Yuki Matsui pitched out of a ninth-inning pickle to preserve the Rakuten Eagles' lead and save his 200th career game in a 1-0 Pacific League win over the Seibu Lions on Wednesday.
The lefty became the ninth pitcher to reach the milestone in Nippon Professional Baseball and the youngest at the age of 27 years and five months.
"I was quite tense, so I'm glad we could win," Matsui said. "I'm grateful to those who took a chance on me and gave me opportunities to pitch. I'm really happy to achieve this today, in front of my family and so many fans."
With two on and no outs at Rakuten Mobile Park Miyagi after Hotaka Yamakawa's leadoff double and a walk, the Lions sacrificed both runners into scoring position. Matsui, however, struck out the next batter before getting slugger Takeya Nakamura to fly out to the warning track.
Eagles lefty Takahisa Hayakawa (1-0) struck out five and walked one over six innings. He got the early lead when Ryosuke Tatsumi singled to open the first and scored on a bases-loaded groundout.
The Lotte Marines earned new manager Masato Yoshii his second win, 2-1 over the Nippon Ham Fighters, with both Lotte runs scoring on a seventh-inning wild pitch.
The unbeaten SoftBank Hawks defeated the Japan Series champion Orix Buffaloes 5-0 behind five innings from 42-year-old Tsuyoshi Wada.
In the Central League, the defending champion Yakult Swallows improved to 5-0 with their fourth shutout, 5-0 over the Chunichi Dragons, while the DeNA BayStars won for the first time, beating the Yomiuri Giants 2-0.