Backup outfielder Takahito Kudo drove in three runs and Masaru Takeda struck out 11 in seven innings as the front-running Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters beat the Orix Buffaloes 4-2 to avoid losing three straight in the Pacific League on Wednesday.
Yakult second baseman Hiroyasu Tanaka reacts after hitting a three-run homer in the sixth inning against
Hiroshima on Wednesday at Jingu Stadium. The Carp won 6-4.
KYODO PHOTOKudo put the Fighters ahead in the first inning with a two-run infield single and made it 3-1 in the third with another two-out clutch single off Tom Davey after a Tuffy Rhodes RBI double cut the lead in the bottom of the first at Kyocera Dome.
Rhodes pulled Orix within a run again in the seventh with his 27th homer of the season but Nippon Ham regained a two-run cushion in the eighth on a Shinji Takahashi run-scoring single.