Carter Stewart Jr. struck out 13 over seven innings of one-run ball, leading the SoftBank Hawks to a 5-1 victory over the Nippon Ham Fighters on Friday.
Stewart (3-2) won his second consecutive start after scattering six hits and walking two in a 107-pitch outing at Es Con Field Hokkaido, just outside Sapporo.
"Their lineup is really good. They have nine guys who perform well throughout the year," the 24-year-old right-hander said. "So just going into the game, I was trying to be extremely aggressive, throw a lot of strikes and I feel like I accomplished that today."
Kenta Imamiya broke a 1-1 tie with a sacrifice fly in the third inning. Two runners scored for the Hawks in the fifth when the Fighters failed to turn an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded.
Nippon Ham left-hander Sachiya Yamasaki (6-3) took the loss.
In other action Friday, Yoshihiro Maru hit a walk-off solo home run in the 10th inning to give the Yomiuri Giants a 3-2 win over the Hiroshima Carp. The DeNA BayStars beat the Chunichi Dragons 5-1.
