The Hanshin Tigers and Hiroshima Carp on Sunday played a hotly contested, tense, and entertaining game full of momentum shifts and almost everything anyone — anyone who likes pitching and defense at least — would want out of a playoff game in which one team's season was on the line.
Then just like that, it was over.
Not after an amazing play or clutch hit, but on a routine fly ball to center that ended the top of the 12th inning and secured a 0-0 tie for the Tigers. Under the auspices of the NPB playoff system, a tie was as good as a win for the Tigers, who won Game 1 1-0, in the three-game series. So they advanced to the final stage of the Central League Climax Series.