Kenjiro Nomura delivered his 2,000th career hit and the Hiroshima Carp celebrated the feat with a 5-2 victory over the Yakult Swallows in the Central League on Thursday.

News photoKenjiro Nomura of the Hiroshima Carp reaches the 2,000-hit plateau with a fourth-inning single at Hiroshima Stadium on Thursday. The Carp beat the Swallows 5-2.

Hiroshima tied the game at 1-1 in the second inning with a Greg LaRocca solo homer and took the lead for good in the third on an RBI single by Shigenobu Shima and LaRocca's run-scoring grounder.

Takahiro Arai led off the fourth with a homer that made it 4-1 and Nomura followed with his memorable hit -- a single to left off Yakult right-hander Ryo Kawashima (5-5) in front of a home crowd of 17,376 at Hiroshima Stadium.