Nobumasa Fukuda twice drove in Ryosuke Hirata, pacing the Chunichi Dragons to a 2-1 win Thursday over the Central League-leading Yomiuri Giants.
The Giants entered the game with a magic number of four to clinch their first CL pennant since 2014. The leaders' third straight loss cut their lead over the second-place Yokohama BayStars to three games. The Giants have seven games remaining and the BayStars six.
Yomiuri's Hayato Sakamoto opened the scoring in the top of the sixth inning at Nagoya Dome against Shinnosuke Ogasawara with his 37th home run. But the Dragons tied it in the home half of the inning against Giants starter Cristopher Mercedes.