Ace right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto took a shutout into the eighth inning Friday as he pitched the Pacific League-leading Orix Buffaloes to a 5-1 victory over the Nippon Ham Fighters.
At Es Con Field Hokkaido outside Sapporo, Yamamoto (7-3) allowed a run on seven hits over eight innings. He struck out seven without issuing a walk as the two-time defending PL champions maintained a half-game lead over the second-place SoftBank Hawks, who came from behind to beat the Seibu Lions 3-1.
"I was able to hang in there even while pitching with runners on base," said Yamamoto, who was presented with a three-run third-inning lead.
Marwin Gonzalez doubled to open Orix's third and scored on a two-out Keita Nakagawa single. Koji Oshiro followed with a home run, and Nakagawa singled in two more runs in the fourth off Nippon Ham lefty Takayuki Kato (5-6).
"Getting the lead, those three runs, and a home run, that allowed me to just focus on pitching as well as I could," Yamamoto said. "The atmosphere within the club is really good and everyone is playing hard."
In the other PL game, the Rakuten Eagles edged the Lotte Marines 5-4.
In the Central League, the Yomiuri Giants walked off the league-leading Hanshin Tigers 2-1 on Yukinori Kishida's 10th-inning sayonara home run.
The second-place DeNA BayStars blew a late lead in a 2-1 loss to the Chunichi Dragons, while the third-place Hiroshima Carp hammered the last-place Yakult Swallows 8-0 behind a five-hitter from Allen Kuri (6-3).
