Kazuo Matsui (41 years of age) blasted his first homerun of the season (video) in the top of the 6th inning against Fukuoka Softbank Hawks reliever Ren Kajiya for his 200th in his NPB career, becoming the first ever switch-hitter in Nippon Professional Baseball history to have at least 2000 hits (2071 hits in total) and 200 homeruns. Tohoku won the game by a score of 11-2 over Fukuoka for their Pacific league leading 12th win of the season.

He started his professional career with the Seibu Lions at the age of 19 in the Pacific league, and spent his time there for 9 seasons with the team after making the jump to play in the Major leagues for 7 seasons with the Mets, Astros, and Rockies respectively, he eventually returned to Japan to play for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2011.

The veteran infielder Kazuo Matsui increased his batting average this year to .375 after going 2 for 3 in tonight’s game in his 5th game of the season. Overall in his NPB career, he owns a batting line of .292/.345/.452 with 200 homeruns and 826 RBIs in 1844 games for 16 seasons. While .267/.321/.380 with 32 homeruns and 211 RBIs in 630 games for 7 seasons.