With a fight …

Nippon Ham builds lead early, holds off Marines’ march

The Chiba Lotte Marines fell behind the pace early, but they marched back into the game and had a chance to send it into extra innings before falling on Saturday afternoon at Sapporo Dome.

Second baseman Kensuke Tanaka deserved a save for his diving stop and subsequent out he helped record on a grounder [with the tying run at second], but closer Hisashi Takeda picked up save No. 19 with a scoreless ninth of a 5-4 Fighters win over the Marines.

Micah Hoffpauir delivered the biggest blow, socking his second grand slam in one-plus seasons with the Pacific League’s front-running Fighters to give the home team a 5-0 lead in the third inning. His first slam was also against Lotte, April 4 last year.

“I was just looking for something good to hit, and fortunately, he left it out over the plate,” Hoffpauir said in the hero interview.

But the Marines rallied to get within a run, putting together a four-run sixth that was highlighted by Josh Whitesell's double and an RBI single by Kazuya Fukuura.

The Nippon Ham bullpen snuffed out the rally, sending Lotte into fourth place.

LIONS 6, EAGLES 5

Shogo Akiyama had three hits, including a two-run single in the sixth that proved to be the difference as Seibu held on to top Rakuten at Seibu Dome.

Takeya Nakamura blasted his 18th homer, and Hideto Asamura also went deep to back Kazuhisa Ishii (8-4), who went six-plus innings to help the Lions move a season-best seven games over .500.

HAWKS 4, BUFFALOES 1

Sixth-year lefty Kenji Otonari (11-4) upped his career-best win total and lowered his PL-best ERA to 1.78 by holding Orix to a run over eight innings, and Seiichi Uchikawa had two RBI doubles and a run-scoring single among his four hits as SoftBank cruised at Kyocera Dome Osaka.

The Hawks moved into third place.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

GIANTS 4, CARP 0

Shuichi Murata slugged a double to break up a scoreless pitching duel in the eighth, and pinch-hitter Yoshitomo Tani later smacked a bases-clearing double as front-running Yomiuri topped Hiroshima at Tokyo Dome.

D.J. Houlton was brilliant, fanning a personal-best 11 over seven scoreless innings [reaching 500 Ks in Japan on a career-high 128 pitches], and Tetsuya Yamaguchi (1-2) picked up his first win this season with a scoreless eighth to help the Giants stay 4.5 games up on Chunichi.

DRAGONS 4, BAYSTARS 3

Masahiko Morino drilled a two-run homer in the first inning, and righty Shinji Iwata (5-3) threw seven strong innings as Chunichi topped visiting Yokohama for its fourth straight win.

Japan all-time saves leader Hitoki Iwase returned from a work-out-the-kinks stint on the farm with a 1-2-3 eighth, and Daisuke Yamai allowed four straight hits and two runs in the ninth before closing out his sixth save.

SWALLOWS 1, TIGERS 0

Hiroyasu Tanaka had three hits, including a looper that dropped in and drove in the game’s only run as Yakult edged Hanshin at Jingu Stadium.

Shohei Tateyama (7-8) outpitched hard-luck loser Randy Messenger (6-10) for his first win since July 5.