Second-year pitchers Hirotaka Egusa and Naohisa Sugiyama each gave up a solo homer but limited the damage to two runs and six hits as the Hanshin Tigers defeated the Yokohama BayStars 6-2 in a preseason game on Tuesday.
In other games, Orix BlueWave topped the Chunichi Dragons 4-1 as Kazuhiko Shitonai went 2-for-2 with two RBIs while Yuichiro Mukae and Daisuke Maeda chipped in a run apiece for Orix. Also Tuesday, the Yakult Swallows hammered the Daiei Hawks 9-0 with Billy Martin driving in a team-high five runs for Yakult.
In other baseball news, Shigeo Nagashima is gradually regaining his ability to speak and eat after being hospitalized with a stroke last week, and began rehabilitation with a specialist Tuesday, a Yomiuri Giants public relations official said.
According to Yomiuri official Atsushi Harasawa, the 68-year-old former Giants manager and manager of Japan's national baseball team had been put on drips since he checked into the Tokyo hospital last Thursday.