Card Of The Week April 17

It was a rough days for closers today in NPB.  Yasuaki Yamasaki of the Baystars gave up three runs in the bottom of the ninth to the Swallows, handing them a 5-4 victory.  Over in Nagoya, Koji Fukutani of the Dragons blew a save in the ninth inning against the Tigers, although the Dragons ultimately won the game in the 10th.  Up in Sapporo both closers had issues - Lotte's Yuji Nishino blew the save in the bottom of the ninth against the Fighters but ended up the winner when the Marines scored three runs in the top of the 10th against Nippon Ham's closer Hirotoshi Masui.

But the game of the day was in Fukuoka between the Hawks and the Eagles.  The Eagles had a 7-3 lead going into the bottom of the ninth with their closer Yuki Matsui on the mound.  He had given up a run but had gotten two outs when pinch hitter Yuki Yoshimura came to the plate with two on.  With a full count, Yoshimura did this:



He hit a three run home run into the right field terrace seats to tie the game up.

Three innings later, Yoshimura came up again with Nobuhiro Matsuda on first and he struck again:



Two run sayonora home run for a 9-7 Hawks victory.

Yoshimura was originally drafted by the Baystars back in 2002.  He was traded to the Hawks in 2012 in the deal that sent Hitoshi Tamura back to Yokohama.  Here's Yoshimura's rookie card:

2003 BBM 1st Version #180