All that Raz ...

Eagles’ Rasner finds his form

It’s either a Nippon Ham team in a terrible funk or Darrell Rasner has found himself at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi on Friday night.
Either way, the righty had perhaps his best performance in one-plus years in Japan, tossing his second complete game in an 11-2 victory over last year’s Pacific League winners.
Rasner (1-3) allowed two runs on six hits and two walks with a half-dozen strikeouts. He stopped a personal five-game losing streak dating back to last season, and tossed his first complete game since April 12 of last year.
It was his first win in about a year.
Daisuke Kusano was 2-for-2 with a homer and four RBIs out the No. 7 spot to lead the offense, which pounded out 15 hits.
The Fighters, meanwhile, are in the PL cellar at 7-19.

BUFFALOES 6, LIONS 0
Chihiro Kaneko (2-3) fired a six-hitter, fanning 12 and walking one, and Daisuke Maeda put the game out of reach with a grand slam in the eighth as Orix blanked Seibu at Kyocera Dome.
Kaneko posted his second shutout of the season, and Maeda’s slam was the eighth allowed by loser Hideaki Wakui (3-2), last year’s Sawamura Award winner as the top hurler in Japan.

HAWKS 5, MARINES 3
Nobuhiro Matsuda’s two-run double in the sixth inning turned out to be the difference as SoftBank topped host Lotte.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

SWALLOWS 4, BAYSTARS 0
Only 6,993 saw it on a cold, drizzly night at Yokohama Stadium, but Yakult rookie left-hander Masato Nakazawa tossed his first shutout, firing a four-hitter to beat hapless Yokohama.
Nakazawa, who walked two and fanned five, became the first Swallows rookie hurler to toss a shutout since Sept. 25, 1999.

TIGERS 7, DRAGONS 1
Casey Fossum (1-0) was strong in his second start in Japan, this time getting the win by holding visiting Chunichi to three hits and four walks over five innings.
Takahiro Arai had three hits, including a bases-clearing double in a decisive five-run fifth inning.

GIANTS 10, CARP 4
Alex Ramirez ruined Eric Stults’ Japan debut with a homer and two RBIs as Yomiuri cruised past Hiroshima at Tokyo Dome.