Kohei Arihara won his rematch with Orix ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Tuesday, throwing a six-hit shutout to pitch the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks to a 5-0 Pacific League win over the Buffaloes and snap his team’s 12-game losing streak.
Ten days after Arihara (4-2) took the loss in a duel with Yamamoto, he struck out 11 while walking two at Kyocera Dome Osaka. Yamamoto (9-4) allowed three runs over 7⅔ innings.
“I’m happiest that the team won,” said Arihara, who signed with SoftBank after spending the past two seasons in the United States. “I really wanted to stay out there and pitch until the end of the ninth inning. I wasn’t that focused on throwing a shutout.”
The Hawks opened the scoring by manufacturing a third-inning run. Tatsuru Yanagimachi reached on an infield single and advanced around the bases on an error, a sacrifice and a ground out.
The visitors took out some insurance in the eighth when Yuki Yanagita chased Yamamoto with a two-out two-run double. Yanagimachi doubled in two more runs in the ninth to ice the contest.
Elsewhere, the Seibu Lions’ Kona Takahashi (7-6) threw his second straight shutout, a 3-0 victory over the Chiba Lotte Marines, while the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles downed the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 3-1, handing them their 13th straight loss.
In the Central League, the league-leading Hanshin Tigers and their nearest pursuers, the Hiroshima Carp, both came from behind.
The Tigers beat the Yomiuri Giants 4-2, while the Carp won their eighth straight, 6-3 over the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. The Yokohama DeNA BayStars held off the Chunichi Dragons 5-3.