03/20/2008 Orix Buffaloes 2, Saitama Seibu Lions 1

Greg LaRocca drove in both runs off Hideaki Wakui and Chihiro
Kaneko pitched seven strong innings in his first opening-day start as
Orix edged past Seibu in a game between last year's bottom two teams.

LaRocca put Orix ahead in the third with an RBI double and
lofted a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the eighth after Takayuki G.G.
Sato hit an opening-day homer for the second straight year to tie the
score in the fourth.

Kaneko (1-0) scattered six hits while striking out 10 and
walking one. Tsuyoshi Kikuchihara pitched the eighth and Daisuke Kato
worked the ninth for the save.

Wakui (0-1) held the Buffaloes to four hits but his
eighth-inning throwing error that followed a leadoff walk to Takeshi
Hidaka proved costly for him and the Lions, who slumped to the bottom
half of the league last season for the first time in 26 years.

Category:

Sports

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• baseball
• npb
• orix
• buffaloes
• chihiro
• kaneko
• greg
• larocca
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• 金子千尋
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