CORRECTED: Baseball: Marines 1 day’s march from postseason berth

The Lotte Marines moved within one win of securing a spot in the Pacific League’s postseason tournament as Koki Yamaguchi led a 12-1 thumping of the league champion Orix Buffaloes on Friday.

Yamaguchi went 4-for-5, drove in three runs and scored a run at Lotte’s Zozo Marine Stadium, while eight Lotte pitchers held the Buffaloes to five hits, two walks and two hit batsmen.

The two teams will play again Saturday, when a Lotte win would eliminate the fourth-place Rakuten Eagles from playoff contention. The Marines trail the second-place SoftBank Hawks by half a game.

All three teams each have two...