Reliever Hiromu Ise inherited a no-out bases-loaded jam and pitched out of it to help secure the DeNA BayStars 3-0 Central League win over the Yomiuri Giants on Thursday.

The win at Yokohama Stadium moved second-place DeNA to within six games of the league-leading Yakult Swallows on the eve of a three-game series between the two title contenders.

The third-place Giants put the tying runs on with no outs in the eighth on a single, a walk and a throwing error by reliever Edwin Escobar. Ise preserved the shutout by retiring all three batters he faced, and closer Yasuaki Yamasaki worked the ninth for his 36th save.

¡°Escobar has been so reliable for us, and I wanted to help him out if I could,¡± Ise said. ¡°I thought giving up a hit would be OK. My focus was preventing a home run.¡±

BayStars starting pitcher Kenta Ishida (6-4) went six innings to outduel Giants southpaw C.C. Mercedes (5-7), who allowed a run over five innings.

¡°I went to the mound thinking this was a must-win game,¡± Ishida said. ¡°The position players and the relievers, however, are the ones who got us this win.¡±

DeNA took a first-inning lead on a Masayuki Kuwahara leadoff double and a Shugo Maki RBI single. Toshiro Miyazaki homered in the sixth to make it 2-0, and a Taiki Sekine sacrifice fly made it 3-0 in the seventh.

The Swallows lost 3-0 to the last-place Chunichi Dragons, leaving their magic number to clinch a second-straight pennant at four. Yakult has nine games remaining, the BayStars 10.

Dragons rookie Hiroto Takahashi (6-6) allowed one fluke infield single over seven innings. Swallows cleanup hitter Munetaka Murakami, whose 55 home runs are tied for second-most in a Japanese season, went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.

In the Pacific League, the second-place Orix Buffaloes lost ground in the pennant race, falling a half-game behind the SoftBank Hawks. Koki Yamaguchi homered three times and drove in eight runs to power the Lotte Marines to a 13-5 win over the Buffaloes.