Alex Cabrera homered twice and drove home five runs Friday as the Seibu Lions moved within a half game of the Pacific League lead with a 7-4 victory over the Nippon Ham Fighters.
Cabrera, who broke his right forearm in a preseason game and returned to the lineup June 21, hit his first homer of the season with a two-run blast in the fourth inning and added a solo shot that broke a 4-4 tie in the sixth.
Cabrera then doubled home two runs in the seventh to cap a 3-for-4 evening as the Lions won their third straight game.
Seibu right-hander Fumiya Nishiguchi (7-4) struck out 12 in 6 1/3 innings of work, allowing four runs -- three unearned -- on eight hits. Naoyuki Tateishi (4-2) took the loss.
Marines 13, Hawks 1
At Fukuoka Dome, Toshiaki Imae hit a tie-breaking sacrifice fly in the fourth inning and Koichi Hori drove home four runs, leading Lotte to its fifth straight victory with a 13-1 rout of front-running Daiei.
BlueWave 6, Buffaloes 5 (11)
Makoto Shiozaki singled home the go-ahead run in the top of the 11th inning as Orix downed Kintetsu at Osaka Dome.
Trailing 5-3 in the seventh, Shiozaki nailed a two-run single to tie the game for the BlueWave.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
Giants 8, Carp 7
At Hiroshima Stadium, Hiroki Kokubo hit a grand slam, his 250th career homer, and Tuffy Rhodes went deep twice to back veteran southpaw Kimiyasu Kudo as Yomiuri survived a late scare to hold off the Carp.
BayStars 5, Dragons 2
At Yokohama Stadium, Hitoshi Tamura capped a three-run rally in the third inning with a two-run homer and Tyrone Woods added two runs with a fifth-inning homer, helping Yokohama end its five-game losing skid with a victory over CL leader Chunichi.