1988 Japan Series

Japan 1988 Seibu Lions (4) Masaaki Mori 73–51–6, .589, GA: 0 Chunichi Dragons (1) Senichi Hoshino 79–46–5, .632, GA: 12 October 22–27 Hiromichi Ishige (SEI) Masaru Uno (CHU) THK (Game 1), CBC (Game 2), TBS (Games 3-4), NHK General TV (Game 4), TV Asahi (Game 5) NHK Radio 1, TBS (JRN), JOQR (NRN), NBS (NRN), Radio Nippon The 1988 Japan Series was the championship series of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the 1988 season. The 39th edition of the Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff that matched the Central League champion Chunichi Dragons against the Pacific League champion Seibu Lions. Chunichi won the Central League pennant by a comfortable 12 games to advance to the championship. However, the representative from the Pacific League was undecided up until three days before Game 1 of the Japan Series. Seibu fought neck-and-neck for first place with the Kintetsu Buffaloes over most of the season and finished their regular-season schedule with a 0.5-game advantage over Kintetsu, with Kintetsu having four games left to play. On the last day of the season (October 19), Kintetsu had to win both games of an away double-header against the last-place Lotte Orions to claim the PL pennant. Kintetsu won the first game by one run (by scoring one run in the top of the ninth inning), but Lotte forced a comeback tie in the second game, capping a dramatic finish to the season (known to Japanese baseball fans as "10.19") and giving Seibu the PL spot in the Japan Series for the fourth year in a row. Played at Nagoya Stadium and Seibu Dome, the Lions won the series four games to one, winning the final game on a walk-off base hit by catcher Tsutomu Ito. The 1988 contest was the third in Japan Series history to end on a walk-off (after 1950 and 1965). Seibu shortstop Hiromichi Ishige was named Most Valuable Player of the series. The series was played between October 22 and October 27 with home field advantage going to the Central League. Summary PL Seibu Lions (4) vs. CL Chunichi Dragons (1) October 22 Seibu Lions – 5, Chunichi Dragons – 1 Nagoya Stadium 3:03 28,963 http://bis.npb.or.jp/scores/nipponseries/linescore1988.html ja:1988年度日本シリーズ　試合結果 October 30, 2012 Nippon Professional Baseball Japanese October 23 Seibu Lions – 3, Chunichi Dragons – 7 Nagoya Stadium 2:39 28,953 October 25 Chunichi Dragons – 3, Seibu Lions – 4 Seibu Dome 2:30 32,081 October 26 Chunichi Dragons – 0, Seibu Lions – 6 Seibu Dome 2:44 32,261 October 27 Chunichi Dragons – 6, Seibu Lions – 7 Seibu Dome 4:09 32,304 Matchups Game 1 Saturday, October 22, 1988 Nagoya Stadium, Nagoya, Gifu Seibu SEI 0 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 5 9 0 Chunichi CHU 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 7 1 Hisanobu Watanabe (1–0) Kazuyuki Ono (0–1) Osamu Higashio (1) Kazuhiro Kiyohara (1), Hiromichi Ishige (1) Game 2 Sunday, October 23, 1988 Nagoya Stadium, Nagoya, Gifu Seibu SEI 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 3 8 0 Chunichi CHU 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 4 X 7 9 0 Genji Kaku (1–0) Tai-Yuan Kuo (0–1) Yonetoshi Kawamata (1) Game 3 Tuesday, October 25, 1988 Seibu Dome, Tokorozawa, Saitama Chunichi CHU 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 3 4 2 Seibu SEI 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 X 4 3 0 Kimiyasu Kudoh (1–0) Masahiro Yamamoto (0–1) Toshikatsu Hikono (1), Masaru Uno (1) Hiromichi Ishige (2) Game 4 Wednesday, October 26, 1988 Seibu Dome, Tokorozawa, Saitama Chunichi CHU 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 Seibu SEI 0 0 2 1 2 0 1 0 X 6 8 0 Ryoji Moriyama (1–0) Tadashi Sugimoto (0–1) Koji Akiyama (1), Kazuhiro Kiyohara (2), Hatsuhiko Tsuji (1) Game 5 Thursday, October 27, 1988 Seibu Dome, Tokorozawa, Saitama Chunichi CHU 1 1 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 6 8 0 Seibu SEI 3 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 7 11 2 Hirohisa Matsunuma (1-0) Genji Kaku (1–1) Masaru Uno (2) Kazuhiro Kiyohara (3), Hiromichi Ishige (3) See also 1988 World Series References External links Nippon Professional Baseball—Official website (in English) Category:Japan Series Japan Series Japan Series Category:Seibu Lions Category:Chunichi Dragons