Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Orix Buffaloes pitches during a Pacific League game against the Seibu Lions on Aug. 20, 2021, at Kyocera Dome Osaka. (Kyodo)

       OSAKA (Kyodo) -- Yoshinobu Yamamoto returned from his Olympic gold medal-winning performance for Japan with a 2-1 complete game victory for the Pacific League-leading Orix Buffaloes over the Seibu Lions on Friday.

       Yamamoto (10-5) struck out 10, walked one and allowed three hits. He surrendered his only run on a third-inning homer to Junichiro Kishi. After two more batters reached with two outs in the inning, Yamamoto proceeded to retire the last 19 batters he faced through nine.

       "I'm happy we could come back and win after I gave away the early lead," Yamamoto said. "I was able to maintain my concentration and make good pitches. I believed my teammates would come back."

       The win at Kyocera Dome Osaka moved the Buffaloes three games ahead of the second-place Rakuten Eagles, who tied 3-3 with the last-place Nippon Ham Fighters.

       Fellow Olympic champion Masataka Yoshida tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the third with an RBI single and won it in the ninth with a sacrifice fly after the Buffaloes loaded the bases with one out against Lions closer and Japan Olympian Kaima Taira (1-2)

       "He (Taira) is a good pitcher so I wanted to be aggressive and ready to swing," Yoshida said. "I was fortunate to get the ball into the outfield, but to be honest I really wanted to get a hit."

       "We made some mistakes today, but had each others' backs."

       Lions starter Wataru Matsumoto allowed a run over six innings but did not figure in the decision.

       At Sapporo Dome, Fighters closer Toshihiro Sugiura blew a one-run ninth-inning lead by hitting a batter and walking three, and their game with the Eagles ended in a 3-3 tie.

       At Fukuoka's PayPay Dome, the Lotte Marines took advantage of a SoftBank Hawks team missing its top two relievers. Adeiny Hechavarria hit a three-run ninth-inning homer off Sho Iwasaki (2-2) in a 5-3 win that moved Lotte past the Hawks into third place.

       At Vantelin Dome Nagoya, Yuya Yanagi (8-5) threw a four-hit shutout in the Chunichi Dragons' 6-0 win over the Central League-leading Hanshin Tigers.

       At Tokyo Dome, Tyler Austin hit an RBI single and his 21st home run as the DeNA BayStars came from behind to beat the CL's second-place Yomiuri Giants 6-1.

       At Hiroshima's Mazda Stadium, Munetaka Murakami helped the CL's third-place Yakult Swallows build a 4-0 lead with his 29th and 30th home runs only for the Hiroshima Carp to come from behind in a 5-4 win.

       Font Size S M L Print Timeline 0