Michihiro Ogasawara and Shinnosuke Abe each homered and combined for five RBIs as the Yomiuri Giants beat the Hanshin Tigers 6-2 on Tuesday to take over the Central League lead.

Swallows 3, Dragons 2

At Jingu Stadium, Josh Whitesell hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the first inning as Tokyo Yakult edged Chunichi.

Carp 5, BayStars 1

At Hiroshima's Mazda Stadium, Jun Hirose and Shigenobu Shima each hit solo homers as Hiroshima beat Yokohama to halt a six-game losing streak.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

Fighters 13, Hawks 4

At Asahikawa' Starffin Stadium, Bobby Keppel pitched three-run ball over seven innings and Hichori Morimoto went 4-for-5 with two RBIs in Hokkaido Nippon Ham's 13-4 romp over the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks.

Buffaloes 6, Lions 5

At Osaka's Kyocera Dome, Takahiro Okada homered twice and drove in three runs and Orix scored all its runs on longballs to edge Seibu.

Eagles 5, Marines 3

At Sendai's Kleenex Stadium, Hisashi Iwakuma allowed three runs in six innings, Norihiro Nakamura gave the team a jolt with a three-run homer for Tohoku Rakuten.