Munenori Kawasaki tripled leading off the bottom of the ninth inning and scored the winning run on an infield hit by Nobuhiko Matsunaka as the Softbank Hawks beat the Chiba Lotte Marines 8-7 after blowing a five-run lead on Tuesday night.
Pinch-hitter Noriyoshi Omichi tied the game at 7-7 in the bottom of the eighth, shortly after Lotte rallied for six runs to take a brief lead on six hits, including a go-ahead two-run single from Koichi Hori, and set up a thrilling ending to the game between the top two Pacific League teams.
Earlier, Matsunaka hit a go-ahead double and Julio Zuleta and Kenji Jojima followed with consecutive sacrifice flies in the sixth, before Kawasaki and Batista delivered run-scoring hits in the seventh as the Hawks built a 6-1 lead at Yahoo Dome.
After the Hawks' bullpen failed to preserve the lead in the top of the eighth in relief of Tsuyoshi Wada, Pedro Feliciano (3-1) worked out of a two-on jam in the ninth for the win.