SAPPORO, Japan (Interstat) — Chihiro Sumida tossed seven shutout innings and Taiga Kojima delivered a grand slam during a six-run eighth inning as the Saitama Seibu Lions routed the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 12-1 on Sunday evening at Sapporo Dome.

Sumida, who improved to 7-5, allowed four hits and struck out five without yielding an earned run. The left-hander retired 14 of the first 15 batters he faced and did not allow a runner past second base until the sixth inning. Sumida’s performance came on the heels of a loss July 5 at Orix, when he gave up three earned runs over six innings.

The Lions pounded out 14 hits and never trailed. Seibu scored three times in the first inning, added one in the fourth, two in the fifth and broke the game open with six in the eighth. The Fighters managed only seven hits and scored their lone run in the ninth.

An-Ko Lin put Seibu ahead for good in the top of the first. After Manaya Nishikawa singled, Natsuo Takizawa struck out and Kojima singled, Lin crushed a two-run home run to right field. The Lions added a third run earlier in the inning when Tyler Nevin’s sacrifice fly plated Nishikawa.

Lin struck again in the fourth inning, leading off with a solo homer to right-center, his second of the game. Seibu made it 6-0 in the fifth. Alexander Canario singled and Nishikawa tripled to right-center, scoring Canario. Takizawa followed with an RBI single to center.

The decisive outburst came in the eighth. Seibu loaded the bases with no outs on singles by Sosuke Genda and Seiya Watanabe and a walk to Reon Murata. Canario singled to shallow center, driving in two runs. After Nishikawa flied out, Takizawa walked to reload the bases. Kojima then crushed a 1-1 pitch over the right-field wall for a grand slam, pushing the lead to 10-0. Tyler Nevin walked and Junichiro Kishi singled before Genda grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Kojima finished 3-for-5 with four RBIs. Lin went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two homers. Canario was 3-for-4 with two RBIs, and Nishikawa added two hits and an RBI.

Ren Fukushima (3-3) took the loss for Nippon-Ham. He allowed four runs on six hits over three-plus innings, striking out three and walking none. Shoma Kanemura threw three scoreless innings of relief, allowing two hits with three strikeouts. Kenta Uehara pitched a scoreless ninth.

Nippon-Ham’s only run came in the ninth off Seibu reliever Taiga Ueda. Ryohei Hosokawa singled to lead off, Kotaro Kiyomiya flied out, Chusei Mannami singled and Yuya Shintoh doubled to left, scoring Hosokawa. However, Shu Yamagata flied out and Ruan Ohtsuka grounded out to end the threat.

Ryosuke Moriwaki pitched a perfect eighth inning for Seibu, striking out one.

The Lions improved to 47-35-3, while the Fighters dropped to 48-38-2. Seibu won two of three in the series after losing 8-2 on Saturday and winning 2-1 on Friday.

The game took 3 hours, 11 minutes in front of an announced crowd of 31,394.

Interstat’s game simulator had projected a final score of Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 5, Saitama Seibu Lions 2. Interstat’s ELO system gave the Fighters a 61.20 percent probability to win. Nippon-Ham was installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of minus 1.5. The total of eight runs went under the over-under line of 7.5.