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Shiomi fires 4-hitter for 1st pro shutout as Eagles get 1st win

Rakuten Eagles skipper Senichi Hoshino, whether toying with the TV audience or simply exhibiting some tough love, said he had no idea second-year hurler Takahiro Shiomi had never blanked a team.

After the lefty, who was a Pacific League Rookie of the Year candidate last season, fired a four-hitter and shut out the SoftBank Hawks 5-0 at The Kleenex Box on Tuesday, Hoshino took the best cut against Shiomi all day when told it was his young hurler’s first shutout.

“Really, is that so,” said Hoshino, also in his second year with the club. “Well, it’s about time.”

Shiomi walked three and fanned seven, and Jose Fernandez homered and scored twice as Rakuten woke up from its early season funk -- in which it was swept at home in three over the weekend by the Lotte Marines -- to win its first game and hand SoftBank its first loss.

The Eagles supported Shiomi with some two-out rallies. After offseason pickup Fernandez stroked the team’s first homer of the season [and first with the team since Sept. 30, 2008 in his first Sendai stint] in the second, Ryo Hijirisawa drew a bases-loaded walk off loser Hiroki Yamada in the fourth.

Fernandez, who was with the Eagles from 2006-08, reached on a two-out error in the fifth and Yosuke Takasu walked before Teppei Tsuchiya ripped a ball to the gap in right center for a 4-0 lead.

“For me, and probably for the fans, a line drive like that by me was something that has been rare,” Tsuchiya quipped.

The Eagles got help to score a cheap run in the eighth. Wataru Nishimura, who came on as a pinch runner in the sixth, singled with two down. Yasushi Kamiuchi wild pitched him to second and Nishimura raced all the way home when Kamiuchi uncorked a second wild one that Toru Hosokawa chased but couldn’t get home in time to get the out.

BUFFALOES 5, FIGHTERS 4

Shogo Akada broke a 3-3 tie with a fourth-inning RBI single, and Keiji Obiki followed with an RBI base hit that turned out to be the winning run in a three-run rally as Orix topped Nippon Ham at Sapporo Dome for its first win of the season.

Four relievers combined to fire four scoreless innings before closer Mamoru Kishida in the ninth held the Fighters off two hits.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

CARP 4, GIANTS 0

Kan Otake fired seven scoreless innings and Yoshikazu Kura had two hits and three RBIs as Hiroshima won its home opener at The Zoom.

Otake went seven innings, scattering five hits and a walk with five strikeouts to match his win total of last season.

Giants starter D.J. Houlton, the second offseason big free agent pickup from the SoftBank Hawks, took the loss after yielding two runs over 6.1 innings.


The Marines and Lions at Seibu Dome; the Tigers and Swallows at Jingu Stadium; and the Dragons and BayStars at Yokohama Stadium were all rained out.