Takayuki Shimizu drove in the winning-run in the 12th and the Yomiuri Giants overcame a five-run ninth-inning deficit to earn a 9-8 "sayonara" victory against Hiroshima Carp in front of 39,167 fans at Tokyo Dome on Friday night.
Giants hurler Tetsuya Utsumi, right, mourns after he gave up a solo home run to Carp third baseman
Takahiro Arai in the fifth inning at Tokyo Dome on Friday.
KYODO PHOTOBackup catcher Ken Kato tied the game with a two-out, two-run single in the ninth to send the game into extra innings.
Noriyoshi Omichi led off the 12th with a deep double to center before Shimizu hit a ball to almost the same spot to send the Giants fans home happy after the 4-hour, 42-minute contest.
"Thank you for staying until late," Shimizu told the crowd during his hero interview. "It was amazing that we were able to win the game."
Reliever Kiyoshi Toyoda (2-5) worked the 12th to pick up the win as Yomiuri won for just the second time in seven games and pulled within a half game of the Central League-leading Hanshin Tigers.
Facing an 8-3 deficit, the Giants batted around in the ninth to send Carp starter Hiroki Kuroda home with a hard luck no-decision as Hiroshima relievers Hirofumi Ueno and Katsuhiro Nakagawa blew a five-run lead. Jared Fernandez (3-9) gave up a run in the 12th to take the loss.
"It was a great game," Fernandez said. "I feel good, my knuckleball is good and I did my best. We just didn't get it done in the ninth. Our offense was great but I think we faltered in a lot of other areas."
Damon Hollins and Yoshinobu Takahashi each drove in runs and Nakagawa walked Tomohiro Nioka with the bases loaded to cut the lead to 8-6 in the ninth. Kato followed with a two-run single to right that knotted the score.
Kuroda struck out four and allowed three runs on seven hits in seven innings. He was solid through four innings before giving up all three Yomiuri runs the fifth.
Giants starter Tetsuya Utsumi also did not factor into the decision after allowing six runs on 10 hits in five innings.
Hiroshima's Takahiro Arai was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle after a single, double and home run in his first three at-bats. He grounded out in his next three attempts and finished 3-for-6 with an RBI.
Swallows top 'Stars
YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) Norichika Aoki and Alex Ramirez combined for seven RBIs on Friday night as the Tokyo Yakult Swallows held off the Yokohama BayStars 9-7 for their third consecutive win.
Aoki drew a bases-loaded walk in the second inning, singled in two runs off Shun Yamaguchi (0-3) in the third and added an RBI double in the eighth at Yokohama Stadium.
Ramirez had three doubles and drove in three runs.
Dragons 7, Tigers 5
At Koshien Stadium, Tyrone Woods hit a tiebreaking two-run single in the top of the ninth as Chunichi beat Hanshin to move within a half game of the CL leaders.
Woods lined a two-out single to center off Kyuji Fujikawa (5-3) to score runners from second and third, two innings after hitting his CL-leading 34th home run with a two-run drive. He was 3-for-5 with four RBIs on the night.
Shinya Okamoto (5-2) won in relief. Hitoki Iwase closed out the ninth to get his 38th save.
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