Ryoya Kurihara broke a scoreless tie with a sixth-inning grand slam, leading the SoftBank Hawks to a 5-3 Pacific League win Thursday over the Rakuten Eagles.
With the bases loaded and one out, Kurihara sent a 2-1 pitch from reliever Sora Suzuki over the right-field wall at Fukuoka's PayPay Dome for his fourth home run of the season.
Ryosuke Tatsumi answered back by hitting a three-run homer to pull the Eagles back to 4-3 in the top of the seventh, but Kensuke Kondo added a sacrifice fly for the Hawks in the bottom half of the inning.
"We had the best outcome," Kurihara said. "(Yuito) Mori-san was pitching really well, so everyone on the team wanted to get him a win."
Former closer Mori (1-0) threw six scoreless innings in his season debut.
"I tried to retire one batter at a time from the first inning," Mori said. "I got tired as the game went on, but my teammates helped me a lot."
Roberto Osuna picked up his fifth save. Ryota Takinaka (0-1) took the loss.
In the Central League, Kota Inoue had three extra-base hits and drove in four runs to back a complete-game shutout by Masashi Ito as the Hanshin Tigers pounded the Yomiuri Giants 15-0.
