Baseball: Near-perfect Gu Lin pitches Fighters past Eagles
KITAHIROSHIMA, Japan (Kyodo) -- Taiwanese right-hander Gu Lin Ruei-yang took a perfect-game bid into the sixth inning en route to his first complete-game shutout in Nippon Professional Baseball on Sunday, as he pitched the Nippon Ham Fighters to a 4-0 win over the Rakuten Eagles.
Gu Lin (2-1) struck out seven and allowed two hits and no walks at Es Con Field Hokkaido, leading the Fighters to their fourth straight victory and the top of the Pacific League.
Kengo Yoshida led off with a home run against Rakuten starter Takayuki Kishi (2-2) in the bottom of the first, and Kazunari Ishii made it 3-0 with his two-run blast in the second.
The 24-year-old Gu Lin, who was the MVP of Taiwanese pro baseball last season, used his fastball to great effect in the 98-pitch outing, drawing compliments from one of his victims.
"With that fastball, he's not an easy pitcher," said Rakuten slugger Hideto Asamura, who homered off Gu Lin in the flamethrower's NPB debut on April 23.
Hiroto Kobukata broke up the bid for perfection when he lined a single to right with two outs in the sixth.
In Sunday's other PL action, the SoftBank Hawks overpowered the Orix Buffaloes 7-1 and the Seibu Lions hammered the Lotte Marines 10-0.
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