Tuffy Rhodes homered twice and Alex Cabrera also cleared the fence Thursday as the Orix Buffaloes beat the Chiba Lotte Marines 6-1 for their fourth win in a row and 11th in their last 12 games.
Orix came back from an early one-run deficit to take a 3-1 lead through three innings on solo shots by Rhodes and Cabrera and a Mitsutaka Goto RBI single in the Pacific League game at Skymark Stadium. Rhodes added a three-run drive off Naoyuki Shimizu (10-9) in the fifth to increase his season tally to 36 homers.
Lions 5, Fighters 3
At Seibu Dome, Akira Eto broke a 2-2 tie with a fifth-inning solo homer and Yasuyuki Kataoka added a two-run drive in the sixth as first-place Seibu downed Hokkaido Nippon Ham to snap a three-game losing streak.