Daiei top guns Hiroki Kokubo, Nobuhiko Matsunaka and Kenji Jojima all hit homers as the Hawks downed the Kintetsu Buffaloes 8-1 at the Osaka Dome to take the Pacific League lead Friday night.

Central League WonLostTiedPct.GB Yakult 65 43 5 .602 - Yomiuri 64 57 2 .529 7.5 Hiroshima 53 53 6 .500 11.0 Chunichi 55 59 3 .482 13.0 Yokohama 53 58 3 .477 13.5 Hanshin 47 67 1 .412 21.0 Pacific League WonLostTiedPct.GB Daiei 66 55 1 .5454 - Seibu 67 56 0 .5447 0.0 Kintetsu 65 56 2 .537 1.0 Lotte 58 59 2 .496 6.0 Orix 56 60 4 .483 7.5 Nippon Ham 46 72 3 .390 18.5

Kintetsu has suffered a four-game losing streak and slid down to third place with one game behind from Daiei.

Daiei scored three runs on back-to-back doubles by Kokubo, Matsunaka and Jojima in the fourth inning.

Matsunaka, who went for 4-for-5, belted a solo homer off Kintetsu starter Jeremy Powell (2-5) in the sixth, Jojima homered for two runs off Hisashi Aikyo in the seventh and Kokubo added two runs in the ninth off Isao Koda.

Keizaburo Tanoue gave up six hits and a run without any walks over the distance for his 11th win of the season, helping Daiei snap its losing streak at three.

Kintetsu slugger Tuffy Rhodes went for 1-for-4 but had no homers on the day.

Lions 8, BlueWave 2

Kazuo Matsui hammered a two-run homer in the sixth inning and pinch hitter Hiroyuki Shibata tripled home two runs in a three-run seventh in Seibu’s rally over Orix at the Seibu Dome.

Seibu moved into second in the PL standings, while Orix has lost the last three games.

Marines 8, Fighters 4

Tadaharu Sakai doubled home a game-tying run with one out and Akira Otsuka hit a tie-breaking single with two outs in the fourth inning as Lotte rallied past Nippon Ham at the Chiba Marine Stadium to extend its winning streak to three.

Frank Bolick hit a two-run homer and Derrick May hit a solo homer both off Nippon Ham reliever Noriyuki Takahashi in the sixth.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

Giants 11, Swallows 2

Domingo Martinez cracked two homers, a three-run shot in the third inning and a solo blast in the fifth to highlight Yomiuri’s win over Yakult at the Tokyo Dome. Yakult has lost the last three games.

Darrell May struck out 10 and gave up four hits and two runs over eight innings for his 10th win.

Trailing 1-0 in the first with the bases loaded and one out, Kazuhiro Kiyohara singled home two runs to help Yomiuri take the upper hand.

Dragons 9, BayStars 4

Hirokazu Ibata doubled home two runs in a three-run second inning and Leo Gomes belted a two-run homer in the ninth as Chunichi beat Yokohama with a 14-hit batting attack at Shizuoka Stadium.

Lefty Hitoki Iwase (7-3), relieving from the fourth inning with one out, gave up three hits over 32/3 innings to get Chunicji back on the right track.