Kenshin Kawakami is scheduled to toss five innings against the Rakuten Eagles (at Nagoya Dome) on March 23.

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Sponichi notes that the Dragons could go with Kazuki Yoshimi, Kawakami, and Masahiro Yamamoto for their first three games of the regular season.

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The Dragons decided today to give 1st round draft pick Shuhei Takahashi more playing time by temporarily dropping him to Ni-gun.  Takahashi looked over-matched his last two games: 0-for-9 with 5 strikeouts, two ground ball outs, two fly ball outs.