Baseball: Japan Series opener ends in 12-inning tie

Although the relievers for the Hiroshima Carp and Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks certainly warrant an honorable mention.

The Carp scored twice in the first inning, the Hawks scored twice in the fifth, and neither team was able to find its way across home plate after that as Game 1 ended in a 2-2 ,12-inning tie on Saturday night in front of a crowd of 30,727 at Mazda Stadium.

“It was a big tie for us,” Hawks manager Kimiyasu Kudo said. “We’ll be able to take advantage of it.”

On the same day the MLB saw its longest-ever World Series game end in 7 hours and 20 minutes, the Carp and Hawks played for 4 hours and 38 minutes. Japan Series games are considered ties after 12 innings this season, a departure from the usual 15 frames played in the final round.

The tie was the first in the Japan Series since 2010, when the Chiba Lotte Marines and Chunichi Dragons finished 2-2 in Game 6. It was the first to open a Japan Series since 1986, when the Carp and Seibu Lions played a 14-inning, 2-2 draw in Hiroshima. That was also the last Japan Series to require an eighth game, due to the tie. The Lions won the series 4-3, with Kudo, one of the Lions’ star pitchers, named MVP.