Kazuhiro Sasaki picked up his first save in five years in Japan and career 230th by closing out the ninth inning perfectly in his first mound appearance this season as the Yokohama BayStars overcame a late scare and edged the Hanshin Tigers 5-4 at Yokohama Stadium on Tuesday night.
Tuffy Rhodes connects for a solo home run against Chunichi's Masafumi Hirai at Nagoya Dome.
Takahiro Saeki and Tyrone Woods hit back-to-back solo homers off Hideki Irabu (0-1) in the fifth to make it 5-2, but the defending CL champions rallied with a run each in the seventh and eighth.
Yuji Yoshimi (1-0) allowed two runs in five innings of work for the win.