Three Homers, One Comeback: Samurai Japan Edge South Korea 9-5 at Tokyo Dome

Two games into the Asia Professional Baseball Championship, Japan’s young national team has done exactly what its hosts hoped: won both and taken sole possession of first place.

Friday’s 9-5 win over South Korea at Tokyo Dome was not a stroll, though. Rookie left-hander Kazuyuki Takemaru, who won 11 games for the Yomiuri Giants this season, fell behind in the third inning when Han Dong Hui hit a solo home run. Japan answered immediately: Tomoya Masaki, already the hero of the opener with two homers, drove a two-run shot in the bottom of the inning to put his side ahead.

Japan stretched the lead with three more runs over the following innings, only for South Korea to fight all the way back and tie it 5-5 in the top of the eighth. The decisive moment came minutes later. Rui Muneyama, who had already homered earlier in the game, launched a three-run blast in the bottom of the eighth, and the Dome exhaled.

Under new manager Tadahito Iguchi, Japan had opened the tournament by shutting out Taiwan 5-0 on Thursday. Taiwan recovered on Friday by edging Australia 6-4, so both of those teams now sit at 1-1. Japan face Australia on Saturday.

The format is simple: four teams play a round robin, the top two meet in the final, and the other two contest third place on Sunday. Japan won the first two editions of the event in 2017 and 2023, and on this evidence they are favourites to make it three.