NISHINOMIYA, Japan - The DeNA BayStars reached the Japan Series after downing the Hanshin Tigers 8-5 in Game 4 of the best-of-seven Central League Climax Series final stage on Saturday.
The BayStars scored four runs in the ninth inning to turn the game around and beat the CL pennant-winning Tigers, who began the series with a one-win advantage in addition to hosting all the games at their Koshien Stadium.
Tigers closer Taisei Kudo (0-1) had runners on the corners but was a strike short of securing his team a win in the ninth before allowing Masaki Mimori a two-run single that gave the BayStars a 6-5 lead.
Rafael Dolis gave up two more runs in the frame before the Tigers made their painful exit despite loading the bases in the home half.
"We were facing a strong team in the Tigers, we were just desperate and managed to show our attitude of playing as a team in that inning," said BayStars skipper Ryoji Aikawa, whose team will face the SoftBank Hawks of the Pacific League in the Japan Series.
The BayStars finished the regular season third but beat the second-place Yomiuri Giants 2-0 in the first stage of the Climax Series. They blanked the Tigers in the first three games of the final stage and remain unbeaten in the postseason.
They led in the first inning on a Toshiro Miyazaki sacrifice fly before the Tigers finally scored their first run of the series in the home half as Yusuke Oyama hit an RBI single with two on.
Shuto Naruse's two-run shot in the fourth restored the BayStars' lead but Shota Morishita, whose 35 home runs this year was second only to his Triple Crown-winning Tigers teammate Teruaki Sato's 39, hit solo homers in the fifth and seventh to help his team take a 5-3 lead.
Miyazaki singled in a run in the eighth to make it a one-run game before the BayStars erupted in the ninth to reach the Japan Series, where they last played and won against the Hawks in 2024, having also finished the season third that year.
