JAPAN – The Seibu Lions squandered an opportunity to clinch the Pacific League pennant for yet another day, crumbling to the Lotte Marines 9-1 Wednesday in a game marred by a judo-style fight and an ejection.

Seibu’s magic number to win the league title remained at one after its third straight home loss and the Orix Buffaloes’ 4-1 win at the Softbank Hawks. The Lions, who hold a five-game edge over Orix, will now travel to Sapporo for a two-game series against the Nippon Ham Fighters from Friday.

Shoitsu Omatsu, who went 3-for-5 with four RBIs, was the hero of the night at Seibu Dome as the Marines tied the idle Nippon Ham Fighters in third place, but his performance was overshadowed by the ejection of Benny Agbayani during a decisive seventh-run fourth inning.

Omatsu broke a scoreless tie with a two-run homer and Tsuyoshi Nishioka increased the lead with a one-out RBI single. After the Marines loaded the bases, Seibu starter Hideaki Wakui (9-11) hit Tomoya Satozaki with a pitch and was lifted.

Reliever Koji Mitsui struck out Tasuku Hashimoto on three pitches but then struck Julio Zuleta with his next offering to make it 5-0. Omatsu followed with a two-run single to chase Mitsui, who was replaced by Taiwanese right-hander Hsu Ming-chieh with Agbayani at the plate.

Hsu struck Agbayani with a belt-high inside pitch on a 1-1 count and seconds later the left fielder locked his right arm around the neck of Toru Hosokawa, who apparently tried to stop him rushing toward Hsu, and rolled the Seibu catcher down to the dirt.

After a brief brawl, Agbayani was ejected while Hosokawa left the game and received treatment for bruises. Seibu matched a Japanese baseball record for hitting three batters with pitches in an inning.

Takumi Kuriyama hit an RBI double in the bottom of the fourth off Yasutomo Kubo (3-7), who got the win in a complete-game effort. Akira Otsuka, who pinch-ran for Agbayani, had a run-scoring double in the sixth and Hashimoto capped the scoring with a solo homer in the eighth.

Buffaloes 4, Hawks 1

At Yahoo Dome, Hirotoshi Kitagawa ignited the offense with a fifth-inning solo homer and Kazuki Kondo threw eight shutout innings as Orix handed Softbank its sixth straight game and cut its magic number to make the Climax Series playoffs to three.

Kitagawa connected off D.J. Houlton (4-7) and made it 2-0 with a sacrifice fly in the sixth before the Buffaloes stretched the lead on RBI singles from Shinji Shimoyama and Tuffy Rhodes. Kondo (9-7) scattered six hits in winning his third straight start.

The result in Sadaharu Oh’s final home game as Softbank skipper means the Hawks will finish in the bottom half of the league standings for the first time in 11 years. Legendary Oh, who owns the all-time career home run record, announced his decision Tuesday to bid farewell to baseball at the end of the season.

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Tags: Japan