OSAKA — Entering the bottom of the ninth of the first game in the NPB All-Star Series, it was pretty much a given the game's MVP would be a 40-year-old veteran.
It just wasn't the one everyone was expecting.
Fukuoka Softbank Hawks slugger Nobuhiko Matsunaka tied the game with a single in the ninth and the next batter, Tohoku Rakuten's Takeshi Yamasaki, won it with a "sayonara" single as the Pacific League beat the Central League 5-4 in front of 33,618 fans on Thursday at Kyocera Dome.
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