OITA – Akihito Fujii and Katsumi Yamashita both homered off Hiroki Sanada as the the newly formed Rakuten Eagles beat the Yomiuri Giants 4-3 in a preseason opener on Saturday.
Yoshinobu Takahashi homered over the left-field fence off Rakuten rookie Yasuhiro Ichiba to make it 2-0 for host Yomiuri in the third inning as light snow fell at Shin-Oita Stadium, but the home runs from Fujii and Yamashita, who drove in three runs between them, saw the new boys home in front of a sellout crowd of 13,700.
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