KYODO NEWS - Jun 3, 2017 - 21:49 | Sports, All

The Yomiuri Giants, Japan's most storied franchise, lost their ninth straight game, falling 5-4 to the Orix Buffaloes in interleague play on Saturday.

Takahiro Okada capped a four-run first inning off impressive lefty Kazuto Taguchi with his 13th home run of the season, a three-run shot.

"I haven't been able to contribute that much recently, so this was satisfying," said Okada after the Buffaloes won their sixth straight.

"We knew it was not going to be easy against such a good opposing pitcher. Before the game, we spoke about us each being thorough and doing the things we had to. I got the chance because everybody else got the job done."

"I didn't do much to contribute to the previous five wins, so I wanted to make up for that today."

Hiroyuki Nakajima singled in an insurance run in the fifth that proved crucial after Shuichi Murata blasted a sixth-inning grand slam off Orix starter Takahiro Matsuba. Murata's third home run in three games made him the 29th player with 350 career homers in Nippon Professional Baseball.

The slam, with no outs in the sixth, sent Matsuba (2-4) to the showers. The lefty gave up four runs on six hits and three walks.

Gonzalez Germen took over for Matsuba with two scorless innings, while Yuta Kuroki and Yoshihisa Hirano worked a scoreless inning apiece to clinch the win.

Taguchi (4-2) allowed five runs on eight hits. He struck out six, while issuing two walks and hitting a batter.

The Giants had not lost nine in a row since 2006, and fell six games below .500 for the first time since Yoshinobu Takahashi took over as manager after the 2015 season.

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Eagles 5, Dragons 1

At Nagoya Dome, Rakuten starter Manabu Mima (6-1) threw eight scoreless innings, while Chunichi's Masahiro Araki had his 2,000th career hit and Alex Guerrero went deep for the sixth straight game.

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Carp 6, Marines 5

At Mazda Stadium, Xavier Batista, signed the day before from Hiroshima's developmental roster, homered in his first at-bat, a pinch-hit, two-run shot in the sixth that lifted the Carp past Lotte.

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Lions 11, Swallows 2

At Jingu Stadium, Seibu's Takeya Nakamura, Shogo Akiyama and Hideto Asamura all went deep off Shohei Tateyama (0-1). Yasuo Sano (3-1) held Yakult to two runs over six innings, keeping the Swallows winless in five interleague games.

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Hawks 7, BayStars 3

At Yokohama Stadium, Alfredo Despaigne hit his 16th home run, a three-run shot in the first off DeNA starter Kentaro Taira (1-2) before Yuki Yanagita went deep in the fifth and ninth for SoftBank. The BayStars lost four straight for the first time this year.

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Tigers 4, Fighters 2

At Koshien Stadium, Taichi Okazaki, playing in his 13th pro season, hit his first career home run, a two-run shot in the fourth that overturned a 2-1 deficit and lifted Hanshin past Nippon Ham.