KYODO NEWS - May 2, 2017 - 22:28 | Sports, All

Tomoyuki Sugano threw his third straight shutout, pitching the Yomiuri Giants to a 5-0 Central League win over the DeNA BayStars on Tuesday.

Before 45,259 at Tokyo Dome, Sugano (4-0) struck out nine without a walk, while allowing five hits. A leadoff single in the fifth was followed by a sacrifice bunt, and the BayStars never got another runner on base as Sugano retired the last 15 he faced.

After a superb effort in Japan's World Baseball Classic semifinal loss in March, Sugano won his season debut on April 4 before getting hammered his second time out. Since then, however, he has gotten the job done, although the third shutout proved to be the hardest, needing 136 pitches to finish the job.

"I've done something amazing. It has not been easy and I've had some tough moments," Sugano said.

His 27 consecutive scoreless innings made him the first CL pitcher with three straight shutouts since Hall of Fame Giants pitcher Masaki Saito did it in 1989. Saito was the Giants' first-team pitching coach in Sugano's 2013 rookie season.

"He taught me many things. Finishing a start was important to him."

The Giants opened the scoring on Hayato Sakamoto's two-out home run in the first off rookie lefty Haruhiro Hamaguchi (2-1). Sakamoto went 4-for-4 and scored three runs. Three infield singles made it 2-0 in the fourth and Casey McGehee's second hit of the game drove in two in the fifth. Yoshiyuki Kamei's pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the seventh completed the scoring.

Japan cleanup hitter Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, who has struggled at the start of the season, went 1-for-4 against his Samurai Japan teammate.

"He has an aura about him," Sugano said. "Today I got the best of it, but I know he'll be prepared for next time and adjust, so I'd better be ready."

The record for consecutive scoreless innings in Nippon Professional Baseball is 64-1/3 innings by Masaichi Kaneda of the CL's Kokutetsu Swallows in 1958.

-----

Swallows 4, Tigers 1

At Jingu Stadium, David Buchanan (2-1) overcame a first-inning leadoff homer to go seven innings and reserve infielder Ryota Yachi drove in three runs as Yakult beat Hanshin.

-----

Carp 5, Dragons 2

At Mazda Stadium, Hiroshima came from a run down, scoring five in the fifth inning against Chunichi after two were out. Seiya Suzuki RBI single tied it and a single by Brad Eldred and another by Takahiro Arai -- whose foul fly was dropped -- put the Carp in front for good in support of Yusuke Nomura (2-1).

-----

Pacific League

Buffaloes 4, Eagles 1

At Kobo Park Miyagi, ace Chihiro Kaneko (5-0) allowed a run on five hits and four walks over eight-plus innings to win his fifth straight start. Home runs from Takahiro Okada and Hiroyuki Nakajima and a fluke RBI triple plated three second-inning runs as Orix beat league-leading Rakuten.

-----

Fighters 11, Marines 0

At Sapporo Dome, Hirotoshi Takanashi (2-2) threw a three-hit shutout and Takuya Nakashima scored three runs as Nippon Ham thumped Lotte, which fell 10 games under .500.

-----

Hawks 14, Lions 4

At Yafuoku Dome, No. 8 hitter Seiji Uebayashi homered twice with five RBIs and No. 9 hitter Kai Takuya hit a grand slam as SoftBank buried Seibu under a 17-hit barrage.

==Kyodo