The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks rallied against Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles star starter Takayuki Kishi and closer Yuki Matsui in the eighth inning to earn a 5-4 win on Sunday.
A day after the Hawks called on closer Dennis Sarfate to get them out of trouble in the eighth inning, the Eagles did the same with Matsui, but it didn't work. Matsui allowed a pair of inherited runners to score with the help of an error before Akira Nakamura broke a 3-3 tie with a two-run single.
"I had been thinking that if something emerged, I would bring him (Matsui) in to cut it off," Hawks skipper Masataka Nashida said of his 21-year-old southpaw, who blew his first save opportunity of the season.