Jeremy Hermida unlocked a scoreless pitchers’ duel with a two-run triple to help teammate Shohei Otani to his sixth win of the season as Hokkaido Nippon Ham defeated the Seibu Lions 2-1 on Thursday.

With two on and two out in the eighth, Hermida reached across the plate for a 2-2 slider away from lefty Wade LeBlanc and put a perfect swing on it, driving the ball over the heads of the drawn-in outfield and giving the Fighters a 2-0 lead.

“It feels great to contribute to a win,” Hermida said. “Shohei threw a great ballgame. It was a great pitchers’ matchup. I was just trying to put the ball in play and got it over their heads.”

Kenshi Sugiya opened the rally with a one-out infield single. After a sacrifice, slugger Sho Nakata was walked intentionally to bring Hermida to the plate, a decision that proved costly for the Lions.

Otani (6-0), who went 5-0 in his first five starts, was pitching for the first time since he left his start on April 26 after five innings due to cramping in his right calf.

The right-hander allowed five hits over 8-1/3 innings, while striking out 11. Otani lost his shutout bid in the ninth when he walked leadoff man Shogo Akiyama. With one out, Hideto Asamura lined a hanging 2-2 splitter to right. Asamura was credited with an RBI triple when rookie right fielder Daiki Asama tried to make a shoestring catch and missed.

Closer Hirotoshi Masui came in and slugger Takeya Nakamura hit a low fastball on the screws but directly at shortstop Takuya Nakashima, who gloved it for the second out. Asama redeemed himself on the game’s final play. The rookie raced to his left to make a leaping grab of a fly ball slicing away from him off the bat of slugger Ernesto Mejia for the final out.

LeBlanc (2-4) allowed just two runs despite surrendering five hits, four walks and hitting a batter. The lefty struck out five.

Sugiya nearly gave the Fighters a one-run lead in the third. After his one-out single, LeBlanc caught Sugiya breaking for second and had him picked off, but Mejia’s throw hit the runner’s helmet and he went to third on the throwing error. On the next play, however, Sugiya broke for home on a grounder to first and Mejia gunned him out on a close play at the plate.

Eagles at Buffaloes — ppd.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

Carp 5, Giants 4

At Tokyo Dome, Ryuhei Matsuyama tied the game 3-3 with a two-run, fourth-inning home run and Hiroshima broke the tie in a two-run fifth on a wild pitch and a Yoshihiro Maru sacrifice fly.

Tigers 4, Swallows 1

At Jingu Stadium, Shintaro Fujinami (2-4) scattered eight hits over the distance, while hitting a batter and striking out nine, and Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Kazunari Tsuruoka homered as Hanshin beat Tokyo Yakult and moved into fourth place.

BayStars 4, Dragons 3

At Yokohama Stadium, Yokohama came from a run down in the first on a two-run single by Jose Lopez and held on to beat Chunichi.