Kenta Maeda (9-5) allowed two runs in eight innings on Wednesday to win his third straight start as the Hiroshima Carp humbled the Yokohama BayStars 11-3.
The Carp ace snuffed out a BayStars rally in the fourth, when he got Central League RBI leader Tony Blanco to ground into an inning-ending double play that kept the game scoreless. The Carp gave him the lead in the home half of the inning and Maeda, Japan's pitching star in this year's World Baseball Classic, never looked back. The BayStars entered the game having won four straight.
The 25-year-old right-hander gave up five hits, plunked two batters, and struck out five, while his teammates opened the scoring in the fourth against BayStars ace Daisuke Miura (7-8) on Takahiro Iwamoto's two-run homer.