page_title: 2018 Japan Series
section_title: Game 3
hierarchical_section_title: 2018 Japan Series / Game summaries / Game 3
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 2017年11月7日 天福球場秋季キャンプ
context_page_description: The 2018 Japan Series was the championship series of Nippon Professional Baseball's 2018 season. The 69th edition of the Japan Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, the Pacific League's Climax Series champion and defending Japan Series champions, and the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, the Central League's Climax Series champion. The Hawks defeated the Carp, 4–1–1, in six games, to win their second consecutive Japan Series championship and their fifth in eight years.
  The Hawks finished the 2018 regular season in second place in the Pacific League. They advanced to the Japan Series after defeating the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and the Saitama Seibu Lions in the Climax Series. The Carp finished in first place in the Central League for the third consecutive year, earning a bye in the first stage of the Climax Series. They defeated the Yomiuri Giants in Climax Series to reach the Japan Series.
  At Mazda Stadium in Hiroshima, the Hawks and Carp tied in Game 1, and the Carp won Game 2. The Hawks then won the next four games, including Games 3 through 5 at Fukuoka Yahuoku! Dome in Fukuoka, to win the series.
context_section_description: With the series moving to Fukuoka for Game 3, the Hawks started Ariel Miranda while the Carp started Aren Kuri. The Hawks scored first; in the fourth inning, Kuri issued two walks and then allowed Akira Nakamura and Kenta Imamiya to each single in a run, giving the Hawks their first lead of the series. After pitching four scoreless innings, Miranda gave up a solo home run to Tomohiro Abe, cutting the lead in half. In the bottom half of the same inning, however, the Hawks scored a run scored off of a throwing error by Alejandro Mejía and scored again after Kuri was taken out of the game. The Carp scored two runs in the next inning, one from a solo home run by Seiya Suzuki. After Akitake Okada retired the first two batters in the bottom half of the inning, three consecutive Hawks' singles gave them another run before Alfredo Despaigne opened up a five-run lead with a three-run home run. A solo home run by Hiroaki Takaya in the seventh inning gave the Hawks just enough runs to fend off a Carp comeback in the eighth inning. Suzuki led off the inning with his second solo home run of the game and then two singles and a walk set the stage for a grand slam by Abe, also his second home run of the game. Hawks reliever Yuito Mori worked a scoreless inning to preserve the win and earn a save. The win was the Hawks’ tenth straight victory at home in the Japan Series, dating back to 2011. The Carp lost the game with 16 hits, the biggest number of hits made by the losing team in a single match, although it was also the biggest number of hits ever made in a single match by the Carp in the Japan Series history .
caption: Tomohiro Abe hit two home runs, including a grand slam, in a Game 3 loss.[16]
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