The Hiroshima Carp and Yomiuri Giants had combined for a host of missed opportunities and enough strikeouts to last a month, but no runs over the first 3 hours and 55 minutes on Friday night.
One swing by Ryosuke Kikuchi made it all worth it for the Carp and their fans.
Kikuchi hit a single that flew past the glove of diving third baseman Shuichi Murata and landed safely in left field to bring home the tiebreaking run as the Carp outlasted the first-place Kyojin 2-0 after 4 hours and 32 minutes in front of 44,517 fans at Tokyo Dome.