Kazuma Okamoto hit his Japan-leading 41st home run, and Makoto Kadowaki singled in the winning run in the ninth inning as the Yomiuri Giants improved their chances of reaching the Central League playoffs with a 3-2 walk-off win Sunday over the Yakult Swallows.
Battling the third-place DeNA BayStars in the fight for the league's third and final postseason slot, the Giants came from a run down at Tokyo Dome on sixth-inning homers by Yoshihiro Maru and Okamoto.
Yakult tied it in the ninth off closer Taisei Ota (3-0), but rookie Yuki Okada led off the Giants' ninth. With two outs and runners on first and second against Swallows reliever Noboru Shimizu (1-8), Kadowaki fouled off five two-strike pitches before lining a single past the glove of Swallows second baseman Tetsuto Yamada.
After reaching first, Kadowaki's teammates doused him with water in celebration.
"I've never tasted water so delicious before," Kadowaki said.
Yakult, mired in fifth place after winning the CL pennant the past two seasons, took a fourth-inning lead on a Domingo Santana home run only for the Giants, whose 158 home runs are the most in Japan by a good margin, to come from behind via the long ball.
Santana's ninth-inning leadoff double set up Yakult's tying run, but Shimizu (1-8) was unable to get the game to extra innings.
Elsewhere in the CL, the second-place Hiroshima Carp defeated the last-place Chunichi Dragons 3-0.
In the Pacific League, the two-time defending champion Orix Buffaloes clinched a postseason spot with a 6-4 win over the fourth-place Rakuten Eagles, and the second-place Lotte Marines lost 3-2 to the Seibu Lions, while the third-place SoftBank Hawks fell 6-1 to the last-place Nippon Ham Fighters.
