Shunsuke Watanabe saw a no-hitter bid come to an abrupt end, but he helped the Chiba Lotte Marines to their fourth straight win with a superb outing in a 6-0 victory over the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in the Pacific League on Saturday.
Watanabe (2-2) carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning before being ejected for hitting Rakuten leadoff man Teppei Tsuchiya in the head with a pitch at Chiba Marine Stadium.
The submarine right-hander struck out six and walked none, but he hit Tsuchiya twice in six-plus innings of work.
Koichi Hori hit a solo homer to left in the first off Masahiko Kaneda (0-1), and Lotte pushed its lead to 3-0 in the fourth on an RBI double by Toshiaki Imae and a Saburo Omura sacrifice fly. Val Pascucci added a three-run home run to center field in the sixth to make it 6-0.