Craig Brazell and Chad Huffman both homered and drove in six runs between them in support of lefty Yoshihisa Naruse, who limited the damage to two runs over seven frames as the Chiba Lotte Marines routed the Tokyo Yakult Swallows 10-3 in an interleague game on Monday night.
The Marines took a quick lead when they scored three runs in the first, featuring a Katsuya Kakunaka RBI single and a Tadahito Iguchi sacrifice fly at Jingu Stadium.
Huffman and Daichi Suzuki led off the inning with back-to-back singles, setting the stage for Kakunaka's single to left for a 1-0 lead. Another run scored on an error and Iguchi capped the inning with his sac fly to right.
Lotte added another run when a runner scored during a double play in the second, but Ryoji Aikawa got the Swallows on board with a sac fly in the bottom half of the frame.
Brazell led off the third with a homer to right and former New York Yankee Huffman made his first home run in Japan a big one, smacking a grand slam to the seats in left to stretch the visitors' lead to 8-1 to cap the five-run inning.
Naruse (5-6) scattered seven hits, struck out two and walked one and won his first decision since May 23. Swallows starter Kenichi Matsuoka (1-1) got battered for nine runs in 2⅓ innings of the loss.
Yakult slipped to 9-12 with two ties in interleague, its fifth consecutive year with a losing record against the Pacific League.
