A crowd of 42,000 was on hand at Tokyo Dome on Saturday afternoon to welcome back the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and see the former Tokyo-based team hand the Chiba Lotte Marines their 10th consecutive defeat by a score of 6-2.
A three-run homer by Shinji Takahashi in the bottom of the second inning off Lotte starter Tomohiro Kuroki (0-1), put the Fighters ahead for good.
Kuroki was making his first regular-season appearance since 2001, after missing the past two seasons with arm trouble. He allowed four runs on two hits and walked three.