Hideto Asamura, the Pacific League's player of the month for July, saved some magic for August, belting a three-run sayonara home run as the Seibu Lions pulled out a 7-6 victory over the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters on Wednesday.
Trailing by two runs with two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth, Asamura took Fighters closer Hisashi Takeda (2-2) deep for his 20th home run of the season.
"What matters is that we won, it wouldn't do to lose games back to back," said the Lions' 22-year-old cleanup hitter. "But I expect to hit more home runs. I have higher goals than this."