TOKYO (Interstat) — Yasunobu Okugawa struck out nine as the Yakult Swallows defeated the Yokohama BayStars 7-2 on Friday evening, Aug. 14, at Meiji Jingu Stadium.

The Swallows took an early lead in the first inning when Shu Masuda doubled in a run. They broke the game open in the sixth, scoring six times. Ruito Nishimura singled in two runs, and Hideki Nagaoka followed with a grand slam to make it 7-0. The BayStars answered with two runs in the seventh on Keito Mori’s double, but that was all they could muster against Yakult’s bullpen, which held them scoreless the rest of the way.

Okugawa (6-7) allowed two runs on four hits over 6 2/3 innings with no walks. Kentaro Taira (4-7) took the loss after giving up seven hits and four earned runs in 5 1/3 innings. The game took 3 hours 12 minutes before an announced crowd of 28,969.

Yokohama managed only four hits and fell to 48-54-3. Yakult improved to 47-55-1 with its second straight win.