Seibu newcomer Ernesto Mejia homered for the second straight game, while Takeya Nakamura belted his 250th career home run as the Pacific League cellar-dwelling Lions hammered the Hiroshima Carp 7-0 on Friday evening.
Before a crowd of 26,737 at Seibu Dome, Mejia opened the scoring with a two-run shot in the fourth inning against Carp youngster Takaya Toda (0-1).
"It felt pretty good when I hit it. I was expecting a fastball inside and I hit it pretty good," said Mejia, whose ball bounced on the concourse beyond the left-field seating area.
"I'm happy to have back-to-back home runs and help the team somehow someway."
It was Mejia's fifth home run since joining Seibu this spring from the Atlanta Braves organization.
Toda, a 21-year-old lefty, allowed two runs on three hits and two walks over five innings in his first career start as the Carp slumped to their eighth straight defeat.
Nakamura became the 59th player to reach 250 career homers with his 12th of the season in the sixth inning. Mejia followed with a triple and Fumikazu Kimura singled in an insurance run with an RBI single. Ryota Wakiya delivered a pinch-hit sacrifice fly to cap the five-run outburst.
Lions right-hander Ryohei Fujiwara (1-2) went 5⅓ innings to earn his first career victory. A five-reliever relay completed the four-hit shutout.
Eagles 8, Swallows 2
At Kobo Miyagi Stadium, home runs from John Bowker, Ryo Hijirisawa and Yusuke Kosai powered Tohoku Rakuten to a one-sided win over Tokyo Yakult as Wataru Karashima (4-7) allowed two runs in five innings in his first win in a month.
