A day after being moved up to the No. 2 slot in the Yakult Swallows' order, slugging third baseman Munetaka Murakami hit his first home run of the season in Sunday's 9-0 Central League win over the DeNA BayStars.
Murakami, who in 2022 won a batting Triple Crown, drove one out to dead center at Yokohama Stadium in the first inning. He also walked in the fifth and singled in Yakult's seven-run seventh.
Having batted fourth for most of his brief career, the 24-year-old Murakami had not driven in a single run until his season's 53rd plate appearance on Saturday.
Yakult's Miguel Yajure (3-0) worked six scoreless innings, while DeNA's Shinichi Onuki (0-3) allowed two runs over 5-1/3 innings to take the loss.
Among other games on Sunday, the CL-leading Chunichi Dragons lost 2-1 to the Hanshin Tigers after winning their six previous decisions.
In the Pacific League, the Lotte Marines beat the Rakuten Eagles 9-2 behind seven innings from Roki Sasaki (2-0), while the SoftBank Hawks completed a three-game road sweep of the Seibu Lions, beating them 4-1.
