Baseball: Yanagita’s hometown homer helps Hawks past Carp

Yuki Yanagita had a blast in his hometown, belting a two-run home run to help the visiting SoftBank Hawks to a 5-1 interleague victory Friday over the Hiroshima Carp.

The Hawks’ 34-year-old big wheel made it a 3-1 game in the sixth inning at Mazda Stadium with his ninth home run of the season as the visitors evened their interleague record at 2-2.

Yanagita also doubled and had an infield single that contributed to a two-run eighth inning, and said the home run was his first in Hiroshima since he went deep off former Carp ace Hiroki Kuroda in 2016.

“This (home run) was special,” Yanagita said. ...