Nippon Ham Fighters vs Fukuoka S. Hawks

The game was scoreless through three innings. Fighters starter Haruki Hosono matched zeros with SoftBank's Naoki Uezawa until the fourth, when the Hawks broke through.

Ryoya Kurihara led off with a walk, Yuki Yanagita singled, and Yusuke Yamamoto's sacrifice fly put SoftBank on the board. A walk to Makihara loaded the bases, and Takashi Hirose — who entered the game hitting well below .200 — crushed his first home run of the season, a three-run shot to left that made it 4-0.

SoftBank poured on two more in the fifth. Ukyo Shuto singled and came home on Kurihara's RBI single before Yanagita ripped an RBI double to left-centre, stretching the lead to 6-0.

The Fighters finally answered in the bottom of the fifth. With two singles putting runners on the corners, pinch-hitter Yuma Imagawa smashed a three-run homer to left off Uezawa, cutting the deficit to 6-3.

The Hawks left the bases loaded in the seventh when Makihara struck out to end the threat. It proved the decisive missed opportunity.

In the bottom half, SoftBank reliever Osuna — who had been dominant in his previous NPB outings — ran into immediate trouble. Yua Nomura singled, Ariel Castro walked, and Imagawa greeted Osuna with a single to load the bases. Mizuno then tomahawked a pitch over the right-centre wall for a go-ahead grand slam, his 11th homer of the season, putting the Fighters ahead 7-6. According to Sponichi, it was Mizuno's first career grand slam and the 500th home run in Es Con Field history.

SoftBank tied the game in the eighth. Shuto's sacrifice fly scored Shoji, knotting the score at 7-7.

Neither team scored in the ninth. In the bottom of the 10th, Mizuno led off with a single off Hawks reliever Hernandez. Ryo Tamiya's sacrifice bunt moved him to second, and Kiyomiya delivered the game-winner — a single to right that brought Mizuno home.

The seventh inning swung everything. SoftBank's failure to score with the bases loaded and one out in the top half kept the game at 6-3, giving the Fighters momentum. The bottom half saw Osuna surrender Mizuno's grand slam that turned a 6-3 deficit into a 7-6 lead. In one frame, SoftBank went from a potential knockout blow to trailing.

Tatsuki Mizuno (Fighters): 2-for-5, 2 runs, 4 RBI, 1 HR. His seventh-inning grand slam flipped the game, and his leadoff single in the 10th started the winning rally. Clear player of the match.

Yuma Imagawa (Fighters): 2-for-2, 1 run, 3 RBI, 1 HR. Entered as a pinch-hitter in the fifth and launched a three-run homer that started the Fighters' climb back. Also singled in the seventh as part of the grand-slam rally.

Yuki Yanagita (SoftBank): 3-for-4, 1 run, 1 RBI. Collected three hits including an RBI double and reached base four times, but the Hawks' bullpen could not hold the lead he helped build.

Kotaro Kiyomiya (Fighters): 2-for-4, 1 RBI, 1 HBP. The first baseman delivered the walk-off single in the 10th, his second hit of the day.

SoftBank out-hit the Fighters 12-11 and committed no errors to Nippon-Ham's one, yet lost. The Hawks' bullpen surrendered five runs in 3.1 innings after Uezawa had held the Fighters to three earned runs over six innings on 109 pitches. The Fighters used seven pitchers: Hosono (4.1 IP, 8 H, 6 ER), then five relievers before Fukushima (1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R) earned the win, improving to 4-4. The three-hour-58-minute affair was 54 minutes longer than the previous day's meeting between the same clubs.

SoftBank (68-40-1) remain in first place in the Pacific League but saw their dominant run over the Fighters dented — they still lead the season series 15-4 against Nippon-Ham. The Fighters (63-50-0) sit third in the league and gained ground with a comeback that could shift momentum in the final stretch. Their next fixture is a series continuation against SoftBank at Es Con Field.

A game that looked like a routine SoftBank blowout became the Fighters' most important win of August. Mizuno's grand slam was the headline, but Imagawa's pinch-hit homer gave the Fighters a pulse when the game had none. SoftBank's bullpen, a lingering question mark, cost them a game they had controlled for six innings.

Player of the match: Tatsuki Mizuno (Nippon-Ham Fighters) — grand slam, 4 RBI, game-winning rally starter.