Yu Darvish struck out a career-high 15 and pitched his first shutout of the season in a duel with Tohoku Rakuten ace Hisashi Iwakuma, leading the first-place Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters past the Eagles 2-0 on Tuesday.
In a meeting of potential future major leaguers, Darvish held Rakuten to six hits in a 136-pitch outing at Kleenex Stadium, where the Eagles lost their fourth in a row.
Darvish (4-1), tipped to be Japan's next biggest export to the majors, spent his high school years in northern Sendai at Tohoku High School. Miyagi Prefecture was one of the areas hardest hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.