Japanese stars rough up Iwakuma

Tokyo, Japan (SportsNetwork.com) – Seattle Mariners right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma made the start for the Major League Baseball All-Stars against his countrymen in Game 2 of the 2014 Japan Series and was promptly knocked around in an 8-4 win for Samurai Japan on Friday.

Iwakuma, who pitched 11 seasons in Japan before joining the Mariners in 2012, was tagged for five runs on 10 hits in just four innings. Fellow Japanese MLB All-Star Tsuyoshi Wada of the Chicago Cubs surrendered a homer to Nobuhiro Matsuda in his 1 2/3 innings of relief.

Yuki Yanagita went 3-for-4 with a walk and four runs batted in, finishing a homer shy of the cycle, and Ryosuke Kikuchi added three hits with two RBI for Samurai Japan, which also took the opener of the five-game series on Wednesday by a 2-0 score.

Iwakuma worked around a Kikuchi single in the first inning and retired the first two batters of the second. Matsuda, Ginju Akaminai and Hikaru Itoh followed with consecutive singles to produce one run and Yanagita tripled two more home for a 3-0 lead.

The MLB stars, who mustered just three hits in the opener, answered in the bottom of the second when Justin Morneau followed an Evan Longoria single with a home run. Ben Zobrist tripled to lead off the third and scored on a Jose Altuve grounder to tie it, but Japan scored twice more in the fourth to move in front for good.

Matsuda again started the rally with a one-out single and Itoh singled with two outs. Yanagita’s base hit chased home a run and Kikuchi added another RBI single for a 5-3 lead. Yanagita walked with two outs in the sixth against Rob Wooten, stole second and scored on a Kikuchi single for a three-run advantage.

Matsuda’s lead off homer in the eighth was later followed by a Yanagita RBI double to make it 8-3. Zobrist doubled in the bottom of the inning and scored the final run of the game on a single by Robinson Cano.

Chihiro Kaneko picked up the win for Samurai Japan, allowing three runs on three hits with two walks and five strikeouts in five innings.

The series continues Saturday and Sunday at the Tokyo Dome before concluding on Tuesday in Sapporo.

Categorized in: MLB