{"id":672140,"date":"2026-04-10T03:21:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T03:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/672140\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T03:21:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T03:21:29","slug":"npb-todays-highlights-will-rakuten-eagles-s-shoji-achieve-a-perfect-3-0-record-as-the-opening-day-pitcher-a-feat-not-accomplished-since-norimoto-in-2020-orix-buffaloes-s-soya-remains-undefeated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/672140\/","title":{"rendered":"[NPB Today&#8217;s Highlights] Will Rakuten Eagles &#8216;s Shoji achieve a perfect 3-0 record as the opening day pitcher, a feat not accomplished since Norimoto in 2020? Orix Buffaloes &#8216;s Soya remains undefeated against Rakuten Eagles on the road | Pacific League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[NPB Highlights Today] Will Rakuten Eagles &#8216;s Shoji become the first opening pitcher since Norimoto in 2020 to achieve a 3-0 record? Orix Buffaloes &#8216;s Soya remains undefeated against Rakuten Eagles on the road.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_source\">Sports Hochi<\/p>\n<p>                    April 10, 2026 12:00<\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260409-OHT1I51619-L.jpg\" width=\"871\" height=\"1200\" alt=\"Kosei Shoji who will start in the game against Orix Buffaloes on the 10th (Photo by Masahiko Ikeuchi)\" data-wovn-src:-original-alt=\"\uff11\uff10\u65e5\u306e\u30aa\u30ea\u30c3\u30af\u30b9\u6226\u306b\u5148\u767a\u3059\u308b\u8358\u53f8\u5eb7\u8aa0\uff08\u30ab\u30e1\u30e9\u30fb\u6c60\u5185\u3000\u96c5\u5f66\uff09\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">\u2606 Rakuten Eagles vs. Orix Buffaloes (18:00, Rakuten Eagles Mobile) Rakuten Eagles: Shoji, Orix Buffaloes: Soya<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">Rakuten Eagles The team lost their first two games Nippon-Ham from the 7th, and will continue to host Orix Buffaloes on their home field from the 9th. The starter is Soji, who started the season pitcher and has won two games in two starts. If they win three games in three games, they will become the first team to win three games in three games in the season opener since Norimoto and Wakui in 2008.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">Rakuten Eagles &#8216;s opening three wins have been successful so far.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">2009 Masahiro Tanaka<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">11th year, Hisashi Iwakuma \u2606<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">13th year, Takashi Kawai<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">15 years Ray<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">16th year Kodai Norimoto\u2606<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">17 years old, Wataru Karashima<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">20 years Kodai Norimoto\u2606<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">20 years Hideaki Wakui<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">[Note] \u2606 indicates the opening day pitcher<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">Of these seven players, two have served as opening day pitcher three times. Will the third player in the team&#8217;s history to serve as opening day pitcher for the fourth time achieve a perfect 3-0 record for the first three games of the season?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">On the other hand, Orix Buffaloes &#8216;s starting pitcher, Soya, will be making his first appearance of the season. He has the most wins against Rakuten Eagles with six victories. When considering only away games, he boasts an absolute dominance Rakuten Eagles, with five wins and zero losses in six appearances. So, who will emerge victorious?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">(Other cards)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">\u2606 The Giants vs. Yakult (18:00, Tokyo Dome) The Giants: Takemaru, Yakult: Yoshimura<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">\u2606DeNA vs. Hiroshima (18:00, Yokohama) DeNA = Higashi, Hiroshima = Tokoda<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">\u2606 Chunichi vs. Hanshin Tigers (18:00, Vantelin Dome) Chunichi = Yanagi, Hanshin Tigers = Murakami<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">\u2606 Seibu Lions vs. Lotte (18:00, Saitama Prefectural Omiya Stadium) Seibu Lions: Watanabe, Lotte: Kawamura<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-detail_text\">\u203b Match card (start time, stadium) and starting pitcher order<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[NPB Highlights Today] Will Rakuten Eagles &#8216;s Shoji become the first opening pitcher since Norimoto in 2020 to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2302],"tags":[5,2353,2352],"class_list":{"0":"post-672140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-npb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-nippon-professional-baseball","10":"tag-npb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116378265121330714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}