The Hanshin Tigers are our Japan Series champions for 2023, ending 38 years of wandering through Japan’s postseason and regular season wilderness. And while the Orix Buffaloes failed to repeat, the club is set to cash in on what will likely be a huge posting fee, following their announcement that they will allow ace pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto to move to MLB via the

Sunday’s Game 7

Tigers 7, Buffaloes 1: Osaka UFO Dome, Sheldon Neuse hit a ball where Yuma Mune couldn’t catch it for a three-run fourth-inning home run off Hiroya Miyagi. While Koyo Aoyagi was confusifying the Buffaloes hitters, only plays from Mune at third and Marwin Gonzalez at second had kept the Tigers from taking an early lead off Miyagi.

With two strikes, Neuse took Miyagi deep in the fourth, and hit the third of three RBI singles in a three-run fifth, with two of those runs being charged to Miyagi and one to Japan’s oldest right-hander, Tomoki Higa.

Aoyagi also was yanked after 4-2/3 but he was rarely in trouble, and lefty Masashi Ito, Game 3’s starting and losing pitcher, twirled three nearly flawless innings to get the win.

The Buffaloes’ only consolation was Yuma Tongu’s third solo homer of the series.