Rookie catcher Shota Ono hit his first career homer and Shugo Fujii threw five shutout innings, leading the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters to a 7-1 rout of the Yokohama BayStars in interleague play Friday at Yokohama Stadium.
Ono's two-run home run off BayStars ace Daisuke Miura (5-3) pushed the Fighters' lead to 4-1 and Yoshio Itoi added a two-run shot in a five-run seventh inning.
"I wanted to hit at least a sacrifice fly, so I was looking for a high pitch," Ono said of his home run, which came with one out and a runner on third. "I'm honored to have connected off Miura-san. I'm glad that I contributed to the team's win offensively and defensively."
Shinji Takahashi scored the opening run in the second when Yokohama turned a 4-6-3 double play on a Tomochika Tsuboi grounder.
Atsunori Inaba added an RBI single in the third before Shuichi Murata homered to pull the BayStars within 2-1 in the sixth.
Fujii (4-2) allowed four hits and a walk in five innings. Nippon Ham snapped a three-game losing streak and increased its Pacific League lead to 2 1/2 games over the second-place Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
Ohka recalled
CLEVELAND (Kyodo) The Cleveland Indians on Thursday recalled right-hander Tomokazu Ohka from triple-A Columbus, the major league club said.
Ohka, who has not pitched in the big leagues since 2007 with the Toronto Blue Jays, signed a minor league contract with the Indians last December.
The 33-year-old is 3-3 with a 3.42 ERA in nine starts this season at Columbus.
Ohka has made 184 big-league appearances for the Boston Red Sox, the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals), the Milwaukee Brewers and the Blue Jays since 1999.
