Kintetsu slugger Tuffy Rhodes hit his 34th and 35th homers of the season, but the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks pulled away with three runs in the ninth inning and avoided their first seven-game losing streak in three years with a 7-5 win over the Buffaloes.
Hiroki Kokubo and Nobuhiko Matsunaka connected for back-to-back RBI hits to key the Hawks' ninth and Rodney Pedraza was called on to get the final two outs to preserve the win for Daiei at the Osaka Dome.
Marines 6, Fighters 2
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