Japan comes back late against Team Europe

Japan rallied against Team Europe’s pen with three runs in the eighth inning to beating them 4 to 3 on Tuesday in the first of a two-game friendly series.

The European team took a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning on a double by Oscar Angulo that scored two runs at Tokyo Dome. Nobuhiro Matsuda drove in the game-tying run and Yuhei Takai singled in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth.

Japan reliever Katsuki Matayoshi picked up the win after recording thee outs in the eighth, while the save went to Nishino.

EUROPE  0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0= 3 (H 7, E 0)

JAPAN      0 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 X= 4 (H 8, E 0)

EUROPA: 3B Infante (0-4); 2B Vaglio (0-4); 1B Smith (3-4); RF Martinez (1-4); LF Sams (1-4); DH De Caster (1-4); SS Angulo (1-4); C Dashenko (0-3; Boekhoudt 0-1); CF Desimoni (0-3)

PITCHERS Cordemans ip 2, so 1, bb 2, h 1, r 0; Maestri ip 3, so 0, bb 1, h 4, r 1; Escalona ip 2, so 1, bb 1, h 0, r 0; Martis ip 0, so 0, bb 2, h 0, r 2; Van Mil (L) ip 1, so 2, bb 0, h 3, r 2

JAPAN: RF Yawagita (0-3; Kobayashi 0-2); 2B Kichuchi (0-4); SS Sakamoto (2-3); LF Nakata (0-3); DH Tsutsugoh (1-4; Okashima); 3B Matsuda (2-4); CF Yuhei (2-4); 1B Yamada (1-3); C Shima (0-1; Aizawa 0-1; RF Maru 0-1)

PITCHERS Ohsera ip 3, so 2, bb 0, h 3, r 1; Makita ip 2, so 0, bb 0, h 2, r 2; Fujinami ip 2, so 3, bb 0, h 2, r 0; Matayoshi (W) ip 1, so 1, bb 0, h 0, r 0; Nishino (S) ip 1, so 1, bb 0, h 0, r 0

The series wraps up on Wednesday at the same venue with a 6:00 pm local start time.