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Buffs ride 14 hits to win a night after scoreless struggle
The Orix Buffaloes and Rakuten Eagles played a normal baseball game on Monday at The Kleenex Box.
There were hits, runs, near-homers, all the things that go along with winning and losing. Yes, strong pitching, batting heroes and a final score -- much unlike the 11-inning scoreless draw the teams played the day before.
A pair of rookies led the way with Shuhei Kojima notching three hits and a run batted in [his first as a pro], and Takayoshi Kawabata adding two hits and an RBI as Orix topped Rakuten 4-3.
The Buffaloes pounded out 14 hits -- the Eagles had 12 -- and Takahiro “T.O.” Okada chipped in with two hits and a run batted in to back Satoshi Komatsu (3-4), who had a quality start with six innings of three-run ball.
Three relievers kept the Eagles scoreless, although Ryo Hijirisawa’s ninth-inning drive the opposite way to left [with two on] curled off just foul before Yoshihisa Hirano closed it out for his fourth save.
Teppei Tsuchiya knocked in all three Rakuten runs with a two-run triple in the fifth and an RBI single in the seventh. Luis Garcia even had his first four-hit game since Sept. 28 last year.
Kawabata’s RBI single in the seventh made him the third player in club history to reach 100 hits in his rookie season.