Baseball: Kondo, Arihara lead Hawks past Marines

Kensuke Kondo hit a tie-breaking three-run first-inning home run, and Kohei Arihara allowed two runs over seven innings as the SoftBank Hawks downed the Lotte Marines 4-2 Thursday in their battle for the Pacific League postseason’s second seed.

With no outs and two on in a 1-1 game at PayPay Dome, Kondo’s 23rd home run, off Lotte strikeout artist Atsuki Taneichi (10-6), put Arihara in the driver’s seat.

A night after the Orix Buffaloes clinched their third straight PL pennant, the third-place Hawks’ win moved them to within one game of the second-place Marines.

The Marines opened the scoring o...