The Pacific League’s postseason first-stage series is over as the SoftBank Hawks Gita’d the Seibu Lions, while the DeNA BayStars bounced back to even their series against the Hanshin Tigers and set up a decisive Game 3 on Monday.
The Lions’ loss came with the news we’d been expecting for some time, the announcement that manager Hatsuhiko Tsuji is stepping down, although there is no word yet on his likely replacement, expected to be Seibu’s farm manager, Kazuo Matsui.
Japan’s postseason began Saturday afternoon, and the two teams in each Climax Series first stage who were better at scoring and preventing runs all season were better at scoring and preventing them in Game 1.
In Yokohama, the Hanshin Tigers, who finished three games below .500 after outscoring their opponents 489-429 took on the second-place DeNA BayStars, who were five games over .500 despite being outscored 534-497. But because DeNA finished ahead in the standings, they need only a win and a tie to advance despite being down a game.
