Luis Garcia hit a tiebreaking single in the top of the ninth inning off Hsu Ming-chieh to give the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles a 2-1 victory over the Seibu Lions on Monday night.
Garcia's basehit up the middle with one out scored Daisuke Kusano from second as the Eagles split the four-game series at Seibu Dome with the Lions, who had tied the game in the eighth with Dee Brown's two-out RBI single.
"My feeling was that we had to turn it around because today we lost the lead in the late innings and this game was very important," said Garcia, who had struck out in his previous two at-bats as the Eagles' designed hitter.
"The pitching was great, (Satoshi) Nagai did a great job. This win was a result of teamwork. I was just staying aggressive in the zone. He gave me a pitch I could handle and it went through and we got the winning run," he said.