Hisanori Yasuda hit two of the Lotte Marines' five home runs and drove in six runs Wednesday as the Pacific League leaders crushed the Seibu Lions 11-1.
Before a good weeknight crowd at Chiba's Zozo Marine Stadium east of Tokyo, Yasuda came to the plate with two outs and two on against Seibu right-hander Tatsuya Imai (3-2) and hit his third home run of the season to put the Marines up 3-0.
"That first felt perfect coming off the bat, and I knew it was gone the instant I hit it," Yasuda said.
Yasuda then capped a third-inning rally with his second three-run homer of the night, an opposite-field shot to left and finished his night 3-for-4 with a walk.
"Since that was the first home run I'd ever hit here to left field, I was pretty surprised," Yasuda said. "Hitting one out there is a bit of a confidence boost, so I'll go into our next game in two days' time in a good frame of mind."
Lotte lefty Kazuya Ojima (5-1) allowed a run over six innings to earn the win, while Tatsuhiro Tamura, Raito Ikeda and Gregory Polanco also homered for the Marines.
Elsewhere in the Pacific League, Kotaru Kurebayashi hit a two-run walk-off homer in the Orix Buffaloes' 6-5 win over the last-place Rakuten Eagles, while a two-run Ryoya Kurihara homer brought the SoftBank Hawks from behind in a 2-1 victory over the Nippon Ham Fighters.
The Central League-leading Hanshin Tigers scored twice after being down to their last strike in the ninth inning to beat the Yakult Swallows 6-5, while the Yomiuri Giants rode a Shosei Togo (5-1) five-hitter to a 1-0 win over the DeNA BayStars, and the Hiroshima Carp whipped the Chunichi Dragons 6-2.