SAPPORO (Interstat) — Kohei Arihara pitched six innings of one-run ball and the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters hit four consecutive home runs in the first inning, routing the Orix Buffaloes 9-1 on Thursday night at Sapporo Dome.

The victory extended Nippon Ham’s winning streak to three games and completed a three-game sweep of Orix. The Fighters outscored the Buffaloes 24-1 in the series. Nippon Ham improved to 45-33-1, while Orix dropped to 38-36-1.

Attendance was 29,276. The game lasted 2 hours, 57 minutes.

Orix grabbed an early lead in the top of the first. Ryoma Nishikawa hit a solo home run to right field off Arihara, his second homer of the series. The Buffaloes had just one hit in the inning.

But the momentum shifted dramatically in the bottom half. Orix starter Kazuma Satoh faced four batters and did not record an out. Shun Mizutani led off with a solo homer to left. Tatsuki Mizuno followed with a homer to right-center. Franmil Reyes then went deep to center. Chusei Mannami capped the barrage with a homer to left-center, making it 4-1. It was the first time Nippon Ham had hit four consecutive home runs in a game since a 2014 contest against Fukuoka SoftBank.

Satoh was lifted after the fourth homer, charged with four runs on four hits in one-third of an inning. He fell to 0-1 on the season. Ryusei Gonda entered and retired the next three hitters, but Nippon Ham’s offense was far from finished.

The Fighters added a run in the third. Yuki Nomura doubled to left and scored on a double by Kengo Yoshida. In the fourth, they manufactured another run. Yuya Shintoh was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Shu Yamagata and scored on a single to shallow center by Mizuno.

Yoshida struck again in the fifth, leading off with a solo home run to left off Gonda, extending the lead to 6-1. Gonda completed three innings, allowing three hits and one earned run with three strikeouts.

Reliever Riku Miyaguni took over in the sixth and encountered trouble. Shu Yamagata led off with a double. Mizutani singled, and Mizuno singled to load the bases with no outs. Reyes grounded into a fielder’s choice, scoring Yamagata. Mannami followed with a single to left, plating Mizutani to make it 8-1. Miyaguni then induced a double play groundout from Nomura to escape further damage. Miyaguni pitched two innings, allowing one hit and no earned runs while striking out one.

The Nippon Ham bullpen preserved the lead. Kenta Uehara pitched a scoreless eighth, striking out two. Shoma Kanemura closed the ninth with two strikeouts, allowing no hits.

Offensively, Mizuno went 3-for-5 with a home run and two RBIs. Mizutani was 3-for-4 with a homer and an RBI. Yoshida finished 2-for-3 with a homer and two RBIs. Mannami added a homer and two RBIs. For Orix, Nishikawa homered and singled, going 2-for-4. The Buffaloes managed eight hits but left six runners on base. Their best chance came in the second inning, when Yuma Mune doubled and Ryo Ohta singled, putting runners at first and third with no outs. But Bob Seymour struck out, Sho Fukunaga grounded into a fielder’s choice and Ryoto Kita grounded into a double play to end the threat.

Arihara scattered six hits, walked none and struck out three. He retired the side in order in the third, fourth and sixth innings.

The game was the third of a three-game series. Nippon Ham had also won the first two games, 6-0 on Wednesday and 9-2 on Tuesday. The Fighters have now won five of their last six games overall. Orix has lost three of its last four.

Nippon Ham travels to Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles for a three-game series starting Friday. Orix returns home to face the Saitama Seibu Lions.

Interstat’s game simulator had projected a final score of Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 6, Orix Buffaloes 3. Interstat’s ELO system had projected Nippon-Ham with a 60.50 percent probability to win. Nippon-Ham had been installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of -1.5. The total score of 10 went over the over/under line of 8.5.