The Yokohama DeNA BayStars and Yomiuri Giants took everything that makes October baseball great and stuffed it all into one tightly wound package on Sunday.

There were home runs, a bullpen duel, defensive gems, a 19-pitch at-bat, close calls and clutch plays all in the span of a 4½-hour battle of wills.

What there will not be, however, is another game in the Central League Climax Series First Stage.

Takuma Hayashi drove in the tying run with two outs in the 11th, and Tatsuo Ebina hit a sayonara single to give the BayStars a dramatic 7-6 win on Sunday and a sweep of the best-of-three series.

”I’ve been doing my best in every game to help the team win,” Ebina said. “I’m happy I could contribute.”

The victory sends the BayStars into the final stage of the Climax Series, where they will face the league champion Hanshin Tigers in a best-of-seven showdown for the right to advance to the Japan Series. Hanshin will start the final stage with an automatic one-game advantage as the league champion and will host the entire series at Koshien Stadium.

DeNA should be familiar with the challenge ahead after defeating the Giants under the same circumstances in the final stage last season before going on to win the Japan Series.

The first stage in the Pacific League also ended in a sweep, with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters rallying past the Orix Buffaloes in Game 2. The Fighters will face the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in the final stage.

To keep their hopes of back-to-back titles alive, the BayStars had to get past the Giants, who were trying to force the series to a decisive Game 3.

“Not a single player gave up,” BayStars manager Daisuke Miura said. “They fought with everything they had until the game was over.”

Following an offensive outburst that saw both clubs hit a pair of home runs and score five runs in each half of the first inning, the game turned into a battle of relievers and was deadlocked at 5-5 entering the 11th.

After the Giants pushed a run across in the top of the inning on a hit by Shunsuke Sasaki, the BayStars got their chance to win the series.

The first two DeNA batters grounded out before Taiki Ishikami kept the inning alive with a single and then stole second. Hayashi drove him home with a single to even the score.

“He was persistent and did well in every at-bat,” Miura said of Hayashi.”

Pinch hitter Ryuki Watarai singled to put runners on the corners for Ebina, whose hit to left field kicked off the celebration among the players on the field and the majority of the 33,767 in the stands.

“Getting two wins in a row was huge,” Miura said.

Ishikami, the BayStars’ shortstop, finished 2-for-5 with three RBIs.

“Since I made an error in the first inning, I was thinking about making up for that it every time I stepped up to the plate,” he said.

Ebina finished with three hits in six at-bats. Keita Sano also had a pair of hits, including a home run.

The teams combined to use 15 pitchers with neither starter making it beyond three innings.

Offense was at a premium against both bullpens, which was in stark contrast to how the game started.

Giants leadoff hitter Sasaki set the tone for a wild first inning when he sent Andre Jackson’s fourth pitch of the game over the wall in right field to make the score 1-0

Raito Nakayama, who hit the first regular-season home run of his career against Jackson in June, connected on a three-run blast to make the score 4-0.

Giants starter Shosei Togo later made it 5-0 with an RBI single.

Sasaki singled in his second trip to the plate before Jackson got out of the inning after facing 11 batters.

The BayStars, however, took that punch and fired back in the bottom half.

Masayuki Kuwahara reached base with a one-out single, and Sano jolted the BayStars fans out of their stunned disbelief with a two-run home run.

Game 1 hero Yoshitomo Tsutsugo then walked, and Yudai Yamamoto singled with two outs to set the table for Ishikami, who tied the score with a three-run homer.

It was all about pitching and defense from that point.

Jackson departed after the first inning, and six BayStars relievers limited the Giants to a single run the rest of the way.

First baseman Shugo Maki made a diving stop on a hard-hit grounder by Yoshihiro Maru and began a 3-6-3 double play to end the sixth. In the eighth, Ebina made a leaping grab at the wall to take a hit away from Kazuma Okamoto.

The Giants used seven more pitchers after Togo was relieved to start the fourth. Raidel Martinez was the sixth of those, and the Giants closer, who finished tied atop the CL with 46 saves, got two outs to escape an inherited jam in the eighth and retired all three batters he faced in the ninth.

The breakthrough for both clubs came in the 11th.

Seiji Kobayashi, in his first at-bat of the night, doubled to left to start the frame for the Giants. He advanced on a sacrifice bunt, and the Giants loaded the bases on a pair of walks.

Sasaki came through with an infield single that scored the tiebreaking run.

It looked as if that would be enough to extend Yomiuri’s season by at least one more day, but the BayStars rallied to create a dramatic ending.

“It was an amazing game,” Miura said.