The Nippon Ham Fighters feted retiring star Atsunori Inaba on Sunday and capped it off with a 1-0 win over the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
Double-duty right-hander Shohei Otani worked two innings in the start of an otherwise meaningless game for the Fighters and hit 162 km per hour on the radar gun on his second pitch to Ginji Akaminai, matching the fastest recorded speed for a pitch in Japanese ball.
Haruki Nishikawa tripled and scored on Yang Dai-kang's single in the sixth inning off marquee rookie Yuki Matsui (4-8). The loss left last year's Japan Series champs in last place in the Pacific League.
Inaba, who turned pro out of university as the third round pick of the Central League's Yakult Swallows in 1994, won three Japan Series with the Swallows. Inaba tried to move to the majors as a free agent after the 2004 season but got no offers and signed with Nippon Ham, where he enjoyed a renaissance.
In Sapporo, Inaba won four PL titles with the Fighters and won one more Japan Series ring. In his first years with Nippon Ham, whenever Inaba would come to the plate with a chance to impact the game, Fighters fans would literally rock Sapporo Dome with the "Inaba Jump," while he batted and eventually, each of his at-bats was greeted with a jump from the hardcore supporters. At the conclusion of his retirement ceremony, Inaba stood in the batter's box and the whole Dome crowd performed one last jump.
Inaba played in 2,213 career games, hit 261 home runs and drove in 1,050 runs. He went 0-for-3 in his final game.