1st inning leadoff homer…9th inning walk-off homer, ’23-year-old big bat’ Mannami rewrites Japanese baseball history, leads by 2 games to 1
It started with a home run, it ended with a home run.
Jusei Mannami (23) of the Nippon Professional Baseball Nippon Ham Fighters hit his 21st and 22nd home runs of the season. He hit two home runs in the team’s home game against the SoftBank Hawks at Escon Field in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaido, on June 16.
But these two home runs were very different.
In the top of the first inning, Mannami hit a solo home run to right field. He drove an eight-pitch curveball from SoftBank right-hander Shuta Ishikawa into the right field stands. He drew four fouls in the 2B1S and then homered.
After Mannami’s leadoff homer in the first inning, Nihon Hamm tied the game in the top of the fifth. With two outs, Hikaru Kawase, SoftBank’s No. 9, hit an RBI double.
With the score 1-1, Nihon Ham attacked in the bottom of the ninth. One out later, Ryota Isobata, No. 9, reached on a bunt single to third base. Mannami followed with a two-run homer off reliever Roberto Osuna. He pulled a 153-mile-per-hour fastball to the body to end the game. Two-run homer to left field.
A game-tying home run that sent the 30,369 fans in attendance at Escon Field into a frenzy. 3-1.
A historic home run. It was only the second time in Nippon Professional Baseball history and the first time in the Pacific League that a leadoff home run and a game-winning home run were hit in the same game. It came 30 years after Junichi Dragons’ foreign-born hitter Alozo Powell did it against the Yakult Swallows on October 13, 1993.
Mannami is the first player to score all of his team’s runs with a leadoff home run and a walk-off home run.
In his fifth year, Mannami is having his best season yet. Through 16 days, he is batting .477 (127-for-477) with 22 home runs and 68 RBIs in 126 games. The hits, home runs, and RBIs are all career highs.토토사이트
He is third in the Pacific League in home runs behind Gregory Polanco of the Chiba Lotte Marines (24) and Hideto Asamura of the Rakuten Eagles (23). With 15 games to go, he’s got a shot at the home run title. Last season.
He hit 14 home runs in 100 games.
For the second year in a row, Nihon Ham is favored to finish last, but they got 23-year-old slugger Mannami.