CHIBA (Kyodo) The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters clinched their third Pacific League title in four years on Tuesday when the second-place Tohoku Rakuten Eagles lost to the Chiba Lotte Marines 5-2.
Toshiaki Imae broke a 2-2 tie with an RBI double and Tomoya Satozaki added a two-run triple, both off Kazuo Fukumori (7-1), in a three-run eighth at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Ryo Hijirisawa singled in two runs to give Rakuten a 2-0 lead in the second. Saburo Omura led off the bottom of the inning with a homer and Koichi Hori delivered a game-tying single in the third.
Tadahiro Ogino (3-3) got two outs in relief for the win. Retiring 44-year-old right-hander Satoru Komiyama picked up his first save in four years with one pitch.
Buffaloes 2, Hawks 0
At Fukuoka's Yahoo Dome, Kazuki Kondo (9-12) threw eight shutout innings and Mitsutaka Goto hit an RBI single in the first inning as Orix handed Softbank its fourth straight loss.
Orix added a run in the second on a throwing error by shortstop Munenori Kawasaki. Chihiro Kaneko completed a five-hit shutout for his fourth save.
Toshiya Sugiuchi (15-5) reached 200 strikeouts for the second year in a row after fanning 11 to raise his season total to 204.
Fighters 5, Lions 4 (12)
CENTRAL LEAGUE
Swallows 10, BayStars 4
At Yokohama Stadium, Aaron Guiel hit a tiebreaking two-run homer to key an eight-run eighth inning and Kazuki Fukuchi homered and had four RBIs as Tokyo Yakult rallied past Yokohama.
Norichika Aoki's two-run single tied the game at 4-4 before Guiel followed with a drive to right off 46-year-old Kimiyasu Kudo (2-3).
