Baseball: Marines shut out Hawks for 2nd-straight night behind rookie

CHIBA -- The Lotte Marines remained their master of the Pacific League's powerhouse club, the SoftBank Hawks, beating them 1-0 on Wednesday in their second straight shutout win.

Rookie right-hander Daiki Iwashita (1-0) scattered a hit, three walks and a hit batsman while striking out three to outduel Kotaro Otake (0-1).

"Yesterday (Hideaki) Wakui shut them down to get us going in a good direction," the 22-year-old Iwashita said. "The fielders did a great job, and that helped me to pitch well. Basically, all I have is a fastball, so I have to be bold with it."

"Watching Wakui yesterday left me with an impression of what an ace pitcher has to do. That's the kind of pitcher I want to be," he said.

The Hawks lefty went the distance, allowing a run on seven hits and a walk, while striking out four.

The Marines scored their only run on three fifth-inning singles by Kennys Vargas, catcher Yuta Yoshida and Takashi Ogino before a crowd 15,319 at Zozo Marine Stadium.

"Iwashita did a super job of keeping them off the board, so we all wanted to get some runs for him," Ogino said. "To be honest, I didn't hit it that well, but I'm giving it my best every day."

The last-place Marines improved to 4-1 against the two-time defending Japan Series champs and moved to 6-10 on the season.

"Again our starting pitcher was rock solid," Marines manager Tadahito Iguchi said. "This was a tough game, but the defense kept them off the board so we could hang on to the win."

"Last time he (Iwashita) gave us six great innings.

(Yoshida) called a great game for us, allowing us to shut down a very powerful Hawks lineup, by working very aggressively," he said.

"We had situations where we failed to score, so getting that one run and protecting that lead was the key. Now we want another win so we can get back to .500," he added.

Elsewhere in the PL, Masataka Yoshida opened the scoring by homering for the third-straight game as the Orix Buffaloes overcame a four-hit, three RBI night from Taiwan star Wang Po-jung to beat the Nippon Ham Fighters 6-4.

Hideto Asamura, who left the Seibu Lions as a free agent over the winter hit his 150th career home run, a three-run shot, to help the Rakuten Eagles beat his former club 7-4. Asamura's first career homer came for the Lions against the Eagles.

In the Central League, the three-time defending champion Hiroshima Carp scored three runs in the ninth off Yomiuri Giants closer Ryan Cook (0-1) in a 5-4 win. Daisuke Yamai (2-0) allowed a run in 5-2/3 innings as the Chunichi Dragons beat the DeNA BayStars 3-1.

The Yakult Swallows' Wladimir Balentien hit a game-tying two-run single in the eighth inning against the Hanshin Tigers in a game declared a 2-2 tie after the maximum 12 innings were played.

Source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190418/p2g/00m/0sp/010000c