Seiichi Uchikawa delivered a tiebreaking single in the top of the ninth inning as the Softbank Hawks beat the Tohoku Rakuten Eagles 2-1 on Sunday to become the first team to clinch a playoff berth.
The Hawks also stretched their Pacific League lead to 10½ games over the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, who lost to the Orix Buffaloes 4-0 the same day, while cutting their magic number to seven for winning the PL title.
Munenori Kawasaki reached on a fielding error by Rakuten shortstop Kazuo Matsui leading off the ninth and advanced to second on a Yuichi Honda sacrifice bunt before scoring on Uchikawa's base hit up the middle.