Sing it with me, everyone: “Unaru suingu, kiri saku a-chi, hoero Kosuke, shobu wo kimero.” Kosuke Fukudome‘s cheer song literally says this: A whopping swing, a homer cuts through the air. Roar, Kosuke! Win it for us!
This is how it went down:
The Tigers gave up the first run of the game in a 3-error (plus one bad fielder’s choice) in a single inning.
They took the lead with several nice hits, and had a great chance to push the lead even further… but Yoshio Itoi fails to reach first base and break up the double play. Rally over.
Somehow, while I’m walking my bored son around the concourse, the BayStars tie the game, and take a convincing lead. The Tigers have had no hits since before Itoi’s GIDP.
Yusuke Ohyama is starting to hit in later innings, at last! He doubles to lead off the sixth, gets driven home by Ryutaro Umeno, who ultimately makes it home on Fumiya Hojoh‘s grounder through the left side of the infield. There’s a huge chance to even things up or take the lead, but another close call at first ends the rally.
The next inning, Ohyama does it again! After Kento Itohara‘s leadoff double and Itoi’s infield fly, the #4 hitter puts one into shallow right, and the game is tied.
And the already-long game is getting longer, and more drawn out. Pitcher changes, replay requests, hits, errors, walks… it all adds up to a grueling game for fans, especially those who bring two preschoolers along (on Children’s Day).
Itohara leads off the bottom of the ninth with a walk. Itoi does his thing (that is to say, nothing). Ohyama battles but ultimately strikes out. NO. This one CAN’T go to extras. I’ve bought the whole concession stand worth of snacks and sweet drinks already!
Enter the hero. Home run. Game over. Sweep!!!
And for the record, at age 42 years, 9 days, Fukudome becomes the oldest player in Central League history to hit a walk-off home run. His blast also happened to be the 50,000th ever in the CL. The man is definitely deserving of being voted to Hanshin’s all-Heisei Era team!