OSAKA, Japan (Interstat) — Takayuki Kishi pitched seven strong innings to lead the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles to a 5-1 victory over the Orix Buffaloes on Saturday night at Osaka Dome.

Kishi allowed three hits and one earned run while striking out three, improving to 2-2. Anderson Espinoza took the loss for Orix, falling to 6-3 after giving up two earned runs on seven hits with eight strikeouts over six innings.

Rakuten broke a scoreless tie in the sixth inning. With two outs and runners on first and second, Itsuki Murabayashi singled to shallow center to bring home the first run, and Ryuya Taira followed with an RBI single to shallow right. Orix answered in the bottom half on a solo home run by Kotaro Kurebayashi.

The Golden Eagles added three runs in the eighth. Kengo Horiuchi doubled to right-center for one run, and Ryosuke Tatsumi singled to shallow center with the bases loaded, plating two more.

Rakuten outhit Orix 13-5. Fumiya Kurokawa went 3-for-5. Attendance was 29,312. The game lasted 3 hours, 5 minutes. Rakuten improved to 27-42-1, while Orix dropped to 37-33-1.