Watch: SoftBank Hawks win Japan Series on 11th-inning 'sayonara single'

What could possibly be better than a championship-winning walk-off single?

Well, nothing - except, maybe, a championship-winning sayonara single.

A few thousand miles across the Pacific Ocean on Saturday, the Japan Series - championship of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball - came to a thrilling end in an extra-inning classic Game 6 between the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and the Yokohama BayStars. Three innings after Fukuoka tied the game in the bottom of the ninth, second baseman Keizo Kawashima sent fans at the Yafuoku Dome into a frenzy when he laced the championship-winning hit - or "sayonara single," as it's called in Japan - in the 11th inning, lifting the Hawks to their third Japan Series title in the past four seasons.

In addition to Kawashima's heroics, much of the credit for Fukuoka's win has to be given to closer Dennis Sarfate, a former major-leaguer who last pitched stateside with the Orioles in 2009.

Since leaving the majors, Sarfate has achieved stardom in Japan, saving a Japanese record 54 games in 2017. On Saturday, he became a Fukuoka legend when he entered Game 6 in the 10th inning and tossed three shutout frames, paving the way for the championship hit.

"We had to win today, because I had nothing left for tomorrow," Sarfate told Jason Coskrey of the Japan Times.

Safarte earned Japan Series MVP honors for his efforts.