Five-time Pacific League home run champ Takeya Nakamura opened his long-ball account on Thursday, when the Seibu Lions defeated the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 6-1 and remain unbeaten in five games this season.

Before 25,949 on a chilly afternoon at Kobo Stadium Miyagi, Lions No. 3 hitter Hideto Asamura tied the game 1-1 in the fourth inning off right-hander Manabu Mima with his first home run of the year, and Nakamura followed with his first.

“Asa hit the game-tying run and somehow I managed to put us ahead,” Nakamura said.

“We’ve been playing good ball and hopefully we can keep it going.”

In a game riddled with mistakes, Asamura reached on a one-out error in the fifth and scored when Nakamura hit one well back into the distant left-field stands.

“Actually, it felt like I got jammed a little,” said Nakamura, who also singled and walked twice.

Former big league journeyman Wade LeBlanc allowed an unearned run over six innings to win his Japan debut. The lefty allowed three hits, while walking three and striking out two.

Mima (0-1) allowed five runs — three earned — on five hits and a walk over five innings.

Fighters 12, Marines 9

At Chiba’s QVC Marine Field, Sho Nakata homered in the third inning and Kensuke Tanaka, Yang Dai-kang and Yuya Taniguchi batted in three runs apiece as Hokkaido Nippon Ham won back-to-back games against Chiba Lotte.

Hawks 5, Buffaloes 4 (10)

At Fukuoka’s Yafuoku Dome, Nobuhiro Matsuda hit a 10th-inning sayonara home run as Softbank took two games of its three-game set with Orix.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

Swallows 9, Tigers 2

At Tokyo’s Jingu Stadium, Tetsuto Yamada homered twice and drove in six runs as Tokyo Yakult rallied to beat Hanshin.

Dragons 5, Giants 3

At Nagoya Dome, Ryosuke Hirai’s RBI single broke a 2-2, seventh-inning tie and Nobumasa Fukuda’s two-run homer put the game away as Chunichi swept Yomiuri in three games.

BayStars 3, Carp 2 (12)

At Yokohama Stadium, Takayuki Kajitani delivered a 12th-inning sayonara single off Deunte Heath (0-1) as Yokohama completed a three-game sweep of Hiroshima.