Yuki Nomura of the Nippon Ham Fighters watches his sixth-inning single that drove in two runs and contributed to a 6-2 victory over the Pacific League-leading Orix Buffaloes at Hokkaido's Obihiro Stadium on July 14, 2021. (Kyodo)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Yuki Nomura drove in three runs, including two in the sixth inning that put the Nippon Ham Fighters ahead for good in a 6-2 win over the Pacific League-leading Orix Buffaloes on Wednesday.

       The loss sends Orix, seeking its first pennant since Ichiro Suzuki led the Orix BlueWave to the 1996 Japan Series title, into Japan's all-star and Olympic break leading by 1-1/2 games over the Rakuten Eagles, with the Lotte Marines another game back in third.

       The 21-year-old Nomura opened the scoring in the fourth with an RBI double for the last-place Fighters at Hokkaido's Obihiro Stadium. After the Buffaloes seized the lead in a two-run fifth, Nomura singled in two runs.

       "I was fortunate to have opportunities to drive in runners. I was able to jump on a couple of pitches and somehow got good results," said the Fighters' American-born third baseman.

       The Fighters added three runs in the seventh, while their bullpen held the Buffaloes scoreless over the final four innings. Fighters closer Toshihiro Sugiura, pitching in his hometown, worked around a one-out infield single to end it.

       "I'm happy I did a good job keeping them off the board, since I wasn't able to win either of the games I started here in the past," Sugiura said.

       "This was our last game of the first half, so it feels good to wrap that up in style."

       Nippon Professional Baseball will take Thursday off ahead of its All-Star games on Friday, at MetLife Dome outside Tokyo, and on Saturday at Sendai's Rakuten Seimei Park. Following those games, the season will resume on Aug. 13 following a break for the Tokyo Olympics.

       At MetLife Dome, Taiwan's Wu Nien-ting and Takeya Nakamura each homered and drove in three runs in the Seibu Lions' 8-3 win over the Marines.

       At Fukuoka's PayPay Dome, Hiroaki Shimauchi hit his 12th home run, scored twice and drove in two runs, while Takayuki Kishi (4-6) allowed two runs over six innings in the Eagles' 4-2 win over the SoftBank Hawks.

       At Koshien Stadium, lefty Shota Imanaga (3-2) allowed a run over seven innings while striking out 10, and the DeNA BayStars held on for a 4-3 win over the Central League-leading Hanshin Tigers.

       The Tigers head into the break two games ahead of the second-place Yomiuri Giants, with the Yakult Swallows a half-game further back in third.

       At Tokyo Dome, Jose Osuna homered, reached base five times, scored twice and drove in five runs in the Swallows' 11-7 win over the Giants.

       At Hiroshima's Mazda Stadium, Masato Morishita (6-4) worked eight innings and rookie closer Ryoji Kuribayashi earned his 18th save as the Hiroshima Carp's two Olympic pitchers combined to shut out the Chunichi Dragons 2-0.

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