Jose Osuna drove in three runs and hit one of his team's three solo home runs as the Yakult Swallows beat the Pacific League's Orix Buffaloes 5-3 in Japan Series Game 1 on Saturday.
At Tokyo's Jingu Stadium, Osuna put the Central League champs up 2-0 in the first inning when his sharp grounder hit the third-base bag for a fluke two-out, two-run double off Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
The Pacific League champions' ace allowed four runs in four-plus innings before leaving hurt. He struck out four and walked one while allowing four hits, including two homers.
The Buffaloes, retired in order in the first, tied it in the second on two walks and three singles off right-hander Yasuhiro Ogawa, who went five innings to earn the victory.
Orix's biggest bat, Masataka Yoshida, drew a leadoff walk to start the rally that concluded on Kotaro Kurebayashi's one-out RBI single and a border-line ball for a bases-loaded walk.
Yasutaka Shiomi, who singled on Yamamoto's first pitch of the game and scored, homered to put the Swallows up 3-2 in the third. Osuna homered off a hanging first-pitch cut fastball to open Yakult's fourth.
"That was a good pitch to hit and I put a good swing on it," Osuna said. "Everybody knows he (Yamamoto) is the best pitcher in Japan, and we had a good game against him, Shiomi and me and all my teammates."
"I've been feeling good the last few months. I'm just trying to get a good pitch to hit."
The Buffaloes loaded the bases in the fifth after two were out, but Ogawa, who allowed a single, a triple, a walk and hit a batter, escaped the jam on his 98th pitch and exited the game with a two-run lead.
Yamamoto called for the trainer and left the mound after throwing three pitches in the fifth.
Both teams were able to get runners on against their opponents' bullpen, but no breakthroughs were to be had until Orix narrowed the gap in the eighth off Swallows' setup man Noboru Shimizu.
A Masahiro Nishino leadoff single, a sacrifice and a two-out flare single from pinch-hitter Takahiro Okada got the Buffaloes within a run.
Munetaka Murakami, who became the youngest player to win a batting triple crown this season and just missed a home run in the sixth inning, did not miss in the eighth against Orix closer Yoshihisa Hirano, making it 5-3 with Yakult's third solo homer.
Yakult closer Scott McGough stranded two runners in the ninth to earn the save a year after he blew a two-run lead and took the loss in Orix's Game 1 victory.
"We were dragging tonight, and that was that. We had stretches like that during the season," said Orix skipper Satoshi Nakajima, who added he knew little about his ace's injury.
"It was out of the ordinary, but I don't know more than that."
The best-of-seven series, won last year by the Swallows in six games, resumes with Game 2 on Sunday before moving to Orix's Kyocera Dome Osaka for Games 3, 4 and 5, starting Tuesday.
