The Pacific League playoffs, Japan Series’ quarterfinals and semifinals, are over with the SoftBank Hawks advancing to the final for the first time in four years. They have won six of the last 10 Japan Series, having been knocked out in the playoffs by Shohei Ohtani’s Fighters in 2016 and by the Orix Buffaloes the past three.
SoftBank’s three-game sweep of the six-game series against the second-place Nippon Ham Fighters, accomplished with the help of their automatic one-win advantage as league champs, was dominated by Hotaka Yamakawa and Kensuke Kondo.
Yamakawa went 6-for-12 with two doubles and three homers, five runs and six RBIs. Kondo, who returned from a leg injury suffered in the final days of the regular season, went 6-for-11 with three doubles, a homer, three runs and three RBIs.
The first two games, 5-2 and 7-2 wins, were not as close as the scores indicate, while they eked out a 3-2 Game 3 win to advance after Carter Stewart Jr. allowed two runs in five innings but earned his first pro postseason win with the help of Ukyo Shuto singling home Kondo and four effective innings from the bullpen.
In Tokyo, the DeNA BayStars on Friday extended their postseason win streak to five games as Tyler Austin homered for the second straight day in a 2-1 win over the CL champion Yomiuri Giants after a 2-0 Game 1 win. Without ace Katsuki Azuma, hurt in Game 1 last Saturday against the Hanshin Tigers, the BayStars started rookie Teruki Yoshino in Game 3.
The right-hander surrendered a homer to Kazuma Okamoto in the second, then twice pitched out of trouble before exiting after three. Austin homered off Foster Griffin to tie it. Chihaya Sasaki worked a scoreless fourth and DeNA scraped out a run in the fifth.
Koki Kajiwara singled off Yuji Akahoshi to open the inning, stole second and scored on a wild pitch. After Sasaki, who earned the win in relief, DeNA got two scoreless innings apiece from side-armer Hayate Nakagawa and YASUAKI YAMASAKI! Before Kohei Morihara threw a 1-2-3 ninth. Since the start of this series, the BayStars have looked loose and made the routine plays, while their pitchers have been as good as they have been all season.
Thursday’s win was closer than the scoreline indicated, with the go-ahead run scoring on a seeing-eye bouncer up the middle, but that’s baseball, and the BayStars are now one win from setting up a rematch of the electrice 2017 Japan Series they lost to SoftBank in six games.
