Gary Burnham, Tadahito Iguchi and Tomoya Satozaki had two hits apiece as the Chiba Lotte Marines trounced the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 9-1 to kick off the Japanese preseason on Saturday.
Hiroyuki Kobayashi pitched three hitless innings, striking out three and walking none at Big N Stadium. Iguchi, who batted in the cleanup spot, drove in three runs, featuring a two-run single in the third for Bobby Valentine's team.
Rakuten starter Darrel Rasner got off to a rocky start in his Japan debut, yielding two runs in two innings.
Hawks 3, Carp 0
At Miyakonojo Stadium, rookie right-hander Shingo Tatsumi pitched four scoreless innings, allowing three hits and two walks, and Ryuma Kidokoro hit a sixth-inning solo homer and drove in two runs to build his case for a starting position in the outfield.
Veteran Masayuki Hasegawa pitched three scoreless frames for Hiroshima.
Swallows 6, Dragons 3
At Chatan Stadium, Yasushi Iihara and Ryuji Miyade ignited the offense with three hits each while Yuichi Matsumoto and Tsuyoshi Ueda both went deep in Yakult's win over Chunichi.
Starter Shohei Tateyama surrendered three hits with no walks in two scoreless frames. Atsushi Fujii went 3-for-5 and scored a run for the Dragons.