Brian Wolfe essentially had the season riding on his shoulders in the first Japan Series game of his career.
Wolfe's postseason career to that point had consisted of one-failed trip to the Midwest League (Single-A) playoffs in 2001, where his Quad City River Bandits (Minnesota Twins) fell to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Seattle Mariners) in the first round. Wolfe was 13-8 with a 2.81 ERA and 128 strikeouts for the River Bandits that season.
Eleven years later, he was handed the ball in Game 3 of the Japan Series, with his Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters on the precipice of a 3-0 deficit in the series against the Yomiuri Giants.