Ichiro Suzuki went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and a run scored and Carlos Pulido won his first start Sunday as the Orix BlueWave rolled 8-2 over the Seibu Lions at Nagano Olympic Stadium.
Pulido (2-0) held the Lions to three hits over five innings while striking out six as the BlueWave won their fourth in a row to stretch their lead in the Pacific League to 2 1/2 games.
Lions ace Daisuke Matsuzaka (3-1) had problems with his control, giving up six runs on seven hits and six walks over 5 1/3 innings at the stadium used for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics.
Buffaloes 4, Hawks 0
At the Fukuoka Dome, Hiroshi Takamura allowed only one hit over seven innings and Norihiro Nakamura drove in two runs and scored twice as Kintetsu ended a three-game losing skid with a victory over Daiei.
Takamura, who threw a no-hitter for the first 6 1/3 innings, won his first game since last June and lifted the Buffaloes out of the PL cellar.
Marines 0, Fighters 0 (12)
At the Tokyo Dome, Lotte and Nippon Ham squandered nine innings of shutout pitching from Shingo Ono and Naoyuki Tateishi, respectively, as the two teams battled to a scoreless tie.
Ono's nine shutout innings put the Lotte right-hander on top of the PL's pitching leaders with a 2.27 earned run average, while Tateishi allowed only four hits in his first start.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
Tigers 1, BayStars 0
At Yokohama Stadium, eight Hanshin pitchers combined on a seven-hit shutout as the Tigers ended a 14-game losing streak against the BayStars.
Osamu Hamanaka scored the only run of the game on a two-out single to left by Shuta Tanaka in the fourth inning as Hanshin ended its current six-game skid and Yokohama lost for the sixth time in its last seven games.