Baseball: Swallows rookie restarts career with gem against Giants

Taichi Yamano, pitching in Japan’s majors for the first time since his disastrous 2021 debut, threw seven sparkling innings to outpitch two-time Sawamura Award winner Tomoyuki Sugano in the Yakult Swallows’ 1-0 win Tuesday over the Yomiuri Giants.

Yamano (1-0) allowed four singles and a walk while striking out two at Tokyo Dome, where the Swallows broke the scoreless deadlock in the seventh inning, set up by Domingo Santana’s leadoff double.

Sugano (2-4), who has struggled to approach the standard he set when winning the Sawamura Award as Japan’s most impressive starting pitcher in 2017 and 20...