Takayuki Kishi returned to MetLife Dome with a vengeance on Sunday, holding his old team scoreless into the seventh inning as the Rakuten Eagles beat the Seibu Lions 4-1 to even their playoff series 1-1.

Having left the Lions as a free agent over the winter to sign with his hometown team, Kishi knew first-hand how hard it would be to shut down Nippon Professional Baseball's most potent offense. Needing a win in the best-of-three Climax Series first stage after suffering a 10-0 beating on Saturday, Kishi was determined to throw strikes and challenge hitters.

He struck out eight without issuing a walk, while allowing three hits in 6-1/3 innings.

"Watching yesterday's game, I felt again what a powerful lineup our opponents have," Kishi said. "To make a game of it, I knew I would have to execute and challenge batters (in the strike zone) in order to keep them in check."

"I was determined to challenge hitters even if it meant giving up solo home runs."

Eigoro Mogi opened the game with a home run off Ken Togame and Rakuten tacked on two more in the second on a Shintaro Masuda RBI double and a squeeze by catcher Motohiro Shima. A pair of walks and an RBI infield single in the seventh made it a 4-0 game.

Togame allowed three runs on seven hits. He struck out one, and also went 6-1/3 innings.

Kishi caught a break in the bottom of the first inning before he turned on the class to leave the Lions in the dust. Seibu leadoff man Shogo Akiyama flashed his speed and daring to double on a flare that fell in shallow center, and Kishi missed badly with a 3-2 pitch to Sosuke Genda. The rookie hammered the ball only to be robbed of a game-tying double. First baseman Ginji Akaminai dove to spear the liner headed for the right-field corner.

After giving his first baseman a round of applause, Kishi turned his attention to the heart of the Lions lineup and delivered a master class. After painting two strikes on the outside corner, Kishi popped up Lions captain Hideto Asamura on a high-inside fastball.

Kishi mixed in two elevated fastballs against dangerous right-handed slugger Hotaka Yamakawa before putting him away with his third big curveball of the at-bat.

The Eagles right-hander left the mound after allowing a one-out single in the seventh. But, Yuhei Takanashi and Hiroyuki Fukuyama each struck out a batter to preserve the 4-0 lead.

Fukuyama surrendered back-to-back, no-out singles in the eighth but surrendered just one run, and southpaw closer Yuki Matsui worked around a double and a walk in a scoreless ninth to earn the save.

The win sets up Game 3 on Monday night, with the winner advancing to Fukuoka to take on the league champion SoftBank Hawks starting on Wednesday. By virtue of finishing second in the league ahead of the Eagles, the Lions can advance to the six-game final stage with a tie here on Monday.

The Lions will send Ryoma Nogami (11-10, 3.63 ERA) against the Eagles' Manabu Mima (11-8, 3.26 ERA).