Hotaka Yamakawa homered and drove in three runs to help send the Pacific League champion SoftBank Hawks home with a 2-0 Japan Series lead after they beat the Central League’s DeNA BayStars 6-3 in Sunday’s Game 2.
The Hawks’ victory at Yokohama Stadium was their 14th straight in Japanese pro baseball’s season finale, stretching back to 2018, a year after SoftBank vanquished DeNA in their previous postseason clash.
BayStars right-hander Shinichi Onuki recorded three swinging strikeouts in the first inning but allowed two singles and a two-out two-run home run to PL home run leader Yamakawa, who launched a hanging curve into the seats to open the scoring.
Hotaka Yamakawa of the SoftBank Hawks hits a two-run home run in the first inning against the DeNA BayStars in Game 2 of the Japan Series at Yokohama Stadium on Oct. 27, 2024. (Kyodo)
Yamakawa, who hit three homers and drove in six runs in SoftBank’s three-game sweep of the Nippon Ham Fighters in the PL Climax Series final stage, went 3-for-4 to back lefty Livan Moinelo, who was razor sharp until struggling in the fifth inning.
The Hawks made it 5-0 in the third after loading the bases on two singles and a walk. Taisei Makihara’s one-out single scored two. Onuki left the mound, and Hawks catcher Takuya Kai capped the rally with a sacrifice fly.
SoftBank’s Ukyo Shuto doubled in the fourth and Yamakawa drove him in for the second time to make it 6-0.
The BayStars caught a fifth-inning break when Moinelo was hit by a batted ball and stayed in the game. The DeNA batters began stinging nearly every pitch they swung at and scored twice on Masayuki Kuwahara’s double.
Moinelo was finally yanked after allowing a pair of two-out singles in the seventh that set the table for Shugo Maki to double in DeNA’s third run.
CL batting champion Tyler Austin, who led DeNA with 25 home runs this season, did not suit up for the game. He left Game 1 for a pinch-runner after leading off the ninth inning with a double and DeNA trailing 5-0.
The BayStars are looking to win the Japan Series for the third time. They last won in 1998, and reached the season finale in 2017 the same way they did this year, by finishing third in the league and winning back-to-back playoff series on the road.
Yui Kamiji, Japan’s Paris Paralympic wheelchair tennis double gold medalist, threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
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