The Yomiuri Giants tied two Central League records by pounding out 12 hits, including nine straight, in an 11-run third inning en route to a 18-2 rout of the Lotte Marines on Tuesday.
Yomiuri became the second team in the league's history to have 12 hits in an inning, and it was the sixth time that a CL team has put together nine consecutive hits.
The Giants finished with a season-high 23 hits, including four each from Naoki Yoshikawa, Kazuma Okamoto and Soichiro Tateoka. Elier Hernandez put the icing on the cake with a three-run homer in the eighth in the interleague game at Tokyo Dome.
Iori Yamasaki (5-1) picked up his fifth win after allowing two runs in six innings. Kazuya Ojima (4-4) was roughed up for 11 runs in two-plus innings.
In other interleague action Tuesday, the Pacific League-leading SoftBank Hawks edged the Chunichi Dragons 3-2, while the Nippon Ham Fighters shut out the Hiroshima Carp 5-0.
