A refreshing victory …

Lotte clicks, picks up 1st win

CHIBA--Offseason loses in free agency forced the Chiba Lotte Marines to hit the refresh button, so to speak, on their roster. After two close loses, the team clicked on Thursday.
The defending Japan Series champions got their first victory, coming back to top the Tohoku Rakuten Eagles 5-2 at QVC Marine Field and avoid a sweep in their opening Pacific League series.
Hayden Penn (1-0) was dominating, allowing just five balls out of the infield in eight innings. But he was losing by two runs until the Marines got even in the sixth. Penn, who joined the club last July, surrendered seven hits -- three of which stayed on the infield -- and walked two with three punchouts. It was his second-longest outing and his first victory in front of the home crowd, on this day a count of just 8,561.
Lotte got a two-run homer from veteran DH Kazuya Fukuura in the sixth inning to get even, and hot-hitting Tadahito Iguchi (batting .500) put the Marines in front with a bases-loaded scoring flyball to turn things around. A two-run single from Kim Tae Kyun padded the lead, and Yasuhiko Yabuta notched the save with a 1-2-3 ninth.
The Eagles won’t be able to play at home until April 29 because of the damage in Sendai that affected Kleenex Stadium Miyagi, but they looked strong in the first two games of the series. They started Koji Aoyama, a middle reliever last season, and the righty pitched well for 5.2 innings. He got a no-decision after allowing two runs on six hits and a walk with two Ks.

HAWKS 5, BUFFALOES 3
Yuichi Honda highlighted a five-run second inning with a bases-clearing double, and Seiichi Uchikawa had his first three-hit game since moving to Fukuoka via free agency as SoftBank picked up its first victory, holding off Orix at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Uchikawa doubled twice and had an RBI to back Hiroki Yamada (1-0), who held Orix to three runs on four hits and four walks with six Ks over 7.2 innings.
SoftBank’s Nobuhiko Matsunaka, who went 2-for-4, became the 48th player to reach 3,000 total bases with a second-inning single.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

BAYSTARS 7, DRAGONS 1
Brett Harper went 3-for-4 with a homer and two doubles, and righty Kentaro Takasaki worked seven innings of one-run ball as host Yokohama cruised past defending CL champion Chunichi and won its opening series for the first time since 2000.
Terrmel Sledge continued his homer binge, blasting his fourth in two days.

CARP 3, TIGERS 1
Bryan Bullington (1-0) scattered seven hits and two walks over eight scoreless innings, and Jun Hirose’s first-inning, two-run longball helped power Hiroshima past Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.