After a string of disappointments, Japanese pro baseball's most highly regarded pitcher, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, threw a record 14-strikeout gem for the first Japan Series win of his career.

Yamamoto held Hanshin to a run by pitching out of a second-inning bases-loaded jam, and his teammates immediately rewarded him with a one-run lead. Yamamoto had allowed 16 runs in his previous three postseason games.

For the second straight year, Yamamoto had put the Buffaloes in a hole by losing the first game of the Japan Series, but unlike 2022, when he was hurt in the opener and unable to return, he returned to the mound Saturday to help Orix come from behind in Game 6.

Orix Buffaloes pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto pumps his fist after retiring the side in the fifth inning in Game 6 of the Japan Series baseball championship at Kyocera Dome Osaka on Nov. 4, 2023. (Kyodo)

"I wasn't focused on anything but the inning in front of me," Yamamoto said. "Those other things (strikeouts) were no matter to me. Getting a record total was all due to (catcher Kenya) Wakatsuki."

Wakatsuki said after Yamamoto got hammered during the playoffs that the ace has those games sometimes, but the catcher also said he had no doubts about this game after the ace was torched by the Tigers a week earlier.

"For him to get lit up by the same team twice in a row? That's not going to happen," Wakatsuki said. "Tonight's performance was Yamamoto in a nutshell."

Orix Buffaloes pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto (R) hugs catcher Kenya Wakatsuki after the team wins Game 6 of the Japan Series baseball championship at Kyocera Dome Osaka on Nov. 4, 2023. (Kyodo)

Despite surrendering the early lead, he snuffed out a Tigers rally and after a run-saving catch in the fourth by unlikely right fielder, catcher Tomoya Mori, Yamamoto found his rhythm, retiring the next eight batters.

"(After two innings), I was able to pitch in a relaxed manner, and then from the fourth or fifth inning, everything came together. I am indebted to Mori for that terrific play."

"My breaking pitches were really working tonight. It's not like I wasn't using my fastball but rather I felt I found a good balance."

Orix Buffaloes right fielder Tomoya Mori catches a fly ball at the wall in the fourth inning against the Hanshin Tigers in Game 6 of the Japan Series baseball championship at Kyocera Dome Osaka on Nov. 4, 2023. (Kyodo)

Yamamoto, who this season recorded a no-hitter for the second straight year, stayed in the game after throwing 102 pitches through seven and went out for the ninth after throwing 125 through eight.

In the ninth he struck out two more batters to send this thrilling series to a seventh game on Sunday.

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