Tuffy Rhodes and Toshihisa Nishi homered and Kimiyasu Kudo pitched 6 2/3 effective innings to lead the Yomiuri Giants to an 8-6 victory over the Rakuten Golden Eagles as the first-ever interleague play in Japanese baseball got underway on Friday.
Hirotoshi Kitagawa of the Orix Buffaloes belts a two-run
homer in the sixth inning of Friday's game against the Chunichi Dragons at
Skymark Stadium in Kobe. The Buffaloes won 6-0.
In a meeting between the oldest and newest teams and cellar dwellers in each of the Central and Pacific leagues, Rhodes went 2-for-4 with a sacrifice fly that opened the scoring in the first and a fourth-inning solo drive off Kevin Hodges (1-5).
After Rakuten tied the game on a throwing error by Yomiuri shortstop Tomohiro Nioka in the second, Daisuke Motoki lofted a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the third and Yomiuri opened up a three-run lead on Rhodes' homer and Nioka's RBI single in the fourth.