The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks’ trailblazing American right-hander Carter Stewart earned his second Nippon Professional Baseball win Sunday after throwing five innings of one-run ball in a 6-1 decision against the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.
Although he struggled to locate the zone at times, issuing six walks, the 23-year-old Stewart (2-2) allowed just three hits while striking out two as the Hawks secured the Pacific League series 2-1 at Es Con Field Hokkaido.
The Hawks batters gave him a 2-0 lead in the third after loading up against Fighters starter Cody Ponce (0-4). They opened the scoring when Taiki Narama’s wayward throw to first allowed Yuki Yanagita to reach on an error, and added a second run on Ponce’s bases-loaded walk.
Nippon Ham plated their only run when Chusei Mannami scored on Torai Fushimi’s groundout as Stewart battled through a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the bottom of the fourth.
“Today was a grind,” Stewart said. “I definitely didn’t have my best stuff, but I’m glad to have gotten out of there with one run and given the team the chance to win.”
The 198-centimeter Florida native made headlines by rejecting an offer from the Atlanta Braves, who made Stewart the eighth overall pick in MLB’s 2018 amateur draft, to become the first marquee American amateur to start his pro career in Japan.
SoftBank added three runs in the eighth with RBIs from Kenta Imamiya, Richard Sunagawa and Masaki Mimori.