Takayuki Kishi left the Seibu Lions as a free agent over the winter, but went seven innings in his old home park on Sunday in the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles' 3-2 win.
Kishi (2-0) allowed two runs on six hits and no walks, while striking out four. Both of Seibu's runs came in the seventh. As Kishi approached 100 pitches, he missed up with two straight pitches to Takeya Nakamura and Ernesto Mejia, who put both into the seats before 29,528 at MetLife Dome.
"It was a little hard pitching here, but facing that scary Lions lineup I'd played with and being able to challenge them, that was fun, and I got a good result," said the former Lions ace, who decided to see if he could throw a fastball past Nakamura, a six-time league home run leader.