Derrick May singled home the go-ahead run to break a 1-1 tie in the top of the eighth inning as the Pacific League-leading Chiba Lotte Marines won their fourth consecutive game by beating the Daiei Hawks at the Fukuoka Dome.
| Pacific League | |||||
| Won | Lost | Tied | Pct. | GB | |
| Lotte | 12 | 6 | 1 | .667 | - |
| Kintetsu | 10 | 9 | 0 | .526 | 2.5 |
| Orix | 9 | 10 | 0 | .474 | 3.5 |
| Daiei | 9 | 10 | 0 | .474 | 3.5 |
| Seibu | 9 | 11 | 0 | .450 | 4.0 |
| Nippon Ham | 8 | 11 | 1 | .421 | 4.5 |
With the Hawks up 1-0 in the eighth, the Marines drove in the game-tying run on Yukihiko Sato's grounder to third with one out. May then hit a two-out RBI single to center for the winning run.
Lotte starter Nathan Minchey yielded six hits over seven strong innings for his second win.
Daiei starter Junji Hoshino also pitched well, holding the Marines scoreless in the first seven innings, but reliever Shuji Yoshida failed to hold on.
Buffaloes 6, BlueWave 5
At the Osaka Dome, Koichi Isobe drew a bases-loaded walk from Korean hurler Koo Dae Sung in the bottom of the ninth inning as Kintetsu overcame a 5-2 deficit to edge Orix and extend its winning streak to four.
Trailing the BlueWave 5-2 in the bottom of the eighth, Yuji Yoshioka nailed a solo homer off Koo and Fumitoshi Takano added a two-run, game-tying homer later in the inning.
Akira Okamoto, who threw the last two-thirds of an innings, earned the win.
Fighters 6, Lions 1
At the Seibu Dome, Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi struck out 11 while allowing four hits over the distance for his third victory against no defeats as Nippon Ham beat Seibu and ended its losing streak at three.
Seibu's popular starter Daisuke Matsuzaka (2-3) gave up five runs over seven innings despite getting nine strikeouts as the Lions suffered their fifth straight defeat.
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