Shinya Nakayama carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning, Tomotaka Sakaguchi went 3-for-4 with five RBIs and the Orix Buffaloes continued their hot streak with a 9-1 rout of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles for their ninth straight on Wednesday night.
Nakayama issued a pair of walks and hit a batter with a pitch but kept the Eagles hitless before allowing a one-out double to Akihisa Makida in the eighth, followed by Ryo Hijirisawa's run-scoring single with two outs at Kleenex Stadium.
Sakaguchi had an RBI single when Orix batted around in a five-run second and added a run-scoring single in the fourth before putting the game out of reach with a bases-clearing triple in the eighth.