OSAKA (Interstat) — Ryo Ohta drove in three runs with two doubles and Taito Takashima pitched five strong innings as the Orix Buffaloes defeated the Nippon-Ham Fighters 4-2 on Saturday afternoon at Osaka Dome before 32,940 fans.

Ohta’s first double in the bottom of the first inning gave Orix a 1-0 lead. After Nippon-Ham tied it in the fifth on Kotaro Kiyomiya’s RBI single, Ohta struck again with a two-run double in the fifth to put the Buffaloes ahead 3-1. Tomoya Noguchi added an RBI single in the sixth for a 4-1 advantage. The Fighters pulled within 4-2 in the seventh when Kiyomiya walked with the bases loaded.

Takashima (2-0) allowed one earned run on three hits with six strikeouts over five innings. Andres Machado earned his sixth save with a perfect ninth. Koki Kitayama (1-2) took the loss, giving up three earned runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts in five innings.

Orix outhit Nippon-Ham 11-5. The Buffaloes improved to 15-9, while the Fighters fell to 11-14. The game lasted 3 hours, 5 minutes.