OSAKA, Japan (Interstat) — Takayuki Kishi pitched seven strong innings and the Rakuten Golden Eagles used a three-run eighth inning to defeat the Orix Buffaloes 5-1 on Saturday evening at Osaka Dome.

The Golden Eagles improved to 27-42-1 while the Buffaloes fell to 37-33-1. Kishi allowed one earned run on three hits with three strikeouts to earn his second win against two losses. Anderson Espinoza took the loss, falling to 6-3 after allowing two earned runs on seven hits over six innings while striking out eight.

Rakuten took the lead with a two-run sixth inning. With two outs, Fumiya Kurokawa singled, Itsuki Murabayashi singled to shallow center to drive in one run and Ryuya Taira followed with a single to shallow right for another run.

Orix answered in the bottom of the sixth when Kotaro Kurebayashi hit a solo home run to left-center, his first of the game. The Buffaloes managed only five hits and left six runners on base.

The Golden Eagles broke the game open in the eighth. Kurokawa and Murabayashi led off with singles. After a groundout, Kengo Horiuchi doubled to right-center to score one run. Ryosuke Tatsumi then singled to shallow center with the bases loaded to drive in two more, extending the lead to 5-1.

Kurokawa led the Rakuten offense with three hits in five at-bats, scoring once and driving in a run. The Golden Eagles collected 13 hits overall.

Orix threatened in the ninth when Ryoma Nishikawa singled and Ryo Ohta singled with two outs, but Keita Nakagawa grounded out to shortstop to end the game.

Ryu Kutani pitched a scoreless eighth inning with two strikeouts for Rakuten. Sota Fujiwara worked a scoreless ninth, allowing two hits. Sho Iwasaki and Kaito Iriyama each tossed a scoreless inning for Orix.

Attendance was 29,312. The game lasted 3 hours, 5 minutes.

Interstat’s game simulator projected a final score of Orix 5, Rakuten 4. Interstat’s ELO system gave Orix a 61.60 percent probability to win. Rakuten was installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of minus-1.5. The total of five runs scored went over the over-under line of 6.5.