Fukuoka win the 2011 Japan Series 4-3.
The following are the results of the 2011 Japan Series. Pacific League champion, Fukuoka, host Central League pennant winner, Chunichi, for the first two games of a best-of-seven series. Games three through five are to be played at Nagoya Dome, and the final two games, if necessary, will be played once again at Yahoo Dome.
This is a rematch of the 1999 Japan Series, back when the Hawks were known as Fukuoka Daiei. Back then, current Fukuoka manager, Akiyama, was the team’s captain, Johjima was behind the plate, and current Tohoku manager, Hoshino, was at the helm for Chunichi. Hoshino’s opposite number in the Fukuoka dugout was none other than the venerable Sadaharu Oh.
Fukuoka won the championship that year.
Game 1
Yahoo Dome (Fukuoka)
Saturday November 12, 2011 at 1PM
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | F | H | E |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chunichi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| Fukuoka | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| W: Asao L: Mahara S: Iwase | Starters: Chunichi - Chen Fukuoka - Wada | HR: Wada (Chunichi) solo in 7th off Wada. Koike (Chunichi) solo in 10th off Mahara. |
|||||||||||
Chunichi | Softbank |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Araki SS | 1 | Kawasaki SS |
| 2 | Ibata 2B | 2 | Honda 2B |
| 3 | Morino 3B | 3 | Uchikawa DH |
| 4 | Blanco 1B | 4 | Matsuda 3B |
| 5 | Wada DH | 5 | Kokubo 1B |
| 6 | Tanishige C | 6 | Hasegawa CF |
| 7 | Hirata RF | 7 | Tamura RF |
| 8 | Koike LF | 8 | Fukuda LF |
| 9 | Ohshima CF | 9 | Hosokawa C |
| Chen P | Wada P |
Chunichi lead series 1-0.
Game 2
Yahoo Dome (Fukuoka)
Sunday November 13, 2011 at 6:15 PM
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | F | H | E |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chunichi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 0 |
| Fukuoka | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0 |
| W: Hirai L: Mahara S: Iwase | Starters: Chunichi -Yoshimi Fukuoka - Sugiuchi |
||||||||||||
Chunichi | Fukuoka |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Araki SS | 1 | Kawasaki SS |
| 2 | Ibata 2B | 2 | Honda 2B |
| 3 | Morino 3B | 3 | Uchikawa LF |
| 4 | Blanco 1B | 4 | Matsuda 3B |
| 5 | Wada DH | 5 | Kokubo DH |
| 6 | Koike LF | 6 | Hasegawa CF |
| 7 | Hirata RF | 7 | Tamura RF |
| 8 | Tanishige C | 8 | Fukuda 1B |
| 9 | Ohshima CF | 9 | Yamazaki C |
| Yoshimi P | Sugiuchi P |
Chunichi lead series 2-0.
Game 3
Nagoya Dome
Tuesday November 15, 2011 at 6:00 PM
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | F | H | E |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fukuoka | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 12 | 1 |
| Chunichi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| W: Settsu L: Nelson S: Falkenborg | Starters: Fukuoka - Settsu Chunichi - Nelson | HR: Tamura (Fukuoka) 2-run off Nelson in 4th Hosokawa (Fukuoka) solo off Suzuki in 8th |
||||||||||
Fukuoka | Chunichi |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kawasaki SS | 1 | Araki SS |
| 2 | Honda 2B | 2 | Ibata 2B |
| 3 | Uchikawa LF | 3 | Morino 3B |
| 4 | Kokubo 1B | 4 | Blanco 1B |
| 5 | Matsuda 3B | 5 | Wada LF |
| 6 | Hasegawa CF | 6 | Tanishige C |
| 7 | Tamura RF | 7 | Hirata RF |
| 8 | Hosokawa C | 8 | Ohshima CF |
| 9 | Settsu P | 9 | Nelson P |
Chunichi lead series 2-1.
Game 4
Nagoya Dome
Wednesday November 16, 2011 at 6:30 PM
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | F | H | E |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fukuoka | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 0 |
| Chunichi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| W: Houlton L: Kawai S: Falkenborg | Starters: Fukuoka - Houlton Chunichi - Kawai |
|||||||||||
Fukuoka | Chunichi |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kawasaki SS | 1 | Araki SS |
| 2 | Honda 2B | 2 | Ibata 2B |
| 3 | Uchikawa LF | 3 | Morino 3B |
| 4 | Kokubo 1B | 4 | Blanco 1B |
| 5 | Matsuda 3B | 5 | Wada LF |
| 6 | Hasegawa CF | 6 | Nomoto RF |
| 7 | Tamura RF | 7 | Hirata CF |
| 8 | Hosokawa C | 8 | Tanishige C |
| 9 | Houlton P | 9 | Kawai P |
Series tied 2-2.
Game 5
Nagoya Dome
Thursday November 17th, 2011 at 6:15 PM
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | F | H | E |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fukuoka | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 0 |
| Chunichi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| W: Yamada L: Chen | Starters: Fukuoka - Yamada Chunichi - Chen |
|||||||||||
Fukuoka | Chunichi |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kawasaki SS | 1 | Araki SS |
| 2 | Honda 2B | 2 | Ibata 2B |
| 3 | Uchikawa LF | 3 | Morino 3B |
| 4 | Kokubo 1B | 4 | Blanco 1B |
| 5 | Matsuda 3B | 5 | Wada LF |
| 6 | Tamura RF | 6 | Koike RF |
| 7 | Hasegawa CF | 7 | Hirata CF |
| 8 | Hosokawa C | 8 | Tanishige C |
| 9 | Yamada P | 9 | Chen P |
Fukuoka leads series 3-2.
Game 6
Yahoo Dome (Fukuoka)
Saturday November 19th, 2011 at 6:15 PM
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | F | H | E |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chunichi | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| Fukuoka | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| W: Yoshimi L: Wada S: Asao | Starters: Chunichi - Yoshimi Fukuoka - Wada |
|||||||||||
Chunichi | Fukuoka |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Araki SS | 1 | Kawasaki SS |
| 2 | Ibata 2B | 2 | Honda 2B |
| 3 | Morino 3B | 3 | Uchikawa LF |
| 4 | Blanco 1B | 4 | Kokubo 1B |
| 5 | Wada DH | 5 | Matsunaka DH |
| 6 | Hirata LF | 6 | Matsuda 3B |
| 7 | Fujii RF | 7 | Tamura RF |
| 8 | Tanishige C | 8 | Hasegawa CF |
| 9 | Ohshima CF | 9 | Hosokawa C |
| Yoshimi P | Wada P |
Series tied 3-3.
Game 7
Yahoo Dome (Fukuoka)
Sunday November 20th, 2011 at 6:30 PM
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | F | H | E |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chunichi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Fukuoka | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 3 | 8 | 0 |
| W: Sugiuchi L: Yamai S: Settsu | Starters: Chunichi - Yamai (RHP) Fukuoka - Sugiuchi (LHP) |
|||||||||||
Chunichi | Fukuoka |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Araki SS | 1 | Kawasaki SS |
| 2 | Ibata 2B | 2 | Honda 2B |
| 3 | Morino 3B | 3 | Uchikawa LF |
| 4 | Blanco 1B | 4 | Kokubo 1B |
| 5 | Wada DH | 5 | Matsunaka DH |
| 6 | Hirata LF | 6 | Matsuda 3B |
| 7 | Fujii RF | 7 | Tamura RF |
| 8 | Tanishige C | 8 | Hasegawa CF |
| 9 | Ohshima CF | 9 | Yamazaki C |
| Yamai P | Sugiuchi P |
Play-by-Play | Score (CD-FH) |
|
|---|---|---|
| Chunichi 1st | Sugiuchi pitching. 1. Araki ground out (GO) to 3rd. 1 out. 2. Ibata K's looking. 2 outs. 3. Morino GO to pitcher. | 0-0 |
| Fukuoka 1st | Yamai pitching. 1. Kawasaki GO to second (1-1 count). 1 out. 2. Honda single to center (1-0 fastball). 3. Uchikawa up with Honda taking a big lead. Honda caught trying to steal second (he was safe, actually). Uchikawa K's looking. | 0-0 |
| Chunichi 2nd | 4. Blanco sticks around with a full count for a few pitches. Sugiuchi flipping back and forth between heaters and sliders. Blanco watches ball four. 5. Wada, responsible for both of Chunichi's runs last night, pops a 2-2 fastball up to 2nd. 1 out. 6. Hirata up with man on 1st. K's swinging at 2-2 changeup. 2 outs. 7. Fujii up. 1-0 fly out (FO) to center. | 0-0 |
| Fukuoka 2nd | 4. Kokubo GO to 1st. 1 out. 5. Matsunaka GO to short. 2 outs. Yamai looks sharp. Sharper than Sugiuchi at this point. 6. Matsuda K's looking on the third pitch of his at-bat. | 0-0 |
| Chunichi 3rd | 8. Tanishige, hitless so far in postseason play, comes to the plate against Sugiuchi. K's swinging at the third pitch he sees. 9. Ohshima 1-2 infield fly to short. 2 outs. Sugiuchi's control looking better now. 1. Araki foul fly near 1st base. | 0-0 |
| Fukuoka 3rd | 7. Tamura lucky bloop hit over Blanco's head. Araki chases it down. 8. Hasegawa rips a double to center that Ohshima should have caught. Runners on 2nd and 3rd. 9. Yamazaki quickly gets the count to 3-0. Draws a four pitch walk with the help of a couple squeeze bunt feints. Bases juiced. Yamai yanked. Kobayashi takes the mound. 1. Kawasaki up. Bases loaded. No outs. Full count. Kawasaki draws a walk! Tamura scores from 3rd. 2. Honda 1-2 foul fly to the catcher. 1 out. Kobayashi yanked. Nelson in to pitch. 3. Uchikawa almost has his head taken off by an errant 1-2 pitch. 2-2 pitch is weakly popped up to right. Hasegawa holds at 3rd. 2 outs. 4. Pops the first pitch he sees up to center. | 0-1 |
| Chunichi 4th | 2. Ibata easy GO to short. 1 out. 3. Morino K's swinging. 2 outs. 4. Blanco grounds first pitch to left for Chunichi's first hit. 5. Wada FO to right. | 0-1 |
| Fukuoka 4th | Nelson, Chunichi's third pitcher, is still on the mound. 5. Matsunaka fouls what would've been an extra-base hit off the wall in right. He then draws a walk. 6. Matsuda successfully sac bunts Matsunaka over to second. 1 out. 7. Tamura 2-2 pitch FO to center. Matsunaka stays on 2nd. 8. Nelson intentionally walks Hasegawa. 2 outs. Runners on 1st and 2nd. 9. Yamazaki up. Quickly behind 0-2. 2-2 pitch sliced to shallow right. Matsunaka just gets past the tag. If the throw had been on line, then he would've been out. 1. Kawasaki, with runners on corners and 2 outs, lines out to left. | 0-2 |
| Chunichi 5th | Sugiuchi pitching. 6. Hirata full count. Infield single to pitcher. 7. Fujii watches as Hirata gets his signs mixed up and is thrown out in a rundown between 1st and 2nd. 1 out. Full count. GO to 3rd. 2 outs. 8. Tanishige K's with a feeble swing. | 0-2 |
| Fukuoka 5th | Nelson still pitching. 2. Honda K's on 3 pitches. 3. Uchikawa GO to pitcher. 2 outs. 4. Kokubo swings a golf club and misses again. K. | 0-2 |
| Chunichi 6th | Sugiuchi's 6th inning. 9. Ohshima K's swinging at a slider. 1 out. That was Sugiuchi's 6th K tonite. 1. Araki FO on 2-2 pitch to left. 2 outs. 2. Ibata, picking his eternal wedgie the whole time, comes to the plate. 2-2 broken bat GO to 3rd. | 0-2 |
| Fukuoka 6th | Nelson's 4th inning. 5. Matsunaka K's looking. The ump is calling a very wide zone tonite. TBS keeps showing us replays of the pitches with the camera directly behind the pitcher. Wow. 6. Matsuda infield single to short. Beats the throw after a fantastic grab by Araki. 7. Tamura, batting .360 so far in this series, is 1-2 tonite. Matsuda steals 2nd safely on 1st pitch. Tamura accidentally moves the runner over on a check-swing tap to 1st. 2 outs. 8. Hasegawa up with runner on 3rd. 0-1 pitch FO to 3rd. | 0-2 |
| Chunichi 7th | Sugiuchi pitching. 3. Morino 1st pitch hard grounder back to the pitcher. 1 out. 4. Blanco guessing wrong on sliders, but bounces one past the second baseman for his second base hit of the night. 2nd baseman should've had it, but it was to his backhand side. 5. Wada K's swinging. 2 outs. 6. Hirata watches the count go to 3-0, swings way too early at a third consecutive changeup, then draws a fourth ball. Runners on 1st and 2nd with two outs. 7. Fujii watching Sugiuchi continue his onslaught of changeups. Fujii falls behind 0-2, then pulls back to 2-2. K's on yet another changeup. | 0-2 |
| Fukuoka 7th | Asao on the mound. How many innings is he going to pitch? 9. Cabrera (PH for Yamazaki) K's swinging at three straight pitches. Asao owned him there. Embarrassing. 1. Kawasaki draws a nine pitch walk. 2. Honda 'safety' bunt attempt is met with a good fielding play by Asao. 2 outs. Kawasaki safe on 2nd. 3. Uchikawa single scores Kawasaki from 2nd. Uchikawa reaches 2nd on the play. 4. Kokubo GO to 3rd. | 0-3 |
| Chunichi 8th | Falkenborg pitching. 8. Tanishige, still without a hit in 42 post-season at-bats, K's swinging yet again. 9. Nomoto (PH for Ohshima) K's swinging on 3 pitches. 2 outs. 1. Araki K's swinging as well. Dominating performance by Falkenborg. Chunichi in all sorts of trouble. | 0-3 |
| Fukuoka 8th | Iwase takes Asao's place ono the mound for Chunichi. 5. Matsunaka works the count full. K's swinging at a high slider. 6. Matsuda GO to 3rd. 2 outs. 7. Tamura bounces a single up the middle into center field. 8. Hasegawa manages to lift the 2-2 pitch over Araki's head for a single. Runners on 1st and 2nd. 2 outs. 9. Hosokawa fouls off the first two pitches he sees. The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh pitches as well. He finally K's looking at the 8th offering from Iwase. Last three outs for Chunichi. | 0-3 |
| Chunichi 9th | Falkenborg takes the mound again. 2. Ibata, 2 for 24 so far in this series, falls behind quickly 0-2. But then Ibata does the improbable and lines the ball of Falkenborg's throwing arm (elbow?). He reaches 1st safely, and Falkenborg, in obvious pain, is out of the game. Ibata on 1st. No outs. Morifuku takes the mound. He looks a little nervous. 3. Morino falls behind 0-2. GO to short, but Morino beats the DP throw. 1 out. 4. Blanco FO to right. 2 outs. Fukuoka switching pitcher to Settsu to try and get the final out. 5. Wada takes a strike down the middle. Strike two on the outside corner of the plate. But then Wada works a full count. However, Wada went down swinging at a fastball down the middle. | 0-3 |
| Fukuoka 9th | Let the celebrations begin! | 0-3 FINAL |
Fukuoka wins the 2011 Japan Series 4-3.
About Christopher Pellegrini
