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 Yugo Maeda matched zeros. Maeda allowed four hits over five innings, striking out one and walking one, before being replaced by Shuto Ogata.

Rakuten broke through in the seventh inning. Murabayashi led off with a single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Daisuke Nakashima. Yoshiaki Watanabe singled to put runners at the corners, and Hikaru Ohta lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to score Murabayashi for a 1-0 lead.

The Golden Eagles added two runs in the eighth. Ryuya Taira was hit by a pitch, and Ryosuke Tatsumi singled. After Fumiya Kurokawa sacrificed the runners into scoring position, Hideto Asamura was intentionally walked to load the bases. Murabayashi then hit a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Taira. Nakashima followed with a double down the left-field line to drive in Tatsumi, making it 3-0.

Rakuten broke the game open with four runs in the ninth inning. Ohta led off with a single, and after a flyout and a popout, Tatsumi walked. Kurokawa reached on a fielder’s choice, but an error on the play loaded the bases with two outs. Asamura walked to force in a run, and Murabayashi cleared the bases with a double to center field, scoring three runs to stretch the lead to 7-0.

Hayakawa (2-0) was replaced by Ren Kajiya after the seventh. Kajiya pitched a scoreless eighth, allowing one hit. Sora Suzuki worked a perfect ninth, allowing one hit and striking out one to close out the shutout.

Ogata (0-2) took the loss, allowing one earned run on two hits over one inning, with one strikeout. Darwinzon Hernandez threw a scoreless inning for SoftBank, striking out one.

Taisei Makihara had three hits for SoftBank, including a double. Riku Watanabe doubled. For Rakuten, Murabayashi went 3-for-4 with four RBIs. Tatsumi had two hits.

The attendance was 40,122, and the game lasted 2 hours, 54 minutes.

Rakuten had lost its previous two games against SoftBank by a combined 9-1 score, but Hayakawa’s dominance turned the series momentum. The Golden Eagles play next at home against the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters on Monday, while the Hawks travel to face the Saitama Seibu Lions on Monday.

Interstat’s game simulator projected a final score of SoftBank 3, Rakuten 2, and its ELO system gave the Hawks a 67.90 percent probability of winning. SoftBank entered as a pregame favorite with a spread of minus 1.5 runs. The total of 7 runs went over the over-under line of 7.5.