Kensuke Tanaka homered twice and drove in four runs and left-hander Masaru Takeda pitched seven strong innings as the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters routed the Saitama Seibu Lions 9-1 in the Pacific League on Tuesday.
Tanaka hit a solo blast off Fumiya Nishiguchi (0-1) to ignite a four-run first and went deep off the Seibu right-hander, again to the stands in right, with a three-run drive that gave Nippon Ham a 7-0 lead in the fourth at Sapporo Dome.
Takeda (1-0) allowed one run and four hits, striking out four with one walk. Eiichi Koyano went 3-for-4 with an RBI double and Yoshio Itoi drove in three runs with a pair of clutch singles.
Hawks 2, Marines 1
At Yahoo Dome, Softbank's Kenji Otonari threw his career first complete-game in a 12-strikeout effort over Chiba Lotte, leading his team to its fifth consecutive win since Opening Day in a come-from-behind victory.
The second-year left-hander scattered two singles and a run-scoring double to Tsuyoshi Nishioka for his only hits of the night.
Buffaloes 5, Eagles 4
At Kyocera Dome, Greg LaRocca hit a run-scoring single and Alex Cabrera followed with a two-run bases-loaded single as Orix turned a 4-2 deficit into 5-4 lead in the fifth inning.