The Yakult Swallows, the lone Central League team with a better record against the Pacific League than against the other five CL teams since 2005, won their second interleague title on Saturday with a game to spare. They became the first team since the 2011 Hawks to have a winning record against all six interleague opponents, although that doesn’t SoftBank’s achievement in the 24-game home-and-away format then in use.

Elsewhere, Chunichi rookie Kosuke Ukai set a CL record, while Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto both pitched, we had a two-run squeeze, and a runner score from first on a stolen base, so there was a lot going on.

Saturday’s games

Swallows 7, Hawks 4: At Fukukuoka Dome, Munetaka Murakami, whose hometown of Kumamoto is 1-1/2 hours from the ballpark by train, batted like he owned the joint, homering for the second straight day with his 18^th and 19^th of the year, and drove in six runs as the Swallows overcame a three-run deficit to clinch their second interleague title and their first in four years.