SENDAI – Taishi Nakagawa belted a first-inning grand slam and Wataru Karashima tossed seven shutout innings as the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles snapped their three-game losing streak with a 5-1 win on Sunday over the Pacific League-leading Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
SoftBank’s Hiroki Yamada (1-1), pitching in just his fourth game of the season, struck out two after allowing a leadoff single, but a hit batsman and a walk loaded the bases. Nakagawa connected on a fat 2-0 fastball over the center-field wall for his first grand slam in eight years since turning pro.
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