Kotaro Kurebayashi and Keita Nakagawa each hit a solo home run and four Orix Buffaloes pitchers kept the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in check in the Pacific League leaders' 2-1 victory Saturday.
Kurebayashi opened the scoring in the third inning at Kyocera Dome Osaka with his eighth homer, off Hiromi Ito (6-7), who allowed two runs over eight innings in the complete-game defeat.
Nakagawa opened the Buffaloes' seventh inning with his 11th home run of the season before the Fighters got a run back in the eighth on a Chusei Mannami RBI single.
"Ito is a good pitcher, and there was no way we were going to get to him if we didn't hit home runs," Orix manager Satoshi Nakajima said.
Ito allowed four hits and two walks while striking out seven, but the Fighters were unable to score against Buffaloes lefty Sachiya Yamasaki (9-3), who allowed six hits but no walks over 6⅔ innings.
Soichiro Yamazaki survived a one-out ninth-inning double and a two-out walk for his sixth save.
Elsewhere, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks beat the Seibu Lions 3-2, while the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles got past the Chiba Lotte Marines 7-5.
In the Central League, the league-leading Hanshin Tigers topped the Yokohama DeNA BayStars 6-2, and the Hiroshima Carp held off the Yomiuri Giants 6-3 despite Kazuma Okamoto's Japan-leading 33rd home run.
Chunichi's Yuki Okabayashi went 0-for-5 as his 29-game hit streak came to an end in the Dragons' 3-2 loss to the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.