Baseball: Kurihara powers Hawks to 4th straight win

Ryoya Kurihara homered and drove in three runs as the SoftBank Hawks beat the 2022 Japan Series champion Orix Buffaloes 6-1 Tuesday to extend their season-opening winning streak to four games.

Two-run homers by Kensuke Kondo, who was a key member of Japan’s World Baseball Classic-winning team, and Kurihara gave the Hawks a 4-0 lead in the sixth inning at Kyocera Dome Osaka. Kurihara later added an RBI single in the eighth to go with his third home run of the season.

Shuta Ishikawa (1-0) threw seven scoreless innings, striking out seven and walking none. “I made a good start to the season,” Ish...