By Jim Allen,
The Pacific League champion SoftBank Hawks took a 2-0 lead in the Japan Series with a 4-3 win over the Central League's DeNA BayStars in Sunday's Game 2.
With BayStars starter Shota Imanaga out of the game after allowing a run and striking out a season-high 10 in six innings, the Hawks came back from two runs down in the seventh.
Kenji Akashi's pinch-hit double and a one-out RBI single by Yuki Yanagita made it a one-run game. After a dropped ball cost DeNA an inning-ending double play, Akira Nakamura's two-out, bases-loaded single pushed across two runs after a third out at the plate was overturned on review.
Instead of ending the inning, Kenta Imamiya's hand was ruled to have touched a split second before the tag.
"After we fell behind, we were shouting in the dugout about coming back and the players responded," Hawks skipper Kimiyasu Kudo said. "That was a great hit by Nakamura and no easy feat by Imamiya to score on that play."
Lefty Livan Moinelo retired the BayStars in order in the eighth, and closer Dennis Sarfate, whose 54 saves this season set a Nippon Professional Baseball record, entered in the ninth.
Sarfate worked around a four-pitch leadoff walk with the help of a sacrifice to close it out with two strikeouts. The victory extended the Hawks' Japan Series home winning streak to eight games.
Hawks right-hander Nao Higashihama gave the visitors fits until Takayuki Kajitani's game-tying one-out solo homer in the sixth. A scratch infield single put the go-ahead run on base, and Toshiro Miyazaki homered off reliever Yuito Mori to give the BayStars their first lead of the series.
For the second straight night, the Hawks scored in the first inning, when Alfredo Despaigne put a good swing on a fastball to bring Yanagita home from second. But after his fat pitch to Despaigne, Imanaga slowly began locating his heater and getting devastating results with his changeup and slider.
Higashima baffled the BayStars by precisely locating his sinker, cutter, fastball assortment until the visitors didn't seem to know which side was up.
But Higashihama's luck ran out when Kajitani homered on a tough inside pitch. A little tapper by Jose Lopez allowed him to reach on an infield single that opened SoftBank's bullpen doors. Lefty Shinya Kayama got a huge strikeout, retiring Japan cleanup hitter Yoshitomo Tsutsugo for the first time in the game.
Mori threw five quality pitches to Miyazaki before the CL batting champ launched a 3-2 fastball into the short porch in left field. Miyazaki's run was the first charged to a Hawks reliever in the postseason.
Imanaga allowed a run on five hits and two walks, while Higashihama gave up two in 5-1/3 innings.
After their lead had been trimmed by a run, the BayStars appeared to be out of trouble when right-hander Spencer Patton got a sharply hit ball to second, but shortstop Toshihiko Kuramoto failed to catch the toss from his double-play partner, putting the go-ahead run on first and keep the inning alive.
Patton struck out Despaigne and appeared to end the inning on a borderline 3-2 pitch to Seiichi Uchikawa, but the walk loaded the bases for Nakamura. His sharp single to right brought home Yanagita and Imamiya, who barely made it.
