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.
“It was an amazing game,” BayStars manager Daisuke Miura said.
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.
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 an infield 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.
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.