The Hanshin Tigers capitalized on a defensive miscue in a five-run fifth inning and went on to down the Chiba Lotte Marines 8-4 in interleague play Thursday.
Lotte second baseman Shunichi Nemoto made a throwing error on a Takahiro Arai grounder with two outs and the bases loaded in the key inning, which was followed by a three-run triple by Ikuro Katsuragi that made it 7-2 at Koshien Stadium.
Tsuyoshi Nishioka pulled the Marines within three runs with a two-run single in the sixth but a pinch-hit RBI single from Lin Wei-zhu, his first hit of the season, gave the Central League front-runners a four-run cushion in the bottom half.