The Yomiuri Giants and Fukuoka Softbank Hawks met in a winner-take-all matchup with a title hanging in the balance on Sunday afternoon. It wasn't the prize the two teams are hoping to play for in the fall, but for the Giants at least, it was a good start.
Shuichi Murata homered and drove in four runs, and Yomiuri won Japanese baseball's 2014 interleague title with a 10-5 rout of Softbank in front of a crowd of 45,760 at Tokyo Dome.
"Before the interleague season began, I thought it would be tough, and we just barely won it," Giants manager Tatsunori Hara said.