Akihisa Makida celebrated his 32nd birthday in grand fashion, completing a ninth-inning comeback with a two-run sayonara double to lift the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles to a 4-3 interleague victory over the Hanshin Tigers.

It was a stunning reversal of fortune after Tigers starter Randy Messenger had held the Pacific League defending champs to a hit over eight scoreless innings and went into the ninth with a 3-0 lead. Tetsuro Nishida, however, singled to open the ninth and scored when pinch hitter Mitsutaka Goto tripled on a drive to the wall in straight-away left that Matt Murton was unable to catch.

Closer Oh Seung-hwan (1-2) surrendered John Bowker's sacrifice fly to deep center. With two outs, Takero Okajima kept it alive with an infield single and Oh pitched around Andruw Jones, walking him on four pitches.