The Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball pulled off a dramatic come-from-behind victory after four hours and 29 minutes of extra innings.
The Giants defeated the SoftBank Hawks 1-0 in extra innings at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday. Naoki Yoshikawa hit a game-winning RBI double in the bottom of the 12th inning of extra innings.
Yomiuri and SoftBank had an epic pitching battle. Yomiuri starter Kenshin Hotta pitched 5⅔ innings of five-hit ball with two walks and one strikeout. The bullpen of Ryusei Oe (⅔ scoreless innings), Yuuhi Nishidate (⅔ scoreless innings), Yuhei Takanashi (1 scoreless inning), Alberto Valdonado (1 scoreless inning), Keisuke Izumi (1 scoreless inning), Kyle Keller (1 scoreless inning), and Ryuta Heinai (1 scoreless inning) also held the game scoreless to set the stage for the eventual victory.
SoftBank also shut down the Yomiuri lineup, with starter Tomohisa Ozeki going seven innings of two-hit ball, one walk and six strikeouts. The bullpen of Darwinzon Hernandez (one scoreless inning), Yuki Matsumoto (one scoreless inning), Yuki Tsumori (one scoreless inning), 안전놀이터 and Koya Fujii (one scoreless inning) battled back, but closer Roberto Osuna (⅓ inning, one run) gave up a two-run double to end the game.
Yomiuri had runners on first and second in the bottom of the first inning after leadoff singles by Yoshihiro Maru and Yoshikawa.
However, both Kazuma Okamoto and Hayato Sakamoto were stranded on base.
SoftBank put runners on first and second in the top of the fourth inning when Hotaka Yamakawa walked and Kensuke Kondo singled, but Ryoya Kurihara grounded out to third base to end the threat. In the sixth, Kenta Imamiya walked and Yamakawa singled to put runners on second and third with nobody out, but Kondo struck out to end the threat.
Yomiuri added another run in the bottom of the eighth when leadoff hitter Hisayoshi Chouno drew a walk and pinch-hitter Shinnosuke Shigenobu stole second. 에볼루션 바카라사이트 Pinch-hitter Daiki Masuda then singled to put runners on first and third with nobody out. After Masuda stole second, pinch-hitter Masaya Hagio struck out with runners on second and third. Maru then struck out and Eli Hernandez walked on a wild pitch to load the bases. Yoshikawa hit a grounder to shortstop to end the threat.
Tied 0-0 heading into the ninth inning, Yomiuri and SoftBank eventually went to extra innings. There were several scoring opportunities, but neither team capitalized. In the bottom of the 12th inning, Yomiuri’s leadoff hitter Maru singled and pinch-hitter Seiji Kobayashi laid down a sacrifice bunt to put runners on first and second.
Yoshikawa, who had the tying run in scoring position in the eighth inning, hit a two-out RBI double to end the game.
As Japanese media outlet SporNichi Annex wrote, “Yomiuri took on SoftBank in an exchange game and came away with a dramatic extra-inning victory. Naoki Yoshikawa hit the winning run in the 12th inning, ending the franchise’s longest drought of the season at 4 hours and 29 minutes. “Our starting pitcher Hotta pitched 5⅔ scoreless innings and our bullpen shut down the SoftBank bats with a scoreless relay,” said Yomiuri’s manager, Yoshiyuki Kuroda.
Yomiuri had been held scoreless for 20 consecutive innings after scoring in the 10th inning of an extra-inning game against Hanshin on April 26. However, 온라인 슬롯 Yoshikawa’s game-tying double broke the streak after 21 innings. Kobayashi, who came up as a pinch-hitter in the 12th inning and laid down a crucial sacrifice bunt, said, “I was desperate to make a decision one way or another. It was good to get the win at the end,” said Kobayashi after the victory.