OSAKA — Kensuke Tanaka talked as if he's said it many times before.

"If you make mistakes, you lose. That's the game of baseball," the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters second baseman said after their 7-2 win over the Orix Buffaloes in Game 2 of the first stage of the Pacific League Climax Series on Sunday at Kyocera Dome.

Nippon Ham proved that against the Buffs, whom many critics and fans thought would have an edge in the series because of their offensive firepower and home-field advantage.