Hiromi Ito pitched a tremendous game for Nippon Ham against his WBC teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a game he did not deserve to lose.

Saturday’s games

Buffaloes 1, Fighters 0: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers Burden Field: Orix ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto (13-5) squared off with Japan World Baseball Classic teammate Hiromi Ito and just barely escaped with the win.

Ito (7-8) was in top form, allowing a run on two first-inning hits while striking out 11 without a walk over the distance against the Pacific League leaders. Orix’s run was as close as can be, with Ryoma Ikeda doubling and barely beating the tag on a good throw to the plate on a one-out Keita Nakagawa single. Ito then retired 24 of the last 25 batters he faced, with the lone batter to reach on an error being caught in a rundown on the play.

Yamamoto (13-5), meanwhile, was often under the gun with runners on base.

“In terms of how well we pitched, Ito was better than me today, but I was able to hang in there when I had to,” Yamamoto said. “Ito is a good pitcher, so I knew today was going to be a battle.”

Yamamoto twice faced two-on no-out jams but both times got three straight outs, and protected his lead for seven innings. He struck out nine and walked three while surrendering four hits.

Soichiro Yamazaki worked a scoreless eighth before veteran closer Yoshihisa Hirano earned his 24th save by following Yamamoto’s lead and stranding two runners, the ninth and 10th left on by the Fighters.

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