Baseball: Japan sweeps Netherlands after another 1-hit shutout

Six pitchers combined on another one-hit shutout as Japan routed the Netherlands 9-0 on Thursday to sweep a two-game exhibition series, allowing only two hits over 18 innings.Manager Hirokazu Ibata picked a young team with next year's World Baseball Classic in mind and the players delivered back-to-back commanding wins at Kyocera Dome Osaka after prevailing 5-0 in Wednesday's opener.Atsuki Taneichi of the Lotte Marines and Ryosuke Otsu of the SoftBank Hawks each threw two perfect innings before Japan scored seven runs in the top of the fifth, first on an error from the Netherlands right fie…READ FULL ARTICLE