Wednesday in Japan saw the Central League-leading Hanshin Tigers score an improbable win, while Hisanori Yasuda showed what he’s capable of with a stick in his hand, a sayonara home run, a pair of WBC teammates doing it all for Yomiuri and a 42-year-old lefty getting it done.

Former Giant busted

We also had more police blotter news as Takefumi Miyamoto, whose story probably wouldn’t have been published had he not once played for the Yomiuri Giants, was arrested for the sixth time in his second career. Tthis time for stealing cash and valuables worth an estimated 70 million yen (roughly $400,000.

Given that this may have been more than he made in the final six years of a seven-year career spent entirely in Japan’s Eastern League, a colleague at my day job suggested that he is probably better at evaluating and analyzing potential heists than he was at playing baseball. But as in baseball, it’s not what you are capable of, it’s how well you execute.

Wednesday’s games

Tigers 6, Swallows 5: At Jingu Stadium, Hanshin came back from a run down after being down to their last strike in the ninth with none on against Yakult, which has now 0-6 with one tie in its last seven games.

Sheldon Neuse lined a 1-2 fastball from closer Kazuto Taguchi (0-2) that fooled substitute right fielder Hidetaka Namiki, who came in too far to field it on a hop and not far enough to catch it. The ball bounced to the wall, and Neuse was credited with his first triple in Japan. Taguchi walked Yusuke Oyama, and Hanshin took the lead on Teruaki Sato’s two-run double.

Rookie pitcher Kojiro Yoshimura’s sacrifice fly put Yakult up 1-0 before he surrendered back-to-back RBI singles in Hanshin’s two-run fourth. A Takahiro Shiomi singled tied it 2-2 in the bottom of the inning. Hanshin took a 4-2 lead in the sixth set up by pitcher Yuki Nishi’s two-out double. With runners on second and third, two runs scored on an infield single and a throwing error.

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