Takahisa Hayakawa, one of the big prizes in last year's draft, struck out eight over six innings to win his pro debut as the Rakuten Eagles beat the Nippon Ham Fighters 5-0 in the Pacific League on Sunday.
The 22-year-old lefty walked two and gave up four hits. After retiring nine of the first 10 batters he faced, Hayakawa (1-0) twice escaped bases-loaded jams.
With the game still scoreless in the fourth, the Fighters filled the bags on an error and two singles. But Hayakawa struck out Nippon Ham's Nos. 5 and 6 hitters, Yuki Nomura and Taishi Ota, before getting a ground out.
"He's a good pitcher. No mistake about that," Fighters manager Hideki Kuriyama said. "He denied us when we had chances to put him away."
Hayakawa escaped another one-out pickle in the sixth with a double play before making his exit.
Right-hander Takahide Ikeda (0-1), acquired from the Eagles this spring in a preseason trade, started for Nippon Ham and kept his former team off the board until a four-run fourth spoiled his return to Sendai's Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi. He allowed four runs, three earned, over five innings.
Eagles catcher Hikaru Ota did much of the damage at the plate for the hosts with an RBI single in the fourth and a solo homer in the eighth.
At MetLife Dome, Katsunori Hirai (1-0), who is moving from his role as the Seibu Lions bullpen workhorse to starting pitcher, threw six scoreless innings in a 5-1 win over the Orix Buffaloes.
At Fukuoka's PayPay Dome, SoftBank Hawks pinch-hitter Keizo Kawashima singled in the game-winning run in a 6-5 victory over the Lotte Marines.
At Tokyo Dome, Takayuki Kajitani tied the game for his new team, the Yomiuri Giants, against his old team, the DeNA BayStars, with an eighth-inning RBI single. Their Central League contest ended in a 1-1 nine-inning tie, due to a rule this year to combat the coronavirus pandemic that limits games to nine innings.
At Tokyo's Jingu Stadium, Jerry Sands opened the scoring for the Hanshin Tigers with a first-inning RBI double and iced their 8-2 win over the Yakult Swallows with a three-run eighth-inning home run.
At Hiroshima's Mazda Stadium, the Chunichi Dragons held the Hiroshima Carp to a scoreless draw.
