Baseball: Dragons fall to Giants, but rookie pitcher Kanemaru shines
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Top prospect Yumeto Kanemaru struck out seven in six innings of one-run ball but fell short of his first Nippon Professional Baseball win as the Chunichi Dragons lost 4-2 to the Yomiuri Giants on Friday.
Making his second start as a pro, the 22-year-old southpaw limited the Giants to three hits and no walks at Tokyo Dome.
His only blemish came in the bottom of the fourth when he gave up a solo home run to Riku Masuda.
"I'm making good adjustments, so I'm not worried," said Kanemaru, picked by Chunichi in the first round of last October's draft.
The former Kansai University standout was otherwise sharp, painting the corners with his fastball, which clocked in at over 150 kilometers per hour.
His breaking ball control improved as the game progressed, enabling him to throw consecutive 1-2-3 innings in the fifth and sixth.
Seiji Uebayashi homered twice for the Dragons, tying the game 1-1 in the sixth and putting his team up 2-1 in the top of the eighth before the Giants turned the game around on Naoki Yoshikawa's three-run bomb.
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