And then there were two.

The Orix Buffaloes, the jokes of the Pacific League for much of the last two decades, beat a good SoftBank Hawks team to book their second straight trip to the Japan Series against the Yakult Swallows, who earned their berth on Friday.

We also had more managing news as Hanshin waited less than 24 hours since their playoff exit to announce their new old manager, while Kodai Senga began singing “Free at last, Free at last,” and Shintaro Fujinami asked why some players find it so hard to leave Japan.