Tuesday, we had more mashing from Japan’s home run monster, although he twice failed to hit his fifth grand slam of the season in another Swallows marathon, and a top three vs bottom three set of series in the Pacific League.

Hawks 4, Eagles 2: At Fukuoka Dome, Hideto Asamura opened the scoring with a first-inning solo homer, his 24^th, off 41-year-old lefty Tsuyoshi Wada (5-4), who allowed two runs over five innings to win his second straight start. Eagles starter Ryota Takinaka (2-8) gave up back-to-back singles to open the first as the Hawks tied it 1-1. Back-to-back one-out singles in the third set up Yuki Yanagita for an RBI single, and Masaki Mimori tripled in two with two outs in the fourth.