Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
November 01, 2007
Don Larsen Moment

The Chunichi Dragons won the Japan Series on a combined perfect game.

The Kansas City Royals' new manager and his Nippon Ham Fighters lost 1-0 to the Chunichi Dragons when Daisuke Yamai and Hitoki Iwase combined on a perfect game in Game 5 of the seven-game series, giving the Dragons the championship of Japanese baseball.

...

The first perfect game in the 57 years of the Japan Series gave the Dragons their first title in 53 years.

Yamai, playing in his sixth professional season, struck out six over eight perfect innings, and Iwase retired the final three batters in order in the ninth.

Tyrone Woods scored the only run of the game on a sacrifice fly by Ryosuke Hirata in the second inning.

My daughter has friends in Hokkaidō, the home of the Fighters, so I'm sorry to see them lose. But a perfect game in a championship round is a rare occurrence and something to be celebrated. It took 54 World Series for that to happen in a US playoff. Congratulations to the Dragons on their championship!


Posted by David Pinto at 01:44 PM | International | TrackBack (0)
Comments

What's the story on it being a combined perfect game -- was the starter on too tired/injured to continue?

Posted by: rbj at November 1, 2007 02:00 PM

Know of any Youtube videos of part of the game?

Posted by: Devon Young at November 1, 2007 02:42 PM

What manager removes a pitcher who is three outs from a perfect game! That's cold! bill

Posted by: Bill McKinley at November 1, 2007 04:24 PM

First of all, Chunichi's manager, Ochiai, takes out pitchers whenever he feels like it. Remember also that his team was ahead by just a 1-0 score. And they were trying to win their first Japan Series since 1954.

The most important thing in Ochiai's mind was to win the game.

Posted by: Bt at November 1, 2007 04:44 PM

Actually, the starter could have finished the game, but asked the manager to use the closer on 9th. The closer pitched well all season, and the starter wanted to reward the effort. That's what I read on a Japanese news paper.

Posted by: toshi at November 1, 2007 05:58 PM

How unlike the American mindset. In my no-hit database from Retrosheet there has been only one MLB game since 1957 in which the starting pitcher was removed after five or more innings with a perfect game intact. (Bob Knepper was removed after 5 innings on the last day of the season in 1986 with the playoffs looming. Danny Darwin got one more batter before surrendering a hit.)

Posted by: Tor at November 2, 2007 09:48 PM
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