In a game electrified by twin pitching gems, Kenta Imamiya's two-out walk-off double provided the big finish, lifting the SoftBank Hawks to a 1-0 win Thursday over the Orix Buffaloes.
At Fukuoka's PayPay Dome, SoftBank's 42-year-old Tsuyoshi Wada dueled 22-year-old fellow lefty Hiroya Miyagi for seven scoreless innings in a game that remained scoreless until the bottom of the ninth.
Masaki Mimori singled with one out against Buffaloes closer Yoshihisa Hirano (3-2). A sacrifice moved the runner to second, and with the outfield playing shallow, Imamiya's fly to the gap in right fell in easily for the game-winning hit.
"Watching Wada pitch is unreal," Imamiya said. "There's absolutely nobody like him. I only wish we could have gotten him the win. I definitely want to do that next time."
Wada allowed three hits and two walks while striking out seven, and only faced one dangerous inning, when two big catches from his outfielders kept the Pacific League-leading Buffaloes off the scoreboard.
Miyagi allowed six hits and a walk while striking out eight, and got himself out of trouble by making a good play to throw out a runner at the plate.
"Miyagi is such a good pitcher. Competing against him helped get that great game out of me," said Wada, who threw 103 pitches. "It's been a while since I went seven innings, but I felt really good tonight and could have gone longer."
Elsewhere, the Seibu Lions won a 5-4 see-saw game over the Rakuten Eagles, and the Lotte Marines held off the Nippon Ham Fighters 6-4.
In the Central League, the Yomiuri Giants' two first-inning unearned runs were enough to beat the Hiroshima Carp 2-0, while the struggling Yakult Swallows snapped a seven-game losing skid with a 6-1 win over the Chunichi Dragons.
