Photo: Getty Images/Samurai Japan.
NAGOYA, Japan — Japan’s National Baseball Team scored five answered runs in the seven and eighth innings to edge the Major League Baseball (MLB) stars, 6-5, Wednesday night at the Nagoya Dome before a crowd of 28,319.
The win clinched the six-game series for Samurai Japan, with the squad filled with Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) stars winning four of the first five games against their MLB counterparts.
MLB had moved out to a commanding 5-1 lead, following a Rhys Hoskins two-run home run, a Yadier Molina RBI double, and RBI singles by Juan Soto and Carlos Santana.
Hotaka Yamakawa’s pinch-hit, two-run double in the seventh inning tied the game, 5-5.
Japan National Team catcher Takuya Kai went 2-for-4 with two RBI on the night and delivered the decisive blow in the bottom of the eighth inning, with an RBI double off MLB’s Dan Otero that scored Seiji Uebayashi from first base.
Yu Satoh and Yuki Matsui pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings to earn the respective win and save.
Kazuma Okamoto had a solo home run in the second inning.
MLB’s starting pitcher, Ju Guerra, had a masterful performance, striking out seven and allowing just one hit over five innings. Otero was hit with the loss.
The six-game series will conclude Thursday (15 November) at the Nagoya Dome. Samurai Japan also won the last series with MLB in 2014, three games to two.
