Strong starts -- except for one…

Pacific League openers
He looked like Yu Darvish, his motion was the same, but the guy throwing for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters on Opening Day looked more like … a regular pitcher in a 5-3 Opening Day loss to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks on Saturday at Sapporo Dome.
Darvish did have 13 punchouts – a club record in an opener -- but he allowed three hits to aging infielder Hiroki Kokubo, who had a double and two RBI to key the victory.
Darvish, one of Japan’s heroes in last year’s second straight World Baseball Classic-title run, gave up a soft single and a bouncer that snuck through the infield before the defense behind him committed an error that led to two second-inning runs. He allowed five runs on seven hits and no walks for last year's Pacific League champs.
The righty threw a 147-pitch complete game but the Fighters couldn’t generate enough offense to overcome the mistakes.
The Hawks won their third straight season opener, with Toshiya Sugiuchi going six innings and surrendering three runs on seven hits for the win.
“Today, we won this one on defense,” said Hawks manager Koji Akiyama. “Sugiuchi went out hard, but the guys behind him did their work the way they are supposed to.”

BUFFALOES 1, EAGLES 0
Two new managers watched their offenses struggle against some fine pitching in their respective debuts. Akinobu Okada’s Orix Buffaloes downed Marty Brown’s Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 1-0 behind Chihiro Kaneko’s four-hitter at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Ryo Hijirisawa whacked first pitch of the game off Kaneko up the middle for a single. That’s about all that went right for the Eagles against the right-hander.
Hijirisawa ran the Eagles out of the inning by trying to advance on a comebacker to Kaneko and then blew up the ninth with a double play after the leadoff batter had reached.
Kaneko allowed just four hits while fanning six and walking none. He beat 2008 Sawamura Award winner Hisashi Iwakuma, who also threw a complete game -- allowing five hits and fanning seven -- in the first 1-0 Opening Day game in Japan since 1996.
Brown lost his first opener after winning all four while skipper of the Hiroshima Carp.

LIONS 2, MARINES 1
Saitama Seibu Lions ace Hideaki Wakui kept the score close, and Hiroyuki Nakajima and Dee Brown kept the visiting Chiba Lotte Marines down.
Brown’s first hit in Japan cleared the fence to put the Lions up in the seventh inning, just after Nakajima had blasted a solo shot to tie things up at 1-1.
Brian Sikorski, who was a Marine last season, notched the save with a 1-2-3 ninth.
Wakui, the reigning Sawamura Award winner, fired 145 pitches, fanned 11, gave up seven hits, walked three and hit a batter for his second straight Opening Day win.
Marines starter Yoshihisa Naruse only allowed three hits, but two of them left the yard and he took the complete-game loss.