Roki Sasaki of the Lotte Marines pitches during a Pacific League game against the Rakuten Eagles on Aug. 28, 2021, at Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi in Sendai, northeastern Japan. (Kyodo)

       SENDAI (Kyodo) -- Rookie Roki Sasaki retired the last 10 batters he faced over five scoreless innings for the Lotte Marines, who moved to within 2-1/2 games of the Pacific League lead with a 5-1 win over the third-place Rakuten Eagles on Saturday.

       Sasaki (2-2) took the mound at Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi with a 2-0 lead. The hard-throwing right-hander pitched out of jams in each of the first two innings and left the mound, having struck out five while giving up three singles and walking two.

       A native of neighboring Iwate Prefecture, the 19-year-old Sasaki won for the first time since May 27.

       "I hadn't won for a long time, so I'm happy to have a win. I was able to relax because my teammates gave me the early lead. My breaking pitches were quite good tonight," Sasaki said.

       The Marines pounded veteran Eagles right-hander Takayuki Kishi (6-7) for five runs on 10 hits a walk and a hit batsman over five innings.

       Takashi Ogino opened the game with a home run in Lotte's two-run first inning and singled in a run in the second. Brandon Laird drove in a run in the first and hit his 22nd homer in the third. Leonys Martin's 22nd home run made it 5-0 in the fifth.

       At Kyocera Dome Osaka, Adam Jones tied the game with a ninth-inning RBI single as the PL-leading Orix Buffaloes came from behind in the ninth in their 2-2 tie with the fourth-place SoftBank Hawks.

       At MetLife Dome, Shuta Tonosaki had a two-run double and a two-run homer as the fifth-place Seibu Lions overcame a seven-run deficit to tie the last-place Nippon Ham Fighters.

       At Hiroshima's Mazda Stadium, rookie closer Ryoji Kuribayashi worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning to earn his 22nd save as the last-place Hiroshima Carp held off the Hanshin Tigers 7-6. The Tigers' loss trimmed their Central League lead to 1-1/2 games.

       At Vantelin Dome Nagoya, Shosei Togo allowed a run over eight innings, and Takumi Oshiro singled in a sixth-inning run as the second-place Yomiuri Giants came back to tie the Chunichi Dragons 1-1.

       At Tokyo Dome, Keita Sano's seventh-inning home run brought the DeNA BayStars from a run down in their 2-2 tie with the third-place Yakult Swallows.

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