Tetsuya Utsumi threw his hands in the air as soon as the ball cleared the wall in left-center. Then he started clapping, and then he started grinning, and he capped his celebration by giving teammate Frederich Cepeda a high-five and a big slap on the backside for a job well done.
Utsumi protected a slim lead with seven shutout innings before Cepeda put the game on ice with a grand slam in the bottom of the seventh to help the Yomiuri Giants, and especially their starting pitcher, pick up a 6-0 win over the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in front of a crowd of 42,822 on Thursday night at Tokyo Dome.
"I'm sorry it took so long to get my first win this season," Utsumi said. "I should apologize to our fans."