Orix Buffaloes rookie left-hander Ryuhei Sotani allowed just one hit over six shutout innings to earn his first professional win in a 4-1 victory over potential Pacific League playoff opponents the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks on Monday.
Making his 10th appearance for the PL champions, the 22-year-old outdueled former Texas Rangers starter Kohei Arihara at Kyocera Dome Osaka in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Sotani (1-2) struck out five and walked a pair, backed by two RBIs from Marwin Gonzalez and one each from Yutaro Sugimoto and Kenya Wakatsuki.
Sugimoto drove in the first run with his single in the bottom of the first, while Wakatsuki made it 2-0 with his two-out solo home run off Arihara (10-5) in the sixth.
The second-place Hawks notched their only run through Kensuke Kondo's bomb in the ninth that tied him for the PL home run lead with 26. The outfielder also registered his PL-best 87th RBI.
Rain forced the postponement of Monday's other scheduled game, between the third-place Chiba Lotte Marines and fourth-place Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, with the third and final PL playoff berth on the line.
They are due to meet Tuesday at Rakuten Mobile Park Miyagi, where a Lotte win will see them finish second ahead of SoftBank, and an Eagles win will clinch them third place at the expense of the Marines.