Rakuten 7, at SoftBank 0

FUKUOKA, Japan (Interstat) — Takahisa Hayakawa pitched seven scoreless innings and Itsuki Murabayashi drove in four runs as the Rakuten Golden Eagles shut out the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 7-0 on Sunday evening at Fukuoka Yahuoku! Dome. Hayakawa allowed three hits, struck out nine and walked one while lowering his earned run average to 0.00 over his past two starts. The right-hander’s performance ended a three-game losing streak for Rakuten and snapped SoftBank’s two-game winning streak in the head-to-head series. Rakuten improved to 13-16-1, while SoftBank dropped to 16-14-1. The game remained scoreless through six innings as Rakuten’s Hayakawa and SoftBank’s… Read more...