Katsuki Azuma won a riveting 1-0 pitchers' duel for his 16th victory of the season as the DeNA BayStars left the Yomiuri Giants hopes of reaching the Central League's postseason in tatters on Tuesday.
Azuma pitched out of the game's biggest jam in the second inning at Yokohama Stadium when he struck out Giants pitcher Iori Yamasaki with the bases loaded, and DeNA squeaked out a third-inning run.
The loss left Yomiuri four games back of third place with four games left to play. The BayStars have five.
Azuma (16-2) and Yamasaki (9-5) each struck out six and walked one over eight innings. Azuma allowed five hits and Yamasaki four.
The BayStars' only run came when catcher Yudai Yamamoto's ground ball found a hole between third and short for a leadoff single. With Yamamoto on third after two ground outs, Taisei Ota's hard grounder just inside the third-base bag went for an RBI double.
Azuma, who had pitched out of another jam in the top of the third, allowed just one more base runner before handing the ball over to J.B. Wendelken in the ninth.
"My catcher, Yudai, was like a mother to me tonight, telling me do this, don't do that. He's the one who held it all together," Azuma said of his batterymate. "I really owe this win to him."
Wendelken pitched around a leadoff walk by striking out two batters with the tying run camped on second base for his first save in Japan.
Elsewhere, the newly crowned CL champion Hanshin Tigers beat the Yakult Swallows 2-0, and the second-place Hiroshima Carp downed the Chunichi Dragons by the same score.
In the Pacific League, the Nippon Ham Fighters crushed the fourth-place Lotte Marines 7-0.
