Adeiny Hechavarria launched his bat high into the evening sky and looked into the Chiba Lotte Marines dugout as he began to celebrate.
There was no need to keep an eye on the ball he'd just obliterated, everyone knew where it was headed.
Hechavarria's pinch-hit home run to left tied the game in the eighth, Toshiya Sato won it with a sayonara double in the ninth and the Marines took control of the first stage of the Pacific League Climax Series with a come-from-behind 5-4 win over the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in Game 1 on Saturday in Chiba.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.