Baseball: Carp take playoff opener on Akiyama's walk-off single

Shogo Akiyama hit a walk-off single in the 11th inning to give the Hiroshima Carp a 3-2 victory Saturday over the DeNA BayStars in Game 1 of the best-of-three first stage in the Central League Climax Series. With runners at the corners and two outs in the 11th, the former Cincinnati Reds outfielder drove a 0-1 pitch from J.B. Wendelken over the head of center fielder Tatsuo Ebina at Mazda Stadium. Toshiro Miyazaki's two-run home run gave the third-place BayStars a 2-0 lead in the sixth. The second-place Carp tied the game on Ryosuke Kikuchi's squeeze bunt in the eighth. The first stage's winni...