Yoshinobu Yamamoto outdueled Kohei Arihara on Saturday as the two-time defending Pacific League champion Orix Buffaloes got past the SoftBank Hawks 3-2.
In front of a crowd of 40,062 at Fukuoka's PayPay Dome, Yamamoto (9-3) struck out nine over eight innings, while allowing one run on six hits and no walks.
Arihara (3-2), who joined SoftBank this season after two years in the United States, allowed two runs on seven hits and a hit batsman over seven innings to take the tough loss, the Hawks' seventh straight.
Yamamoto went to the mound in the first with a 1-0 lead after Kotaro Kurebayashi singled with two outs and scored on Yuma Tongu's RBI single. Tongu's 11th home run made it 2-0 in the sixth.
"Even when I gave up a run, I was able to maintain my concentration while I pitched," Yamamoto said. "I lost to them the last time I faced them, and they're in the pennant chase, so I was psyched up today."
SoftBank's Masaki Mimori put the hosts on the board in the seventh with his second home run, while Orix's Tomoya Noguchi doubled in what turned out to be a vital ninth-inning insurance run.
Mimori singled in a ninth-inning run for SoftBank, but luck was not on the Hawks' side, as they tattooed the ball but could not tie the game.
Orix's two-time Golden Glove-winning third baseman Yuma Mune turned a hot smash into a double play for the first two outs, and Yuki Udagawa, Orix's third pitcher, only secured his first save when Tongu gloved a bullet of a line drive at first base for the final out with two runners on.
