying almost exclusively on his fastball. And though Fighters starter Naoyuki Uwasawa (3-5) matched him for three scoreless innings, he had to show the Lions' batters all his pitches to get that far.

The Lions took the lead in the fourth, when Shogo Akiyama opened the inning with his second walk. With one out, Uwasawa missed in the heart of the zone with a breaking ball that Hotaka Yamakawa drove over Sapporo Dome's distant left field wall.

Shohei Otani nearly hit one out in the seventh, but had to settle for a double high off the wall in center. With one on and two outs in the ninth, Otani beat out an infield single to bring the tying runner to the plate, but Tawata got cleanup hitter Sho Nakata to pop up for the final out.

Uwasawa allowed two runs on four hits and three walks over six innings. He struck out 11 in a solid losing effort.

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Buffaloes 7, Marines 3

At Kyocera Dome, Eiichi Koyano's two-run, sixth-inning single broke a 3-3 tie and made a winner out of rookie Taisuke Yamaoka (5-8), who allowed three runs in six innings as Orix beat Lotte to snap a five-game losing streak.

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Central League

Giants 6, BayStars 1

At Tokyo Dome, Tomoyuki Sugano (13-5) allowed a run in 7-2/3 innings, Yang Dai-kang brought Yomiuri from behind with a two-run, fifth-inning single and Casey McGehee's seventh-inning grand slam iced the Giants' win over DeNA.

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Tigers 8, Dragons 1

At Nagoya Dome, Koyo Aoyagi (4-3) allowed a run over 7-1/3 innings, while Yusuke Oyama, fresh off a five-RBI night, singled in the tying run in the second, and Kosuke Fukudome hit a two-run homer off his former team as Hanshin whipped Chunichi.