Shota Morishita broke a scoreless deadlock with a seventh-inning home run as Japan beat Taiwan 4-0 Thursday on the opening day of the Asia Professional Baseball Championship.
The Hanshin Tigers rookie homered to left off Taiwan's starting pitcher Gu Lin Ruei-yang, who retired the first 16 batters and worked 6-2/3 innings of one-run ball at Tokyo Dome.
Three-time World Baseball Classic champion Japan, playing its first official game under new manager Hirokazu Ibata, broke the game open with a three-run ninth.
The host country finished with 10 hits, five of them in the ninth.
Yuji Akahoshi threw 4-2/3 innings for Japan before four relievers completed a three-hit shutout.
Earlier in the day, Roh Si Hwan hit a walk-off single in the 10th inning to give South Korea a 3-2 win over Australia.
The four teams will play a round robin until Saturday, with the top two teams set to meet in Sunday's final.
