Masaaki Koike didn't get all of Takahiro Mahara's forkball in the 10th inning, but he got enough it. And that's all the Chunichi Dragons needed.
Dragons starter Chen Wei-yin had one of his best outings of the year, Kazuhiro Wada backed him with a game-tying solo homer in the fourth, and Koike provided the difference in the 10th to give the Dragons a 2-1 win over the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in Game 1 of the Japan Series on Saturday at Yahoo Dome.
"It was a very intense game to watch from the bench," Dragons manager Hiromitsu Ochiai said. "I knew the players did not want to lose, and I told them to enjoy themselves."