The Cuban pitcher Liván Moinelo delivered a dominant performance on Sunday at Yokohama Stadium, by completing seven innings without allowing any runs in the second game of the 2026 Japan Series, which the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks won 4-3 in ten innings against the Yokohama DeNA BayStars.
Moinelo, SoftBank's pitcher, faced his most dangerous moment in the second inning when the opponents had runners on second and third with one out. The left-hander got out of the jam with strikeouts and kept the scoreboard clean throughout his outing: five hits, one intentional walk, and eight strikeouts in 91 pitches. He left the mound with a 2-0 lead for his team but without an official decision.
The bullpen couldn't hold the Cuban's performance. In the eighth inning, reliever Matsumoto Yuki allowed a three-run homer by Tsutsugo Yoshitomo that turned the score to 3-2 in favor of DeNA. SoftBank responded immediately: pinch hitter Yamakawa Hotaka tied the game with a solo home run in the ninth.
The defining moment came in the tenth inning when Kawamura Yuto, in his first at-bat of the Japan Series, hit a home run to center field to establish the final score of 4-3. Venezuelan reliever Darwinzon Hernández earned the official victory after getting out of a jam in the ninth with runners on first and second.
With this victory, SoftBank has accumulated two wins without losses in the best-of-seven series. The first game, played on Saturday at the same stadium, was also won by the Hawks 3-1 in eleven innings, with another starter who completed seven scoreless innings.
The performance on Sunday marked Moinelo's best outing of the entire 2026 postseason. In the first game of the final phase of the Climax Series, in mid-October against Nippon-Ham, the Cuban had lasted only two and a third innings. Prior to that, a left shoulder injury had kept him sidelined from mid-May until August 11, when he returned with a six-inning scoreless start. In the seven regular-season starts following his return, he accumulated six wins, one loss, and an ERA of 0.76.
This is the second consecutive Japan Series between SoftBank and DeNA. In 2024, the BayStars won 4-2 to take the title from the Hawks. SoftBank comes in as the defending champion after winning the Japan Series in 2025, a season in which Moinelo was named MVP of the Pacific League with a record of 12-3 and an ERA of 1.46.
The next three games of the series will be held at the Mizuho PayPay Dome in Fukuoka on October 27, 28, and 29, with SoftBank as the home team and the advantage of needing just two more victories to retain the title.
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