Masato Morishita took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning before his third hit of the game sparked the Hiroshima Carp's winning rally in a 4-1 Central League victory on Saturday over the DeNA BayStars.
Trailing 1-0 at Hiroshima's Mazda Stadium after two second-inning errors allowed the BayStars to score, Morishita (3-0) survived a pair of two-out seventh-inning singles and then singled with one out in the home half.
New DeNA import Anthony Kay (1-3) pitched out of trouble for the first three innings and cruised for the next three. The Carp, however, loaded the bases on seventh-inning singles by Morishita and Shogo Akiyama, and Kay left after issuing his only walk.
With the bases loaded, Takayoshi Noma, whose defense in left field had contributed to keeping the game close, beat a throw to first to stay out of a double play, allowing Morishita to score.
With the game tied, veteran pinch-hitter Ryuhei Matsuyama came off the bench to belt a three-run home run.
"Masato showed us what good batting form looks like, and I just tried to emulate him," Matsuyama joked in the postgame "hero" interview.
Morishita, who went 3-for-3 at the plate with a double, while allowing just the two hits and the hit batsman over seven innings, thanked Noma for his role.
"After I gave up a run, I shifted my focus to not allowing any more. The plays Noma made helped me do that," he said.
Unlike Major League Baseball, where pitchers can be credited with no-hitters even if they give up a run, Nippon Professional Baseball only counts no-hit shutouts, so Morishita had no chance of entering Japan's record books.
Among other games on Saturday, Lotte's Neftali Soto hit a two-run home run in the Marines' 2-0 Pacific League win over the Rakuten Eagles, while the Seibu Lions snapped a streak of 15-straight losing decisions in extra-inning games with a 10th-inning 5-4 walk-off win over the SoftBank Hawks.
