KYODO NEWS - May 17, 2017 - 22:54 | Sports

One-time Yakult phenom Yoshinori Sato won his first game of the season and beat the Yomiuri Giants for the first time since September 2011 as the Swallows cruised to a 7-0 victory in the Central League on Wednesday.

In his second start this year, Sato (1-1) threw seven scoreless innings at Tokyo Dome, striking out five and holding the Giants to two hits and two walks. Yomiuri failed to reach third base against Sato.

The right-hander had his longest outing since coming back last season after a five-year layoff due to shoulder surgery, and the Yakult lineup backed its former ace with a barrage of 14 hits.

Yuhei Takai had four hits including two doubles. He also had two RBIs, as did Tetsuto Yamada and Shoitsu Omatsu.

Sato successfully bounced back from his previous start May 5, when he could not get out of the fourth after allowing three earned runs on six hits and two walks against the DeNA BayStars.

"I was a little nervous," Sato said. "I had a pretty subpar outing last time and I wanted to make sure I was locked in today. I was aggressive, yet careful at the same time."

The Giants were shut out for just the second time this season as Sato combined with Josh Lueke and Preston Guilmet for a five-hitter.

"The guys behind me really had my back tonight," Sato said. "I took it one inning at a time, and I'm glad about the way things turned out."

"I think as a team we're starting to pick it up now. I hope we can put together a bunch of wins."

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Tigers 2, Dragons 1

At Koshien Stadium, last-place Chunichi wasted a strong start from Raul Valdes (1-2), who held first-place Hanshin to two earned runs on three hits -- including a fifth-inning solo shot to Fumihito Haraguchi -- and a pair of walks in eight innings.

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BayStars 5, Carp 4, 10 innings

At Mazda Stadium, Jose Lopez broke a 4-4 tie in the 10th with a one-out, bases-loaded sac fly to put DeNA ahead for good against Hiroshima, who lost a 4-1 lead going into the top of the ninth.

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Pacific League

Eagles 15, Fighters 6

At Morioka Stadium, first-place Rakuten's Takahiro Norimoto (5-1) struck out 12, but allowed five earned runs on five hits and four walks in a rollercoaster seven-inning outing to beat Nippon Ham.

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Lions 8, Marines 4

At Zozo Marine Stadium, Seibu stretched its winning streak to a season-high five games as the Lions pounded out 17 hits against Lotte, which has lost seven in a row for the first time in two years.

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Hawks 6, Buffaloes 3

At Kyocera Dome Osaka, Yuki Yanagita set the tone for SoftBank with a first-inning solo shot and drove in two more runs in the sixth as the Hawks defeated Orix.

==Kyodo