Sho Nakata landed a punch to the gut, blasting a tiebreaking leadoff homer in the 10th inning to lift the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters past the Orix Buffaloes in Osaka on Tuesday night.
The third-place Fighters, who beat their second-place opponent 2-1, won the best-of-three series two games to one to set up a meeting against the PL champion Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in Fukuoka on Wednesday night in the Pacific League Climax Series Final Stage.
Nakata turned on a second-pitch fastball from Orix closer Yoshihisa Hirano, crushing the ball over the center-field wall and simultaneously knocking the wind out of a crowd of 32,588 at Kyocera Dome.