HIROSHIMA (Interstat) — Yudai Ohno pitched six scoreless innings and the Chunichi Dragons broke open a tight game with a four-run seventh inning, defeating the Hiroshima Toyo Carp 4-0 on Saturday afternoon at Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium.

The victory snapped a two-game losing streak for Chunichi, which improved to 9-20, while Hiroshima fell to 10-16. The Dragons had lost 7-3 to the Carp the previous night.

Ohno allowed four hits, struck out four and walked two over six innings to earn his third win against one loss. He retired the side in order in the third and fourth innings and worked out of a two-on, no-out jam in the fifth by inducing a strikeout and a groundout.

Hiroshima starter Freddy Tarnok matched Ohno zero for zero through five innings, scattering four hits with five strikeouts and two walks. Tarnok received no decision after leaving with the game scoreless.

The game remained scoreless until the top of the seventh, when Chunichi erupted for four runs against the Hiroshima bullpen. With one out, Mikiya Tanaka doubled to center off reliever Kenya Suzuki. Toshiki Abe followed with a single to shallow left, putting runners at the corners. After Yohei Ohshima struck out, Yutaro Itayama tripled to right-center, scoring Tanaka for a 1-0 lead. Kaito Muramatsu walked, and Seiya Hosokawa delivered the decisive blow, a double to center that scored Itayama and Muramatsu, making it 3-0. Shuhei Takahashi walked, but Yuta Ishii grounded out to end the inning.

Hosokawa finished 2-for-5 with two RBIs, while Itayama went 1-for-4 with a triple, a walk and an RBI. Tanaka had two hits, including a double, and scored a run.

Chunichi added no further runs but threatened in the eighth and ninth, leaving the bases loaded in the eighth and two runners on in the ninth.

Hiroshima’s best scoring chance came in the fifth inning against Ohno. Ren Hirakawa and Tai Sasaki singled to open the inning, and a sacrifice bunt moved both runners into scoring position. But Ohno struck out Seita Maekawa and got Shogo Akiyama to ground out to first.

The Carp put together another threat in the seventh against reliever Kento Fujishima. Taiki Mochimaru doubled with two outs, but Elehuris Montero grounded out to shortstop.

Fujishima pitched a scoreless seventh inning, striking out one. Toshihiro Sugiura worked a perfect eighth, and Humberto Mejia closed out the ninth despite allowing a single to Kaito Kozono. Mejia struck out Minoru Ohmori to end the game with the bases empty.

Chunichi made three sacrifice hits in the game, including two by Ohno and one by Ishii. The Dragons totaled nine hits, while Hiroshima managed six.

The attendance of 32,278 watched a game that lasted 3 hours, 29 minutes.

Taichi Saito took the loss for Hiroshima, his first decision of the season after allowing three hits and two earned runs in one-plus inning of relief. Saito entered in the seventh and allowed the first three runs before being replaced by Atsuya Horie, who allowed the double to Hosokawa. Horie pitched one-third of an inning.

For Chunichi, Ohno continued a strong stretch. In his previous start on April 25 against Yakult, he threw seven innings of three-hit, shutout ball with six strikeouts. He also went 0-for-2 at the plate that day.

The Dragons had lost five of their previous six games before Saturday, including three straight to Hiroshima and Yokohama. The last time Chunichi scored more than three runs in a game was April 26, a 3-0 win over Yakult.

Hiroshima had won three of its previous four games entering Saturday, including a 7-3 victory over Chunichi on Friday. The Carp had scored 11 runs in a win over Yomiuri on April 28 but had been held to two or fewer runs in five of their previous seven contests.

The teams meet again Sunday afternoon in the finale of the three-game series. Chunichi then returns home for a three-game set against Hanshin, while Hiroshima travels to Yokohama for a three-game series.

Interstat’s game simulator projected a final score of Chunichi 4, Hiroshima 2. The ELO system gave Hiroshima a 54.30 percent probability to win. Hiroshima was installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of -1.5, and the total of four runs went over the over-under line of 6.0.