SAPPORO, Japan (Interstat) — The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters leveraged a five-run fifth inning to power past the Seibu Lions 8-2 on Saturday afternoon at Sapporo Dome, evening the weekend series after a one-run defeat the night before.

The Fighters struck first with three runs in the second inning. Chusei Mannami led off with a single to shallow right, and Kengo Yoshida walked. Yuya Gunji doubled to left, scoring Mannami. Yuki Nomura followed with a sacrifice fly to right, bringing in Yoshida, and Yua Tamiya added a sacrifice fly to center that plated Gunji for a 3-0 advantage.

Nippon-Ham extended the lead in the third. After two quick outs, Franmil Reyes drew a walk. Mannami greeted a new pitcher with a double to left-center that scored Reyes, making it 4-0.

Seibu starter Kona Takahashi settled in briefly, retiring the side in order in the fourth, but the Lions’ offense remained quiet against Fighters starter Sachiya Yamasaki. Seibu managed only two hits through the first four innings, both singles by Natsuo Takizawa and An-Ko Lin in the first, but left them stranded.

The breakthrough came in the fifth. With two outs and Takizawa on first after a single, Lin launched a home run to right field, cutting the deficit to 4-2. Tyler Nevin followed with a double, but Kazunari Ishii popped out to end the inning.

The Lions’ sudden life was short-lived. In the bottom of the fifth, Takahashi surrendered back-to-back solo home runs to Kazuki Miyazaki and Tatsuki Mizuno on the first two pitches of the inning, tying the game at 4-4 and giving the Fighters the lead at 5-4. Mannami then doubled down the right-field line, and Yoshida singled to shallow center. A groundout by Gunji resulted in an error that allowed Mannami to score, and the Fighters pushed the lead to 7-4. Takahashi was pulled after 4 1-3 innings, charged with seven earned runs on eight hits with three strikeouts.

The Fighters tacked on a final run in the seventh. Reyes singled, advanced to second on a steal by pinch runner Ryohei Hosokawa, and scored on a two-out single by Yuki Nomura to make it 8-2.

Seibu mounted no further threats. Yamasaki departed after five innings, allowing two runs on seven hits while striking out three to improve to 2-0. Yuta Nakamura, Taiga Ueda, Shoma Kanemura, Mizuki Hori, Taisei Yanagawa and Kota Tatsu combined for four scoreless innings of relief, with Tatsu striking out three in the ninth to seal the win.

Takahashi took the loss, dropping to 7-4. The Lions’ offense managed nine hits, including two by Lin and two by Takizawa, but stranded seven runners.

The attendance was 33,535, and the game lasted 2 hours, 55 minutes.

Seibu’s season record fell to 46-35-3, while Nippon-Ham improved to 48-37-2.

The most pivotal sequence occurred in the fifth inning, when Seibu finally broke through with a two-run homer to tie the game at 4-4, only to have the Fighters answer with a pair of solo shots and a run-scoring error to seize control for good. The back-and-forth inning shifted the momentum decisively, as the Lions could not recover against a deep Fighters bullpen.

Interstat’s game simulator had projected a final score of Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 6, Saitama Seibu Lions 2. Interstat’s ELO system gave Nippon-Ham a 60.40 percent probability to win. Nippon-Ham was installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of minus 1.5 runs. The total score of 10 runs went over the over-under line of 7.5.