Munetaka Murakami scored two runs and brought the Central League-leading Tokyo Yakult Swallows from behind with a two-run home run in a 3-2 interleague win over the Seibu Lions on Saturday.
Before a crowd of 29,538 at historic Jingu Stadium, Murakami capped Yakult's comeback with his 16th home run, off reliever Keisuke Honda (1-1), as the Swallows overcame a two-run deficit. The win kept the Swallows three games ahead of the Yomiuri Giants, 2-1 winners over the Chiba Lotte Marines.
With Yakult trailing 2-0 in the fifth, Murakami hit a leadoff single, his team's first, and flashed some solid base-running skills before scoring on Yuhei Nakamura's single.
"On those days when I don't hit, some teammates always produced to pick up the slack," said Murakami, the Swallows' cleanup hitter. "Today was my day to pick up the slack."
The Lions, currently fourth in the Pacific League, opened the scoring in the second on Aito Takeda's third home run, off Yakult starter Keiji Takahashi, who walked in a run in the fourth but left the bases jammed.
First-year Swallows reliever A.J. Cole (2-0) earned the win, and closer Scott McGough recorded his 16th save.
The CL won five of Saturday's six interleague games. Shugo Maki drove in five runs in the DeNA BayStars' 6-1 win over the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, while the Chunichi Dragons beat the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 4-2, and Koyo Aoyagi (6-1) struck out eight over eight innings in the Hanshin Tigers' 3-0 win over the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.
Orix Buffaloes ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-3) went seven innings in a 3-2 win over the CL's Hiroshima Carp.