Taichi Yamano, pitching in Japan's majors for the first time since his disastrous 2021 debut, threw seven sparkling innings to outpitch two-time Sawamura Award winner Tomoyuki Sugano in the Yakult Swallows' 1-0 win Tuesday over the Yomiuri Giants.
Yamano (1-0) allowed four singles and a walk while striking out two at Tokyo Dome, where the Swallows broke the scoreless deadlock in the seventh inning, set up by Domingo Santana's leadoff double.
Sugano (2-4), who has struggled to approach the standard he set when winning the Sawamura Award as Japan's most impressive starting pitcher in 2017 and 2018, allowed a run on six hits and a walk over eight innings.
The left-handed Yamano, Yakult's second-round signing from the 2020 draft, allowed seven runs in his 2021 debut that lasted all of 1-1/3 innings. But on Tuesday, he changed speeds and was able to get batters to hit into a basketful of groundouts.
"I went through stretches of days when I didn't know whether I wanted to keep playing baseball," he said. "I'm glad now that I kept at it."
Swallows relievers Noboru Shimizu and former Giant Kazuto Taguchi each worked a perfect inning of relief to close it down, with Taguchi earning his Central League-leading 25th save.
In the Pacific League, Kona Takahashi (8-6), coming off back-to-back shutouts, threw seven more scoreless innings as the Seibu Lions shut out the SoftBank Hawks 5-0.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto (10-4), winner of the last two Sawamura Awards, threw seven scoreless innings in the Orix Buffaloes' 6-2 victory over the Rakuten Eagles, while The Nippon Ham Fighters came from behind on back-to-back ninth-inning homers to beat the Lotte Marines 3-2.
