Yasutaka Shiomi's 11th-inning home run lifted the Yakult Swallows to a 5-3 Central League win Friday over the Chunichi Dragons.
With the game knotted 3-3 since Chunichi's Sho Nakata tied it with an eighth-inning solo home run at Tokyo's historic Jingu Stadium, Shiomi ended the game with a two-run homer, his third.
The Swallows' regular leadoff man and center fielder, Shiomi had been used off the bench since leaving the Swallows' game last Saturday with lower back pain. He pinch-hit in the eighth and took over in center field before hitting the first pitch he saw in the 11th out to center field.
"When I first hit it, I thought it was gone, but after seeing the video and how it barely got out, I thought, 'I need to do more weight training,'" he said.
Yakult scored single runs in each of the first three innings, with 2022 Triple Crown slugger Munetaka Murakami making it 3-0 in the third with his seventh home run.
Among other games on Friday, the DeNA BayStars shut out the Hiroshima Carp 2-0, while in the Pacific League, the Rakuten Eagles hammered the Lotte Marines 12-1 behind a complete game victory from Takahisa Hayakawa (2-3).
