OSAKA — Spot Yu Darvish a run and more times than not he's going to win. Give him a couple more and it's pretty much academic.

Darvish kept the powerful Orix Buffaloes at bay and the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters strung together a couple of timely hits to win Game 1 of the first stage of the Pacific League Climax Series 4-1 on Saturday afternoon at Kyocera Dome.

"With Darvish pitching, there is no way we were going to lose if we scored four runs," Fighters manager Masataka Nashida said. "I was a little worried about what would happen if we lost this game, but now I am confident we can win this series and move on to Stage 2."