Saitama Seibu Lions ace Kona Takahashi struck out 11 over eight innings to earn his first win of the season in a 3-0 Pacific League victory Saturday over the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
Takahashi (1-0), who last year asked the Lions to make him available to MLB teams through the posting system, surrendered three hits and walked two at Miyazaki's Sun Marine Stadium. He made a good defensive play on a sacrifice bunt attempt after an eighth-inning leadoff double to keep the Hawks scoreless.
"That play on the bunt was a testament to the work I did in spring training," the 26-year-old right-hander said. "The 11 strikeouts were I think the most for me as a pro. I want to keep moving forward and pile up the wins this season."
Takahashi has allowed one run over 16 innings.
The Lions opened the scoring on Aito Takeda's second home run, a first-inning leadoff shot against Tomohisa Ozeki (1-1), who allowed just one run over 8⅓ innings to take the loss.
Seibu scored a pair of unearned runs in the ninth inning before Tatsushi Masuda closed it out for his second save.
Elsewhere in the PL, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters beat the defending Japan Series champion Orix Buffaloes 6-2, while the Chiba Lotte Marines won a 5-4 seesaw game over the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
In the Central League, the Hanshin Tigers knocked off the defending league champion Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1-0, the Hiroshima Carp handed the Yomiuri Giants their fourth straight loss, 6-3, and the Yokohama DeNA BayStars downed the Chunichi Dragons 3-1.