Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants cranked out a solo home run in the sixth inning Sunday afternoon as a touring team of Major League Baseball All-Stars scored a 5-4 win in the eighth and final game of a goodwill series against their Japanese counterparts.
The Tokyo Dome was lit up by thousands of flashbulbs in the ninth inning as major-league manager Bobby Cox brought on Seattle Mariners closer Kazuhiro Sasaki to shut the door on his compatriots. Sasaki, recently named the American League Rookie of the Year after a 37-save campaign in his first year in North America, picked up his second save of the series, giving up a pair of hits while striking out two as the major leaguers headed home with a record of five wins, two losses and a tie.
Sasaki revealed after the game that he had trouble gripping the ball for his money pitch, a nasty split-fingered fastball, after his pitching hand was hit by a fly ball during warmups a few days earlier.