Rookie Shota Oba pitched his second shutout of the season, striking out a club record 16 batters as the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks blanked the Chiba Lotte Marines 3-0 on Saturday.
Oba allowed four hits and recorded his second shutout without walking a batter in a 132-pitch outing.
The 22-year-old right-hander retired 18 in a row, including seven consecutive strikeouts, after allowing a first-inning single to Tsuyoshi Nishioka and got in and out of jams in the seventh and eighth.