Ace in the role …

Tanaka outduels ‘Prince’ for 1st win

Rakuten hurler Masahiro Tanaka showed the new face of the Nippon Ham Fighters how an ace deals with adversity.

Tanaka wriggled through early trouble and fired eight strong innings, while “Handkerchief Prince” Yuki Saito saw just how tough it is to win against top-flight pitching in a 2-1 Eagles victory on Friday at Sapporo Dome.

Tanaka (1-1), who played high school ball at nearby Tomakomai, surrendered a run in the first but scattered seven hits and two walks with seven Ks for earn his win of the season.

Saito (2-1) only gave up two hits, but got the hook after six-plus innings when he allowed his seventh hit of the game. He had four walks and fanned three, but took the loss in the second pro matchup between a pair of high school stars who faced each other at Koshien Stadium in 2006.

“This win is big for me because of the location and I'm glad I could pitch like this in front of all the fans who came out to cheer for me and the team,” said Tanaka, whose team had lost two straight.

“But more than that, it’s big to take the first game of a series.”

Luis Terrero put the Eagles in front with a two-out single in the third, and Darrell Rasner worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his third save.

MARINES 1, HAWKS 1

Wily Mo Pena’s solo blast in the bottom of the seventh got SoftBank even and the 3.5-hour rule halted play against Lotte at FYJ Dome.


CENTRAL LEAGUE

GIANTS 6, BAYSTARS 0

Shinnosuke Abe slugged a pair of solo homers and Hirokazu Sawamura (1-2) tossed his second career one-hitter as Yomiuri blanked host Yokohama.

Sawamura fanned 10 and walked three.

TIGERS 3, DRAGONS 1

Atsushi Nomi (2-0) held Chunichi to six hits with no walks and six Ks over eight innings, and Kyuji Fujikawa loaded the bases in the ninth before closing it out for his fifth save as Hanshin won at Koshien Stadium.