Photo: Getty Images/Samurai Japan.
NAGOYA, Japan — The National Baseball Team of Japan defeated the Major League Baseball (MLB) stars, 4-1, Thursday night to close the six-game series with five wins before 25,890 at the Nagoya Dome.
Samuai Japan’s Sosuke Genda (Seibu Lions) hit a bases-loaded triple off MLB starter Brian Johnson (Boston Red Sox) and Ryosuke Kikuchi (Hiroshima Toyo Carp) followed with a sacrifice fly, scoring Genda and giving Japan a 4-0 lead in the second inning.
The runs were enough for Samurai Japan National Team pitchers, who had 11 strikeouts on the night, led by starter Shotaro Kasahara (Chunichi Dragons), who had four strikeouts over 4.2 scoreless innings to earn the win. Yasuaki Yamasaki (Yokohama BayStars) pitched a perfect ninth inning to earn the save. Johnson took the loss.
MLB’s Erasmo Ramírez (Seattle Mariners) eliminated 12 of the first 13 batters he faced in relief, which helped to keep Japan off the scoreboard after the four-run second inning.
National League Rookie of the Year Ronald Acuña Jr. (Atlanta Braves) blasted a solo home run off Japan reliever Yu Satoh (Chunichi Dragons) in the bottom of the eighth inning. MLB then loaded the bases, but Satoh struck out the next two batters to contain the damage.
The Nippon Professional Baseball-backed Japan National Team is 8-3 against MLB big leaguers and also won the series in 2014, when NPB launched a cooperation to play under and develop the “Samurai Japan” Nation Team brand.
Historically in 79 contests dating back to 1986, MLB has won 51 games, while Japan/NPB has won 28 times.
