Marching in step …

Marines battle back to top Buffaloes

The stage was set for yet another Lotte loss this month until the Marines got their march in step and tiptoed past the Orix Buffaloes 6-5 at Kyocera Dome Osaka on Sunday.

Saburo Omura’s two-run single in the seventh put the Marines in the lead, and second-year reliever Masaki Minami (1-0) earned his first pro win with 1.1 scoreless innings of work as Lotte rallied to top the last-place Buffaloes.

The Marines also turned to another young hurler, rookie Naoya Masuda, to close it out in the ninth, and the hard-throwing righty fired a perfect frame for his first pro save.

The Buffaloes had taken the lead when Takahiro “T.O.” Okada crushed his third homer -- all have come vs. the Marines -- with two aboard in the fifth. But Orix couldn’t add to the lead and the bullpen couldn’t protect it.

Okada had four RBIs and Aarom Baldiris had two hits, including a double, but the Buffaloes stumbled at the business end of the game.

Every starter had at least one knock for the Marines, who banged out 15 hits. Josh Whitesell slugged his third homer, a solo blast, and added a single.

HAWKS 10, LIONS 2

Seiichi Uchikawa hit his first longball at FYJ Dome, and Kenta Imamiya followed his first pro homer the previous day with No. 2 in his two-plus-year career as SoftBank bombed Seibu.

First-year outfielder Yuki Yanagida also popped his first career longball, and Wily Mo Pena had a three-hit game to lead the Hawks in a rout.

EAGLES 3, FIGHTERS 3

Ginji Akaminai squeezed home the tying run in the eighth to take ace Masahiro Tanaka off the hook for a loss as Rakuten earned a tie with host Nippon Ham at Sapporo Dome.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

DRAGONS 4, SWALLOWS 2

Soma Yamauchi (9-4) tossed seven strong innings, and third-year man Yohei Oshima put together his first career five-hit game as Chunichi topped Yakult at Jingu.

GIANTS 2, BAYSTARS 1

Ryosuke Miyaguni (3-1) held Yokohama to two hits and two walks over seven innings, and Tetsuya Matsumoto doubled in both Yomiuri runs in the fifth in a win as the Giants won at Yokohama Stadium to keep their CL lead at 4.5 games.

CARP 7, TIGERS 0

Bryan Bullington (6-9) held Hanshin scoreless over six innings, and Yuichiro Mukae went 2-for-4 with three RBIs while Ryosuke Kikuchi had two hits and drove in two as third-place Hiroshima won its fifth straight and moved two games above .500.