Yu Darvish picked up his first career win in his first professional start Wednesday as the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters downed the Hiroshima Carp 8-2 in interleague play.
Darvish, who struck out three and gave up two runs on nine hits, held the Carp scoreless over eight innings before giving up solo homers to Takahiro Arai and Kenjiro Nomura in the top of the ninth inning at Sapporo Dome. Yoshitaka Hashimoto came on in the ninth to get the final three outs.
Darvish, whose father is Iranian and mother Japanese, tossed a no-hitter for Tohoku High School in the high school baseball championship last March. In December, he signed a $145,000 contract with the Fighters.