Baseball: Ozeki tosses 5-plus shutout innings as Hawks blank Eagles

Tomohisa Ozeki threw five-plus shutout innings on four hits as the SoftBank Hawks beat their fellow playoff-berth chasers Rakuten Eagles 6-0 in the Pacific League on Monday.

First-inning RBI singles from Yuki Yanagita and Akira Nakamura off former New York Yankee Masahiro Tanaka (7-11) gave the Hawks a 2-0 lead before Ozeki (5-7) survived a bases-loaded jam with a double play in the top of the second at PayPay Dome.

Tatsuru Yanagimachi doubled and scored on a ground out in the home half as Tanaka, who allowed five hits and a walk while striking out one over five innings, suffered his third str...