Yuki Yanagita capped a solid day at the plate with a tie-breaking, 12th-inning home run, lifting the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks to a nail-biting 5-4 win over the Orix Buffaloes on Sunday.
Yanagita, who went 3-for-6, also belted two doubles. One was a booming shot off the center field wall to keep a rally alive, and the other a hustling effort in which he flashed his speed to set up a 10th-inning scoring opportunity. The home run was his 17th of the season.
"I really wanted to lock up this win as quickly as we could, so I was focused on getting to that next base," Yanagita said. "I haven't been getting many extra-base hits of late, so hopefully this is the start of something."