Shunta Wakamatsu kept the Chunichi Dragons in the game long enough for his teammates to grab the lead in the ninth inning. Then, he went out and finished what he started.
Wakamatsu threw 141 pitches over the distance, and the opportunistic Dragons scored two runs on two wild pitches in the ninth to secure a 3-1 win over the Yomiuri Giants in front of a crowd of 43,763 on Thursday night at Tokyo Dome.
"Wakamatsu showed his guts tonight," Dragons manager Motonobu Tanishige said. "He was just as good at the end as he was at the beginning."