Submarining righthanded sinkerballer Shunsuke Watanabe started for Lotte and was nails for five innings and then had to be bailed out in the sixth by Shingo Ono. Fellow relievers Dan Serafini and Yasuhiko Yabuta scraped by a very dangerous seventh to set it up for now erratic closer Masahide Kobayashi, who turned out the lights in an orderly ninth. 

Rookie Takehiko Oshimoto started for Nippon Ham and was perhaps due for a bad game after pitching so well in the early part of the schedule, as even helped by a brisk breeze blowing straight in from centerfield, he was taken deep in his 4.1 innings and was blamed for that inital quintet of Lotte tallies for the kuroboshi. 

Lotte first baseman Kazuya Fukuura ignited a second inning rally with an infield hit and went to second on a groundout. Second baseman Koichi Hori singled to right for a 1-0 lead. One out later, shortstop Makoto Kosaka singled to center. Leftfielder Jun Inoue singled to right to propel Hori home. Rightfielder Saburo Omura pinged a shot off the centerfield fence for a two bagger and two RBIs to make it 4-0.

Both offenses took a lunch break and then Omura returned in the fifth with a belt into the centerfield seats to put it at 5-0. One out later, leftfielder Benny Agbayani scorched a double into the rightfield corner. Tatsuhito Kato entered from the bullpen. After another out, DH Sato walked. Hori, though, flied to right and so 5-0 it remained. 

Watanabe had struckout the side in the top of the fifth, but he lost it in the sixth. Rightfielder Tomochika Tsuboi tripled off the rightfield fence. Centerfielder Tsutomu Ishimoto singled to right to plate Tsuboi and then eased to third on two subsequent groundouts. Leftfielder Angel Echevarria walked. Kuniyuki Kimoto singled to center and Ishimoto was in. Ono jogged in from the pen. Catcher Shinji Takahashi singled to center as well to push Echevarria across and it was 5-3 Lotte.

Lotte backstop Tasuku Hashimoto flexed some major muscle, powering the ball through the wind and into the Lotte oendan in right during the home portion to widen it to 6-3.

Ono got shortstop Makoto Kaneko to ground to third opening the seventh and then was pulled in favor of Serafini. Tsuboi singled to center. Pinch hitter Takaya Hayashi struckout. DH Tomoyuki Oda singled to left. First baseman Fernando Seguignol singled to center to pack the sacks. Yabuta relieved Serafini. Echevarria grounded to Matt Franco at third, who mishandled it, and Tsuboi toed the dish to make it 6-4 with the winning run now on first. But Kimoto struckout and Lotte was still ahead. 

Nippon Ham second baseman Kensuke Tanaka tripled with one out in the eighth and stayed there when the next two men struckout and flied out. Kobayashi, who was clocked at 92mph, then struckout two of the three men who dug in against him in the ninth and the home folks finally had something to really cheer about after the recent slide. 

It was Watanabe's first win since April 18th. Lotte is nonetheless still ten games under .500 and anchoring the bottom of the circuit.  

Jeremy Powell started for Kintetsu and got wacked around in the third, but persevered and permitted only a run from there through the eighth and ended up with his first shiroboshi of the current campaign. 

With the passing of former Kintetsu outfielder and minor league battuing instructor Takahisa Suzuki, the Buffaloes players wore a patch on their left shoulder as a tribute and were hungry to emerge on top on this night. 

In that third, third baseman Mizuki Tanaka reached on an infield hit and was sacrificed to second before moving to third on a groundout. Shortstop Munenori Kawasaki then outran a little groundball as Tanaka scampered to the plate. Kawasaki stole second. Leftfielder Pedro Valdez singled to left to drive Kawasaki in. First baseman Nobuhiko Matsunaka singled to left. Leftfielder Hiroaki Onishi let the ball get behind him and, as it rolled to the wall, Valdez put it in fourth for the plate to hand Daiei a 3-0 advantage. 

Gulin had only been touched for a single in the first four innings, but in the fifth, Onishi singled to center with one out and, following another out, shortstop Tadatoki Maeda walked. Centerfielder Naoyuki Omura singled to left to usher Onishi in to make it 3-1 Hawks. 

Having see Gulin throw 116 pitches already, Oh went to the pen, and rightly so, for the seventh and watched a virtual horror show unfold before his eyes. With one out, catcher Tetsuya Matoyama walked off of Shinji Kurano. Daisuke Masuda, pinch hitting for Maeda, singled to right.  Nobuyasu Matsu came in to face Omura and plunked him to load the bases. Mizuta took the ball from Matsu and wild pitched Matoyama home. Mizuguchi rifled a shot into the leftfield corner to redeem both Masuda and Zuleta and it was 4-3 Kintetsu. One out later, third baseman Norihiro Nakamura walked. Rightfielder Koichi Isobe laced one into the leftcenter alley for a double and Mizuguchi and Nakamura both sprinted in to put the Buffs in the driver's seat at 6-3.

Zuleta dropped the bomb on Powell for a roundtripper to rightcenter in the eighth, but Kazuo Fukumori, after being victimized for a one out 
single by second baseman Tadahito Iguchi in the ninth, induced a game ending 6-4-3 twin killing from Kawasaki to put it in the books. 

Akichika Yamada made his first appearance in over a year for the Hawks and threw a scoreless inning. He says his shoulder is fine now.  

In the second, Lions rightfielder DH Hiroyuki Oshima parked a pitch from Orix starter Hisashi Ogura in the rightfield stands to make it 1-0. 

They tacked on another in the third on a single to center by rightfielder Tatsuya Ozeki and a single to right from third baseman Jose Fernandez that allowed the speedy Ozeki to turn and burn for third. Leftfielder Kazhiro Wada lifted a little fly ball between second and right that Koichi Oshima had to take going away from the plate and so Ozeki was able to tag up and cross for a 2-0 lead.

Orix, though, bullied Matsuzaka a little in the bottom of the inning to tie it up. With one out, centerfielder Arihito Muramatsu singled to right and went to second on a groundout. Leftfielder Yoshitomo Tani, with his judo champion wife Ryoko in the stands, torqued an 86mph cut fastball into the leftcenter alley for an RBI double. Rightfielder Roosevelt Brown walked. First baseman Jose Ortiz singled to center and Tani hustled in with the equalizer to put it at 2-2.

Seibu, though, asserted itself once more when shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima homered to left to commence the fourth. Catcher Toru Hosokawa walked and Orix manager Haruki Ihara gave Ogura the heave ho in favor of Suzuki, who obtained the next two outs to hold it at 3-2 Lions.

Matsuzaka allowed two more baserunners in the bottom of the frame, but left them on the basepaths and the Blue Wave bats did the proverbial dirt nap through the eighth.

Seibu bought some insurance in the top of the ninth when centerfielder Shogo Akada walked with one down and Ozeki singled to center, Akada making for third. Fernandez tapped a little ground ball that reliever Takashi Aiki fielded, but not in enough time so that it would permit him to nail Akada and it was 4-2.

In Orix' final chance, catcher Takeshi Hidaka singled to center and was erased on a 4-6 force. Muramatsu singled to right. Koichi Oshima, though, popped up to Nakajima. Matsuzaka ran one too far inside on Tani and hit him to juice the bags. Brown, with an opportunity
to either tie it with a single or win it with an extra base knock, sent one deep to straightaway centerfield. Akada pursued it and snared it short of the wall and Seibu had another game on second place Daiei in the PL pennant race. 

Matsuzaka, who is still fiddling with his mechanics, went to his slider much more in the second half of the game and it tied up the Blue Wave order to a faretheewell. He was clocked at a high of 93mph.