Tough guy …

Tanaka finds a way to beat Marines

Rakuten Eagles starter Masashiro Tanaka wasn’t missing bats as he was missing his best stuff. Still, he held the high-marching Lotte Marines down enough for a 6-3 victory on Thursday night at The Q.

Tanaka went the distance for the first time this season, working around nine hits and a walk that helped Lotte to its three runs. Tanaka managed to notch seven strikeouts, but spent most of the night escaping from trouble.

The first-place Marines had runners on base in five innings but couldn’t knock the teetering Tanaka off the mound.

Jose Fernandez had a two-run bases-loaded single to push the Eagles ahead in the fifth, and after the Marines pulled even in the sixth, he broke a tie in the seventh with the first of three Rakuten RBI singles.

Tanaka gave up three singles the rest of the way, but escaped trouble in the ninth with two on for his 30th career complete game.

“It feels good to give him the lead and stay in the game,” Fernandez said in the on-field hero interview. “We showed that we’re never going to give up, we’re going to continue to fight. It was a good RBI, it got us going and we had the lead for the rest of the game.”

BUFFALOES 11, HAWKS 9

Lee Dae Ho doubled twice and drove in four runs [his first RBIs in 10 games], and Mitsutaka Goto had three hits and two RBIs to help Orix fight past SoftBank at Kyocera Dome Osaka.

Wily Mo Pena singled twice, tripled and homered to fall a double shy of the cycle, while driving in three for SoftBank.

FIGHTERS 3, LIONS 2

Hisashi Takeda fanned Hideto Asamura with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth to preserve Yusuke Uemura’s first pro victory as visiting Nippon Ham held off host Seibu.

Brian Wolfe left the game in the fourth with an injured left leg and Uemura (1-0) -- a sixth-year pro -- worked two scoreless frames, while Atsunori Inaba got the Fighters the lead with a two-out, two-run clutch single in the sixth.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

DRAGONS 4, GIANTS 1

Kazuki Yoshimi (3-1) tossed a five-hitter and Ryosuke Hirata cracked his CL-high-tying fourth homer to give Chunichi the lead in the third as the Dragons topped visiting Yomiuri.

Yomiuri starter Dicky Gonzalez had to leave the game in the second inning after hurting his left ribcage while batting.

TIGERS 4, SWALLOWS 3

Matt Murton slapped a two-out, two-run single to give Hanshin the lead, and Kyuji Fujikawa fanned a pair in the ninth to close out a win over Yakult as the Tigers took two of three from the visiting Swallows.

Murton also had an RBI single in second.

CARP 6, BAYSTARS 1

Kenta Kurihara and Yuta Shirahama had two hits and two RBIs each, and second-year righty Yuya Fukui (1-1) worked seven strong innings for his first win this year as Hiroshima finished off a three-game sweep of visiting Yokohama with its first comeback victory.

Kurihara’s two-run single in the sixth broke a 1-1 tie and, two relievers sent the BayStars to 4-11.