With a victory in a game that went down to the wire, Tatsunori Hara became the winningest manager in the storied history of the Yomiuri Giants.
Hara recorded his 1,067th win at the helm on Friday night when Hayato Sakamoto hit a solo home run in the eighth inning and the Giants held on to beat the Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2-1 at Tokyo Dome.
The victory broke a tie Hara shared with legendary manager Tetsuharu Kawakami, who was the skipper of the "V9" Giants that won nine straight Japan Series championships from 1965 to 1973.
"I can't believe I have surpassed manager Kawakami, my predecessor who shined like a god," Hara said in a postgame interview. "I will always treasure this, while continuing to fight on and make challenges."
The 62-year-old Hara, like Kawakami a former star player with the Giants himself, now has a career record of 1067-798 with 62 ties over 14 seasons and is in 11th place on the all-time Japan pro baseball list. He has led the Giants to eight Central League pennants and three Japan Series.
Two other Giants legends, manager emeritus Shigeo Nagashima and current Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks chairman Sadaharu Oh, sent their congratulations in recorded messages shown on the big screen at Tokyo Dome, where the game had a pandemic-limited crowd of 4,985.
"The job of Giants manager among the 12 pro teams is extremely tough with immense pressure," Oh said. "For a Giants manager to reach 1,067 wins takes overcoming very hard obstacles. I definitely hope we can meet in the Japan Series this year."
In Friday's game, the Giants immediate problem was figuring out Yakult starter Albert Suarez in their first meeting with right-hander this season. He limited the Giants to five hits and one run over six innings.
"His fastball and curveball and his control are all fantastic," Hara said.
Yakult took the lead on Tetsuto Yamada's solo homer in the first inning before the Giants finally tied it in the fifth on Naoki Yoshikawa's RBI double on a hit-and-run.
In the seventh, Giants starter Shosei Togo walked two batters before getting Yamada to hit into an inning-ending double play.
Sakamoto finally broke the deadlock with his 15th home run of the season, off Noboru Shimizu (0-4), Rubby De La Rosa finished up in the ninth to earn his 11th save, and secure the win for Kota Nakagawa (2-1), who pitched the eighth.
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