Yasuaki Yamasaki, whose career has rebounded this year, became the youngest pitcher to save 200 games in Japan as the DeNA BayStars won their eighth-straight game, downing the Hanshin Tigers 4-0 on Wednesday.
Yamasaki entered the game at Kyocera Dome Osaka with two on and two out in the ninth and retired the only batter he faced to earn his 30th save of the season. He is the eighth pitcher to reach the milestone and the youngest, at 29 years, 10 months of age.
The win kept the second-place BayStars four games back of the Central League-leading Tokyo Yakult Swallows, 6-2 winners over the Hiroshima Carp.
BayStars starter Haruhiro Hamaguchi (6-4) worked six innings and earned the win after Masayuki Kuwahara's seventh-inning grand slam off Tigers starter Masashi Ito (8-5).
Yamasaki was mostly ineffective the past two seasons, in which he saved a total of just seven games. The previous record belonged to Hall of Famer Kazuhiro Sasaki, who accomplished the feat at the age of 30 years, six months.
"It's an extreme honor to be standing shoulder to shoulder with such giants of the game," Yamasaki said. "I'm still making the fans and my teammates uneasy too many times when I come in to pitch in the ninth inning."
"I'm still not back to being able to summon my old overpowering stuff, but I'm trying to get back to that little by little."
In the remaining CL game, the last-place Chunichi Dragons beat the Yomiuri Giants 4-1.
In the Pacific League, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks beat the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 4-3 in 11 innings, taking over first place from the Seibu Lions, who fell 5-2 to the Lotte Marines, while the Orix Buffaloes beat the last-place Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 5-4.