Wladimir Balentien said getting to 55 was "the hard part" in his quest to set a new single-season home run record.
From the looks of things, 56 isn't going to be a walk in the park either.
The Hanshin Tigers kept the Tokyo Yakult Swallows slugger in the yard, Takahiro Arai drove in the tiebreaking run with a sacrifice fly in the seventh, and the visitors left an electric atmosphere at Jingu Stadium 3-2 winners.
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