OSAKA (Interstat) — Hiromi Itoh threw eight scoreless innings, and the Nippon-Ham Fighters blanked the Orix Buffaloes 2-0 on Saturday afternoon at Osaka Dome. Itoh allowed four hits and struck out six while improving to 10-10. Anderson Espinoza took the loss after eight innings, yielding five hits, one earned run and striking out seven, falling to 13-6. Taisei Yanagawa recorded his 29th save with a perfect ninth, striking out two. The game stayed scoreless until late, when Yua Tamiya singled to shallow left with two outs and drove in a run. Kotaro Kiyomiya added a solo home run to right. Kota Yazawa went 3-for-3 for Nippon-Ham. Masahiro Nishino had two hits for Orix. Nippon-Ham totaled six hits, and Orix had four. Nobuyoshi Yamada and Ren Mukunoki pitched in relief for Orix. Nippon-Ham improved to 76-61-3, while Orix dropped to 65-73-2. Attendance at Osaka Dome was 36,172. The game took 2 hours, 32 minutes.