Rookie Hiromi Ito allowed a run over seven innings to earn his 10th win as the Nippon Ham Fighters beat the Lotte Marines 5-3 in the Pacific League at Chiba's Zozo Marine Stadium on Oct. 30, 2021. (Kyodo)

       CHIBA, Japan (Kyodo) -- Rookie Hiromi Ito struck out nine while allowing a run over seven innings to secure a fifth-place Pacific League finish for the Nippon Ham Fighters in a 5-3 win over the playoff-bound Lotte Marines on Saturday.

       The win at Zozo Marine Stadium ended manager Hideki Kuriyama's 10-year tenure at the head of the Sapporo-based club on a winning note, while consigning the Seibu Lions to a last-place finish for the first time since 1979, the year the franchise moved from Fukuoka to the suburbs near Tokyo.

       Ito (10-9) allowed five hits and walked two. He left with a 2-1 lead thanks to a fourth-inning home run from Japan Olympic teammate Kensuke Kondo and a tie-breaking pinch-hit RBI double from Taiwan's Wang Po-jung.

       The second-place Marines will resume play at home next Saturday, when they host the PL's third-place Rakuten Eagles in the three-game first stage of the PL Climax Series.

       The Central League Climax Series begins the same day when the Hanshin Tigers host the Yomiuri Giants at Koshien Stadium.

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