Justin Bour homered in his home debut at historic Koshien Stadium, lifting the Hanshin Tigers to a 2-1 Central League victory over the Yomiuri Giants on Thursday.
Bour broke open a scoreless game in the seventh, blasting a slider up in the zone from Giants starter Cristopher Mercedes (0-2) over the fence in center for his third home run of the season.
In a regular season that did not begin until June 19 on account of the coronavirus pandemic, the Tigers' home opener was further pushed back by two days of rainouts. Like all of the regular season games played so far, it was held behind closed doors. Teams will begin admitting up to 5,000 fans per game from Friday.