Yu Darvish threw his sixth complete game of the season to finish the first half of the season on a high as the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters beat the Chiba Lotte Marines 2-1 to complete a three-game sweep on Wednesday.
Darvish (12-3) allowed two hits, struck out six and walked four at Sapporo Dome. He also joined Seibu's Hideaki Wakui as the only 12-game winners in Japanese baseball. The Pacific League-leading Fighters won their fifth in a row.
"I have stopped trying to overpower batters and in that sense I think I have grown. I was just trying not to give up runs as I pitched," Darvish said. "This was the last game before the All-Star break, so we wanted to finish with a victory."