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Seibu wins! The Lions overcame two shakey innings from veteran starter Fumiya Nishiguchi take game 7 3-2, and the series 4-3. Nishiguchi struggled this year with injuries and ineffectiveness, and starting him was a risky call, but he at least gave the Lions two innings without letting the game get out of hand. This set up the Lions to use Kazuhisa Ishii, Hideaki Wakui, and Alex Graman for two innings each, which was enough to shut down the Giants the rest of the way.

On the Giants side, Koji Uehara didn’t manage to make a farewell appearance, meaning his Yomiuri career has likely ended with his disappointing game 5 performance.

Three of the four competitors in the upcoming Asia Series will be nicknamed Lions, with only Korea’s Samsung failing to make the cut. There will still be three Lions competing for the Konami Cup though, giving the series an Anglophile feel.

• Tsubamegun has probably the most detailed write-up you’ll see of game 7 anywhere.
• Simon has a post with pics at jhockey. Check out the air Series MVP Takayuki Kishi gets in his ceremonial dou-age. The Lions don’t seem to be able to propel manger Watanabe quite that high… the pics should make it clear why.
• Deanna has a quick write-up as well. Her game 4 write-up has some phenomenal pics.
• myworldofbaseball has a post on game 7 as well, extolling the virtues of Hiroshi Hirao’s performance.
• Japanball has the official Kyodo summary.
• BaseballReference has the whole Series documented. 
• Sanspo has a whole bunch of pics.
• And finally, a thread has been started at JapaneseBaseball.com.

I had to work late on Wednesday; late enough to catch the first couple of innings of Game 5 of the Japan Series, which was started by MLB-bound Koji Uehara. Uehara clearly didn’t have his best stuff — his breaking pitches were flat and he left several out over the plate. The Lions took advantage, cranking out seven hits in their first 17 at-bats. Hara removed Uehara after three innings of work, for a final line of:

Uehara got himself in to and out of jams in the 1st and 3rd innings and limited the damage by avoiding walks and home runs, but was otherwise pretty hittable. The Yomiuri relievers shut down the Lions down the rest of the way, as the Giants came back to win and take a 3-2 series lead.

Game 5 was probably the last time we’ll see Uehara pitch for the Giants. I’m holding out a little hope that the Giants will find a way to get him in to game 6 or 7 as a reliever, but with a deep bullpen that’s not likely unless we see extra innings. I think he can go out on a higher note than than this.

Once again I’m checking out the Japan Series on Justin.tv and chatting with the community at JapaneseBaseball.com. If you’re up late, I highly recommend stopping by.

Tonight’s game features Koji Uehara going up against Seibu ace Hideaki Wakui.

Update: I got to watch a little bit of the game last night, and was pretty impressed by justin.tv. I’d definitely recommend checking it out if you’re up. The Giants won the game, 6-4, taking a 2-1 lead in the series. Giants starter Tetsuya Utsumi looked pretty good when I was watching, he was able to throw all his pitches for strikes.

You can check out Game 4, same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Game 3 of the Japan Series is today starting at 6:15pm JST. If you’re a night owl like me you can perhaps check out this channel on justin.tv to watch it on and chat with the community at JapaneseBaseball.com.

If you miss it, Baseball Reference has a wiki page devoted to this year’s Series.

The Giants and Lions followed up Saturday’s pitcher’s duel with another closely fought game, as Yomiuri tied the Series up on Alex Ramirez’s walk-off home run. I didn’t get to watch the game, but I’ll share the Yahoo Japan box score and the YouTube highlights that I’ve found. Seibu starter Kazuyoshi Hoashi put a lot of runners on base, but his defense made plays behind him and kept the damage to a minimum. I didn’t realize that Seibu’s chunky 3rd baseman Takeya Nakamura was that competent with the glove.

You can catch Ramirez’s walk-off bomb at about 2:50 of this video. Seibu reliever Shinya Okamoto threw forkball in the dirt with his first pitch, then threw another on 0-1. He elevated the second one, and Ramirez took the mistake over the center field fence. Ramirez’s hero interview starts at about 4:55 in the same video.

For another view, check out the write-up at Tsubamegun.

Game 3 will be on Tuesday, Nov 4 at the Seibu Dome in the exotic Tokorozawa, Saitama.

I was hoping to find some time to write a preview of the Japan Series, but now that it’s started I’m a little too late.

Seibu took Game 1, with Hideaki Wakui trumping Koji Uehara in a 2-1 pitchers duel. I didn’t get a chance to follow the game, so I’ll point you to English write-ups at Tsubamegun and Japanball.com, as well long and short YouTube highlights.

Despite Seibu’s game 1 win, I think the Giants have a slight edge in the Series. I like the Giants rotation of Uehara/Greisinger/Utsumi/Takahashi a little better than Seibu’s group of Wakui/Hoashi/Kishi/Ishii, and I think the Giants have a deeper bullpen as well. Seibu scored a lot more runs during the regular season than the Giants, the starting lineups are pretty equal.

Of course, I’ve only done a really rough eyeball analysis of the two teams, so I could be way off. On paper, this is a pretty even matchup and I hope all seven games will be as close as game 1.

The Giants have defeated Chunichi to advance to their first Nippon Series since 2002. Yomiuri will face traditional Pacific League rival Seibu for the title. 

Members of the Giants management smiled for a few seconds before going back to serious thoughts, and the players were permitted to take part in a modest on-field celebration. Meanwhile, Giants legend Shigeo Nagashima publicly reminded the troops that the real challenge is ahead of them: “‘You’ll want to be told ‘congratulations’ after the Series… the challenge is the battle against Seibu starting on November 1”.

Yomiuri-Seibu is a classic Japan Series matchup; I equate to something like a Yankees-Dodgers or Tigers-Cardinals World Series. The two teams also met in 2002, 1994, 1990, 1987, and 1983, with the Lions holding a 3-2 edge. The teams also met in the 50’s with Seibu predecessor Nishitetsu beating out the Giants three years in a row from 1956-58.

The first Japan Series I ever saw was the 1994 Series, which was televised in the Chicago area (where I grew up) during the MLB labor dispute that canceled the World Series. I watched every game and it’s really what got me started on Japanese baseball.