NPB Bullet Points: Japan Series Edition

Patrick — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:48:06 +0000

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.

All of the above links are to English content, with the exception of the photos published at Sanspo.

NPB Tracker » Fumiya Nishiguchi

NPB Bullet Points: Japan Series Edition