Tatsuhiko Kinjo, Katsuaki Furuki and Kazunari Tsuruoka each homered and Yuji Hata limited the damage to one run in five innings Monday, leading the Yokohama BayStars to their fourth consecutive win in a 3-1 victory over the Orix Buffaloes.
Orix Buffaloes starter Kazuya Motoyanagi pitches against the Yokohama
BayStars during Monday's interleague game at Yokohama Stadium
Hata (4-2) scattered seven hits with one strikeout and two walks and got run support from three long balls at Yokohama Stadium in the rain-makeup interleague contest.
Kinjo went deep to right with two outs in the first, followed by Furuki's shot to right to make it 2-0 against Kazuya Motoyanagi (0-1) in the second. Tsuruoka added insurance with a solo blast in a pitch-hit appearance in the eighth, raising Central Legaue cellar-dweller Yokohama's home run tally to 65 for the most in Japanese baseball.
Flamethrower Marc Kroon, who matched his own Japanese pro baseball record with a 161-kilometer fastball against Orix on Saturday, worked the ninth for his 11th save.
Takeshi Hidaka singled home a run with two out in the fourth, cutting the deficit to 2-1, but it was all the Orix offense could muster. Orix fell to its fourth defeat.