Japanese baseball doctrine demands managers play the outfield shallow with two outs and a critical potential run on second base – in order to give the outfielders a chance to throw out the runner on any ball that gets through the infield.

Japanese pitchers are taught to pitch low in the zone and hitters are trained to hit the ball on the ground, but they don’t always.

On Tuesday, however, two PL teams playing their outfields shallow, with two outs and a runner on second, failed to catch a flyball third out in the top of the ninth. At Sapporo Dome it turned to a 3-2 Hanshin Tigers win. At Kyocera Dome, the Giants got an RBI triple out of a line drive hit to straightaway center.