The Japan Series

Japan Series

, or is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a seven-game series between the winning clubs of the league's two circuits, the Central League and the Pacific League....

, the 57th edition of Nippon Professional Baseball's championship

Championship

Championship is a term used in sport to refer to various forms of competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.- Title match system :...

 series, began on October 21 and ended on October 26, and matched the Central League

Central League

The or is one the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consists of six teams from around the country,The Central League...

 champion Chunichi Dragons

Chunichi Dragons

The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chubu region of Japan. The team is in the Central League. They won the 2007 Japan Series and 2007 Asia Series.-History:...

 against the Pacific League

Pacific League

The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series...

 champion, Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters

Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters

The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Sapporo, Hokkaidō. They compete in the Pacific League of Nippon Professional Baseball, playing the majority of their home games at the Sapporo Dome. The Fighters also host a select number of regional home games in cities across Hokkaidō,...

. The Fighters won the Series in five games, taking Games 2,3,4 and 5.

Matchups

Game	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	Score	Time	Attendance
1	October 21	Nippon Ham	2	Chunichi	4	6:10 pm	38,009
2	October 22	Nippon Ham	5	Chunichi	2	6:10 pm	38,095
3	October 24	Chunichi	1	Nippon Ham	6	6:10 pm	41,798
4	October 25	Chunichi	0	Nippon Ham	3	6:10 pm	41,835
5	October 26	Chunichi	1	Nippon Ham	4	6:10 pm	42,030
Nippon Ham wins 4-1

Game 1

Game 1 saw both aces pitch for their respective teams: Darvish for the Fighters, Kawakami for the Dragons. Both pitchers started off well, but Darvish, who had bouts with wildness in the regular season, saw his control unravel in the 2nd inning, giving away the 2-0 Fighters lead that he had been staked to in the top of the inning. Chunichi scratched across one more in the 3rd and one in the 8th to put the home Dragons on top, 4-2. Longtime Dragons closer Iwase shut down the Fighters in the 9th to put the Dragons on top 1 game to none.

Game 2

Super rookie Tomoya Yagi took the mound for Nippon Ham in Game 2, still flying high from out-dueling SoftBank Hawks ace Kazumi Saitoh. He would out-duel another veteran, this time screwballer Masahiro Yamamoto. In the battle of the lefties, the only two mistakes Yagi would make would be to Hirokazu Ibata and Kosuke Fukudome, both solo shots.

Game 3

Game 4

Game 5