Hayato Sakamoto took the lead away from the Hanshin Tigers in the first inning. In the ninth, he snatched away their last chance to avoid having their name beside a record no team wants to own.
The Yomiuri captain hit the first of the team’s three home runs early in the contest and started a game-ending double play to stamp out a ninth-inning rally, as the Giants edged their Central League rivals 5-4 in front of 36,485 at Tokyo Dome on Saturday afternoon.
“Being able to take the lead in the early innings was big for us,” Giants manager Tatsunori Hara said.
Yomiuri won its fifth straight to improve to 7-1 and remained red-hot to begin the year. The Tigers, meanwhile, are now officially off to a historically bad start.
Hanshin fell to 0-8 and tied the 1979 Yakult Swallows for the longest losing streak to start a season by a Central League team. The NPB record of 12 straight losses is shared by the 1955 Tombow Unions and the 1979 Seibu Lions.
The Tigers frantically tried to avoid the mark in the ninth. Hanshin entered the inning trailing 5-3 but looked set for a rally after Mel Rojas Jr. and Koji Chikamoto drew walks to start the frame. Takumi Nakano moved the runners up a base with a sacrifice bunt.
Yoshio Itoi sent a wave of excitement through the Tigers fans in left field with a single up the middle that drove in a run and cut the deficit to one.
That brought second-year slugger Teruaki Sato to the plate with a chance to either tie the score or give his team the lead. Sato instead hit a line drive to Sakamoto, who caught the ball and fired it to third to complete the double play and end the game.
The Giants hit three home runs against the Tigers for the second straight night. Sakamoto homered in the win on Friday and hit a two-run shot in the first on Saturday. Yoshihiro Maru added a solo blast to lead off the second, while Gregory Polanco went deep in the third.
For Polanco, it was his second home run in as many games and third in his last four contests.
Giants pitcher Natsuki Toda relieved starter Iori Yamasaki in the fourth and was credited with the first win of his career after 1⅓ innings of scoreless relief.
“I wasn’t the starter, but I’m really happy to get the win,” he said.
Toda, 21, was taken as a developmental player in the 2020 draft after playing in the Shikoku Island League following high school.
“First of all, I would like to tell my parents I have my first win,” he said.
Rookie Taisei Ota, another young pitcher, earned the save after a few tense moments in the ninth.
“I thought Ota would hold them down for us,” Toda said about the ninth-inning jam. “So I just watched and had faith.”
The 22-year-old Ota has been busy, with six appearances and six saves in the Giants’ first eight games.
Tigers starter Ippei Ogawa allowed all five Yomiuri runs in 4⅓ innings. Ogawa (0-2) was charged with the loss.
The Tigers got off to a promising start, loading the bases with one out in the first after a leadoff single by Chikamoto pair of one-out walks drawn by Itoi and Sato. Yusuke Oyama put two runs on the board with a double to give Hanshin an early lead.
The advantage did not last very long.
Naoki Yoshikawa doubled to start the bottom of the first, and Sakamoto tied the score with a home run to left.
Yomiuri went ahead on Maru’s homer in the second, and Polanco added to the lead with his solo homer to start the third.
Tigers catcher Seishiro Sakamoto hit a one-out single, his second hit of the game, in the fourth and advanced on a sacrifice bunt. Chikamoto drove him in with a double as Hanshin cut the deficit to one.
Yoshikawa singled and Sakamoto doubled to put runners on second and third for the Giants in the fifth. Kazuma Okamoto was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Sho Nakata drew a walk that restored Yomiuri’s two-run advantage.
The Giants will try for the sweep on Sunday with 22-year-old Yuji Akahoshi on the mound. Joe Gunkel is scheduled to get the start for the Tigers.
“Akahoshi wasn’t able to get the win the last time,” Hara said. “So I want to give him some support by scoring some runs early.”
In other games:
Swallows 3, BayStars 2
Dragons 4, Carp 3
Pacific League
Marines 8, Lions 1
Buffaloes 7, Fighters 0
Hawks at Eagles — ppd.
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