Hideki Matsui belted his 25th and 26th homers and Hisanori Takahashi went the distance as the Central League-leading Yomiuri Giants crushed the Chunichi Dragons 10-2 Wednesday night at the Tokyo Dome.
Matsui ripped a solo homer 130 meters into the center-field bleachers in the fifth inning before adding a three-run shot in the bottom of the eighth that brought the capacity crowd to its feet.
"Someone had left a message on our team bulletin board saying I should go for the Triple Crown now that (Yomiuri slugger Kazuhiro) Kiyohara is hurt," Matsui said. "To be honest, I'm just glad I could hit the ball over the fence. As for everything else, we'll just take it one day at a time."