Hayato Sakamoto hit a game-tying home run and drew a clutch walk to lead the Yomiuri Giants to a 4-2 come-from-behind win over the Central League-leading Hanshin Tigers on Sunday.
Fighting to secure a spot in the postseason for the first time since 2021, the Giants trailed 2-1 at Tokyo Dome when Sakamoto cracked his 15th home run, off lefty Masashi Ito (8-5).
The Giants took the lead in the eighth after Sakamoto drew their second straight two-out walk to set the table for the middle of the order.
"The discipline Sakamoto showed to take that 3-2 pitch from Ito and draw that walk was critical to us," Giants manager Tatsunori Hara said.
With two on, pinch-runner Makoto Kadowaki just barely beat the throw home on Kazuma Okamoto's single to give the Giants the lead. A Yoshihiro Maru single made it 4-2.
"Kadowaki's base running was everything on that play," Okamoto said. "Having lost the first two games of the series, we needed to get something."
The Giants opened play Sunday fourth in the CL, 1-1/2 games back of the DeNA BayStars in the hunt for one of the league's three postseason berths.
The Tigers came within a hair of putting the potential tying run on base in the ninth, but Kadowaki, who replaced Sakamoto at short, made a great grab in shallow center for the final out.
The Tigers scored single runs in the second and third, before the Giants got on the scoreboard in the sixth on a leadoff pinch-hit homer by Takumi Oshiro off Ito, who allowed four runs over 7-2/3 innings.
In the Pacific League, the league-leading Orix Buffaloes ran off their eighth straight win, 5-2 over the second-place Lotte Marines.
