The DeNA BayStars set up a rematch of the 2017 Japan Series with the SoftBank Hawks by capturing a thrilling Central League Foreplay Series final stage Monday.
In other news, Thursday is draft day, when we may or may not hear what decision Tsuyoshi Shinjo will make about staying on as Nippon Ham Fighters manager. My guess is that after helping raise the team that reached the final stage of the PL playoffs, he’ll have an option to sign a one-year contract or not.
BayStars 3, Giants 2: At Tokyo Dome, needing a win to avoid elimination, the BayStars came from two runs down and Keito Mori made up for a costly first-inning throwing error by driving in one run and scoring two as third-place DeNA repeated its 2017 feat of reaching the Japan Series.
The Giants took the lead on two first-inning walks and a wild throw by shortstop Mori. They made it 2-0 thanks to more of the hustle from Hayato Sakamoto that helped the Giants win Game 4. Sakamoto, who on Friday told me he’s never hit as poorly as he has this season when he wasn’t hurt, legged out a fourth-inning leadoff double, took third on a fly to the left-field warning track and scored, as he did in Game 4, on a safety squeeze, this time from pitcher Shosei Togo.
DeNA’s starter, lefty Anthony Kay, made a poor throw to first on the play but J.B. Wendelken saved the day by getting an inning-ending double play.
The BayStars then tied it in the fifth. Koki Kajiwara singled to open the inning, and Moritripled to the gap in right. Mike Ford batted for Wendelken and singled Mori home.
After a sacrifice put the potential go-ahead run on second with two outs, Giants manager Shinnosuke Abe went to his bullpen for lefty Yuhei Takanashi, and didn’t treat the runner on second as a game-breaker. By keeping his outfield at normal depth when some other managers might be inclined to bring it in, he allowed center fielder Elier Hernandez to haul in Keita Sano’s fly to the warning track.
Kyle Keller, Yomiuri’s third pitcher, narrowly avoided giving up the go-ahead run in the sixth, when Tyler Austin nearly beat out an infield single and Toshiro Miyazaki doubled to the gap. DeNA side-armer Hayate Nakagawa, who entered with two outs in the fifth, stranded a runner on second in the sixth.
The BayStars loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh for Austin after lefty Alberto Baldonado walked two and surrendered a single. Shortstop Makoto Kadowaki, who has been the defensive star of the series, kept Sano’s grounder in the infield, but center fielder Hernandez might have had a play at the plate if he hadn’t. Giants righty Hiromasa Funabasama rendered the point moot by retiring Austin.
DeNA’s Hiromu Ise worked around Kadowaki’s one-out double in the bottom of the seventh, and former ace Tomoyuki Sugano worked a 1-2-3 eighth for the Giants. Ise stranded two runners in the eighth, and Mori opened the ninth with a single off Sugano. A sacrifice put him into scoring position from where Maki brought him home.
The series was as close as could be and it looked for all the world that the Giants would need both their one-win advantage as league champs and their ability to advance if the series ended in a tie to reach the Japan Series.
- DeNA 2-0
- DeNA 2-1
- DeNA 2-1
- Yomiuri 4-1
- Yomiuri 1-0
- DeNA 3-2
BayStars catcher Yasutaka Tobashira who went 9-for-26 with a home run and six RBIs, was named the CL playoffs’ MVP.
The Hawks have won six of the last 10 Japan Series, a run broken only by the Shohei Ohtani-led Nippon Ham Fighters in 2016, and the three-year run of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Orix Buffaloes from 2021 to 2023.
The Japan Series starts Saturday at Yokohama Stadium. Good luck to both teams. It’s going to be fun.
