Kohei Arihara struck out nine and finished what he started in the SoftBank Hawks' 4-2 Pacific League victory over Roki Sasaki and the Lotte Marines on Tuesday.
Arihara allowed three hits and a walk, all after his teammates gave him a 2-0 fourth-inning lead at Zozo Marine Stadium.
"I wanted to work carefully tonight and locate well, and I was able to do that," Arihara (2-2) said after throwing 107 pitches.
Sasaki (2-1) struck out four while allowing three runs, two earned, on five hits and two walks over seven innings. Poor command cost him in the fourth inning when the first two Hawks singled on forkballs he hung up in the zone.
The hard-throwing right-hander caught a break when another poor forkball ended up as a warning-track out, but luck swung the Hawks' way. Kensuke Kondo hit a tough forkball for an RBI single, and a throwing error allowed another run to score on a potential double-play ground ball.
Arihara retired the first 13 batters before Koki Yamaguchi homered in the fifth, and Gregory Polanco homered in the seventh. But the right-hander never trailed and struck out Polanco to end the game.
"He burned me for a home run, so I wanted to strike him out," Arihara said.
Among other games on Tuesday, the Yomiuri Giants shut out the Chunichi Dragons 2-0 in the Central League, where the Hiroshima Carp did the same to the Yakult Swallows.
