Ayumu Ishikawa of the Lotte Marines pitches in a Pacific League game against the Orix Buffaloes on Oct. 13, 2021, at Kyocera Dome Osaka in Osaka, western Japan. (Kyodo)

       OSAKA (Kyodo) -- Ayumu Ishikawa pitched out of a second-inning jam before the Lotte Marines broke the game open in an 8-2 win over the Pacific League-leading Orix Buffaloes on Wednesday.

       The win at Kyocera Dome Osaka lifted the second-place Marines to within 1-1/2 games of first place. The teams complete their three-game set on Friday with a pair of marquee rookies set to take the mound, Orix lefty Hiroya Miyagi and Lotte right-hander Roki Sasaki.

       A Brandon Laird single plated a run in the first for the visitors, but Ishikawa faced trouble in the second, when a pair of one-out singles brought veteran left-handed slugger Takahiro Okada to the plate.

       The last time Okada faced Ishikawa, on Sept. 28, he hit a decisive three-run home run in the Buffaloes' 5-2 win in Chiba.

       Ishikawa (5-3) struck him out this time en route to a scoreless inning and his teammates knocked Buffaloes starter Sachiya Yamasaki (8-10) out in a four-run third.

       "T-san (Okada) hit me well last time, so I'm glad I did a good job against him this time," Ishikawa said.

       Ishikawa's bid for a shutout ended with two outs in the ninth, with Yutaro Sugimoto's PL-leading 31st home run, with a man on.

       At Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi, Takero Okajima's RBI single off SoftBank Hawks closer Yuito Mori (1-2) kept the third-place Rakuten Eagles two back of Lotte and moved them six games clear of the fourth-place Hawks in a 2-1 victory.

       At Sapporo Dome, Robbie Erlin (2-2) allowed an unearned run over five innings as the last-place Nippon Ham Fighters whipped the Seibu Lions 10-2.

       At Vantelin Dome Nagoya, Munetaka Murakami snapped a tie game with his Central League-leading 39th home run as the league-leading Yakult Swallows beat the Chunichi Dragons 3-1 to move 2-1/2 games ahead of the second-place Hanshin Tigers.

       At Tokyo Dome, reserve Tigers catcher Seishiro Sakamoto twice tied the game, with an RBI single and a solo home run, in Hanshin's 2-2 tie with the third-place Yomiuri Giants.

       At Mazda Stadium, Hiroshima's Hiroki Tokoda (5-4) allowed seven runs over 4-2/3 innings, blowing an early lead in a 9-3 loss to the DeNA BayStars. The loss snapped the fourth-place Carp's six-game win streak and dropped them 5-1/2 games back of Yomiuri in the fight for the CL's final playoff spot.

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