Brandon Laird, right, homers with two outs in the ninth inning to lift the Pacific League-leading Lotte Marines to a 3-2 walk-off win over the Rakuten Eagles at Chiba's Zozo Marine Stadium on Sept. 10, 2021. (Kyodo)

       CHIBA (Kyodo) -- Brandon Laird stole the spotlight in a marque pitching matchup with two home runs, including a ninth-inning walk-off shot, as the Pacific League-leading Lotte Marines beat the third-place Rakuten Eagles 3-2 on Friday.

       For eight innings, the game at Zozo Marine Stadium east of Tokyo belonged to former Yankee Masahiro Tanaka and hard-throwing Lotte rookie Roki Sasaki. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Laird teed off on an 0-1 pitch from reliever Tomohito Sakai (3-2) to break the 2-2 tie.

       "He left a forkball up in the zone and I didn't miss it," said Laird.

       Tanaka allowed two runs on four hits and a walk while striking out seven over eight innings. Laird opened the scoring in the second when Tanaka made a mistake up in the zone that Laird hit for his 21st home run.

       The Marines added a run on two singles and a sacrifice in the third, only for the Eagles to scratch out a run in the fifth and tie it in the sixth when reserve infielder Tsuyoshi Yamasaki hit his first home run in two years off a poor pitch from Sasaki.

       Sasaki struck out nine while allowing two hits and no walks. He left after 99 pitches, and turned the game over to closer Naoya Masuda (1-4), who pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to earn the win.

       "Sasaki did a great job tonight. He's a special kid. I enjoy watching him pitch. Masuda did his job and I came up in a big situation and am just happy I could come up with the big hit," Laird said.

       The Eagles, who are without star closer Yuki Matsui due to injury, turned to Sakai, who retired the first two batters before throwing the pitch that Laird hit to end the game.

       The win kept the Marines in first place, ahead of the Orix Buffaloes on winning-percentage .556 to .553 with the Eagles three games further back.

       At MetLife Dome, Buffaloes ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto (13-5) won his 10th straight decision, striking out nine over six scoreless innings in a 7-1 win over the Seibu Lions.

       At Sapporo Dome, Masaki Mimori's ninth-inning RBI single brought the fourth-place SoftBank Hawks from a run down in a 4-4 tie with the Nippon Ham Fighters.

       At Mazda Stadium, Jerry Sands' pinch-hit RBI single broke a sixth-inning tie for the Central League-leading Hanshin Tigers in a 4-1 win over the Hiroshima Carp. Seiya Suzuki, who homered in the Carp's previous six games, had his streak snapped one game shy of the Japan record, while Tigers starter Yuki Nishi (5-9) earned his 100th career victory.

       At Tokyo Dome, Yudai Ono (6-8) allowed a run over seven innings in the Chunichi Dragons' 10-1 win over the Yomiuri Giants, who fell three games back of the Tigers and into third place.

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