Twelve years ago, the Chunichi Dragons won four straight postseason games to move within one win of the Japan Series, only to be foiled when they ran out of starting pitchers the Yomiuri Giants hadn’t seen all year and lost three straight at Tokyo Dome.
For the past week, the DeNA BayStars have played as well as they have all season, and that got them to within one win of their first Japan Series since they won both foreplay postseason stages and reached the 2017 Japan Series, but the Giants’ strength, their pitching and defense made the difference this weekend’s elimination games, Yomiuri’s 4-1 win Saturday and its 1-0 win Sunday.
Like their pitching, the BayStars’ defense has been more reliable since last weekend’s sweep at Koshien, but Giants shortstop Makoto Kadowaki has been a difference-maker with his glove, and the Giants pitching has also been excellent.
The Giants hold a slight edge Monday, in that they only need to prevent a DeNA victory, since a 12-inning tie would end the series 3-3 and the top-seeded teams in each foreplay series stage advance on a tie.
This has happened six times before, although the SoftBank Hawks won Game 3 win in the bottom of the 12th AFTER they had advanced to the Japan Series by preventing the Seibu Lions from scoring in the top of the 12th. The next year, NPB changed the rule to allow teams to skip the dead-rubber home half of the 12th. Prior to that time, NPB officials argued with me that because it was baseball, the home team would WANT the chance to win rather than celebrate a tie… Turns out they’d rather celebrate.
By the way, the 2012 foreplay final stage was the one where the (drum roll please) CLIMAX SERIES MVP went to Yoshihito Ishii, who went 1-for-3 with a broken-bat flare single that drove in the winning run in Game 6 instead of some Giants teammates who were actually deserving.
The Japan Series starts Saturday in either Yokohama or Tokyo Dome before moving to Fukuoka for Game 3, hopefully on Tuesday if there are no weather cancellations. The first travel day is also the day the Sawamura Award committee meets to decide on this year’s most impressive starting pitcher.
