OSAKA (Interstat) — Orix Buffaloes rallied from an early five-run deficit to defeat the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 7-5 on Wednesday, Aug. 26, at Osaka Dome.

Rakuten scored twice in the first inning and three more in the second. Orix answered with three runs in the third, one in the fifth and three in the eighth, and finished with two sacrifice hits. Ryoto Kita went 2 for 5 with two RBIs, including a two-run triple. Kenya Wakatsuki went 3 for 3 with an RBI. Rui Muneyama went 2 for 4 with two RBIs for Rakuten. Orix outhit Rakuten 11-8.

Soichiro Yamazaki (4-4) pitched a scoreless inning with two strikeouts to earn the win. Katsutoshi Tai (2-3) took the loss. Andres Machado worked a perfect ninth for his 27th save. Kosei Shoji struck out nine over six innings for Rakuten, allowing four earned runs. Raiku Katayama allowed three hits and struck out one over three scoreless relief innings for Orix.

Orix improved to 56-58-2, while Rakuten fell to 44-68-1. The game took 3 hours, 14 minutes and drew 23,290 fans.