Masahiro Tanaka threw seven innings of one-run ball and got plenty of help from catcher Motohiro Shima, who drove in four runs on a pair of singles and triple as the Rakuten Eagles rolled to an 8-2 win over the Orix Buffaloes in their season home opener on Tuesday night.
The Eagles banged out 12 hits at Kleenex Stadium en route to their third consecutive win.
Tanaka (1-0), making his first start of 2013, retired the first six batters he faced before allowing a leadoff walk by Takahiro Okada in the third and leadoff man Tomotaka Sakaguchi's RBI single the same inning. The right-hander struck out four and walked one.