Atsunori Inaba's first game in charge of Samurai Japan had a little bit of everything. There were big plays, clutch hits and rallies in the bottom half of both the ninth and 10th innings.
The icing on the cake was Tatsuhiro Tamura's sayonara double to win it.
Japan overcame a one-run deficit to tie the score in the ninth and got even in the 10th on a game-tying three-run home run by Seiji Uebayashi before Tamura's game-winning double gave Inaba and Japan a thrilling 8-7 victory over South Korea in the opening game of the Asia Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) on Thursday night at Tokyo Dome.