One can only imagine what went through Hiroshima Carp manager Kenjiro Nomura's mind in the Central League dugout when Brad Eldred went down after fouling a ball off his foot in the seventh inning of the 2014 All-Star Series opener on Saturday at Seibu Dome.

Maybe Nomura saw the CL pennant slipping away as his best hitter, and one of the best hitters in Japan this year, sat on the ground in pain. Fortunately for the Hiroshima skipper and the rest of the Carp faithful, Eldred got up, brushed himself off and homered on the very next pitch.

The two-run blast helped the CL All-Stars rout their Pacific League counterparts 7-0, and Eldred hopes that sequence, minus the excruciating foot pain, was a sign of things to come for the Carp.