OSAKA (Interstat) — Anderson Espinoza pitched seven innings of one-run ball as the Orix Buffaloes beat the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 3-1 on Wednesday night at the Osaka Dome.

Espinoza (10-3) allowed one earned run on nine hits and struck out four. Ryota Takinaka (5-5) took the loss, surrendering three runs on five hits over seven innings.

Ryoma Nishikawa homered in the first inning to open the scoring. Orix added a run in the fourth on Keita Nakagawa’s groundout and another in the seventh on Kenya Wakatsuki’s sacrifice fly. Carson McCusker delivered a two-out single in the third to drive in Rakuten’s only run.

Andres Machado pitched a scoreless ninth for his 24th save. Daichi Shibata and Ren Mukunoki each contributed a scoreless inning of relief.

The attendance was 26,729, and the game lasted 2 hours, 34 minutes. Orix improved to 49-48-2, while Rakuten fell to 36-58-1.