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Munetaka Murakami, a 22-year-old third baseman with the Yakult Swallows, tied Sadaharu Oh's single-season Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) home run record for Japanese-born players on Tuesday. Murakami homered twice, giving him 55 home runs on the season, and drove in four runs in a 9-7 loss against the Yomiuri Giants. 

Here's a look at Murakami's record-tying blast, hit against Giants reliever Taisei Ota, courtesy of MLB.com's Jon Morosi:

Following Tuesday's loss, the Swallows are now 73-53 on the season. NPB clubs play 143 games a year, meaning that Yakult has 17 contests remaining. Murakami will have to work quickly, then, if he wants to make even more history over the coming weeks. 

NPB's overall single-season home-run record belongs to former Seattle Mariners outfielder Wladimir Balentien, who homered 60 times during the 2013 season. Balentien also played for the Swallows, meaning the path ahead of Murakami is similar to the one being traversed by New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge. (Judge is attempting to break Roger Maris' franchise and American League single-season record for home runs.)

Murakami entered Tuesday hitting .333/.469/.747 with 53 home runs, 128 runs batted in, and nearly as many walks (105) as strikeouts (108). He was averaging a home run every 8.2 at-bats; for reference, Judge is averaging one every 9.2 at-bats.

Will Murakami ever play in America? As we noted in August: "For those wondering, it's unclear if Murakami harbors any aspirations of playing in America someday. It is worth noting that MLB's rules governing international free agents would restrict him from earning his market value (he's younger than 25 years old and he has fewer than six years of professional experience), suggesting he wouldn't be a candidate to come over anytime soon regardless of his intent."