Junki Ito turned 21 years old in January. That's three fewer years than his batterymate Motonobu Tanishige has been a professional baseball player.
Still, the generation gap between them doesn't seem as wide as the one that separated them from the Yomiuri Giants on Thursday night.
Ito threw 7 2/3 strong innings, third-year outfielder Yohei Oshima drove in a pair of runs, and the Chunichi Dragons beat the Yomiuri Giants 5-2 in Game 2 of the Central League Climax Series final stage on Thursday at Tokyo Dome.