The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles wanted to win this game. They wanted to win for themselves, but mostly they wanted to win in order to give their fans in Tohoku a little something to feel good about.
Which is exactly what they did.
Motohiro Shima hit a tie-breaking three-run homer in the seventh inning, Hisashi Iwakuma pitched into the ninth and the Eagles held off a late rally to edge the Chiba Lotte Marines 6-4 in both teams' season opener on Tuesday at QVC Marine Field.