Kenji Johjima continues to spark the Hanshin Tigers in their bid for their first Central League crown since 2005.
The former Seattle Mariners catcher hit two of Hanshin's five home runs as the front-running Tigers matched a season high with 20 hits to beat the Yakult Swallows 12-5 on Sunday.
BayStars 2, Dragons 1
At Yokohama Stadium, Tomokazu Ohka (5-7) limited the damage to one run in seven innings as Yokohama edged Chunichi.
Shuichi Murata had an RBI double in the first and Brett Harper added a sac fly in the third for a 2-0 lead against Kenichi Nakata (4-3).
Giants 12, Carp 11
PACIFIC LEAGUE
Hawks 2, Marines 1
At Yahoo Dome, Kenji Otonari threw one-run ball over five-plus innings, Hitoshi Tamura had a tiebreaking RBI single and Softbank beat Chiba Lotte.
Otonari (3-8) allowed three hits, struck out six and walked two. Takahiro Mahara worked the ninth for his 28th save.
Buffaloes 9, Fighters 6
At Kyocera Dome, Makoto Moriyama had a tiebreaking RBI single off Yoshinori Tateyama (1-2) in the eighth inning and Orix rallied past Hokkaido Nippon Ham to win its third in a row, moving into fourth place.
Tomotaka Sakaguchi hit a one-out triple in the eighth and came home on Moriyama's base hit to right. Mitsutaka Goto followed with an RBI triple and Alex Cabrera added a run-scoring single.
Lions 5, Eagles 3
At Seibu Dome, Tatsuyuki Uemoto hit a game-ending three-run homer off Shinichiro Koyama (3-3) in the ninth inning as Seibu snapped an eight-game winless skid with a dramatic win over Tohoku Rakuten.
Jose Fernandez led off the frame with a single and after Seibu put runners on first and second with one out, Uemoto went deep.