Hayato Sakamoto brought the Yomiuri Giants from behind for the third time on Thursday night with a two-run, eighth-inning homer in a 10-7 interleague win over the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
Trailing by a run in the bottom of eighth before 44,925 at Tokyo Dome, Itaru Hashimoto, who has hit everything thrown at him over the past two days, rifled a leadoff single for his fourth hit of the night. He would have had five, but his smash up the middle to open the sixth deflected off the pitcher's glove and into the path of the Eagles' shortstop.
After the ensuing sacrifice, Sakamoto, hitless in four trips, got all of a low inside fastball from Koji Aoyama (0-5) and drove it well into the stands in straight-away left to put the Giants in front. With two on, a pair of two-out grounders to short and a throwing error brought in two more runs.