2007 Japan Series
The 2007 Japan Series, the 58th edition of Nippon Professional Baseball's championship series, began Saturday, October 27, 2007, pitting the Pacific League Regular League and Climax Series' Champion, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, and the Chunichi Dragons, winners of the Central League's Climax Series, in a rematch of the previous year's Japan Series, won by the Fighters.
| 2007 Japan Series | |||||||||||||
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| Dates | October 27 – November 1 | ||||||||||||
| MVP | Norihiro Nakamura (Dragons) | ||||||||||||
| Broadcast | |||||||||||||
| Television | |||||||||||||
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In a virtual mirror image of the 2006 series, the Dragons won in the same manner that the Fighters had the previous year, losing the first game and sweeping the next four. In one of baseball's rare situations, for the first time in a recognised international championship final since the 1956 Major League Baseball championship series, and the first one to end a series in a major professional championship, a perfect game was pitched, although recognised only by international standards and not NPB because multiple pitchers were used because NPB's definition is different from most recognised authorities.
Climax Series
| First Stage | Second Stage | Japan Series | |||||||||||
| Central League | 1 | Yomiuri Giants | 0 | ||||||||||
| 2 | Chunichi Dragons | 2 | 2 | Chunichi Dragons | 3 | ||||||||
| 3 | Hanshin Tigers | 0 | CL2 | Chunichi Dragons | 4 | ||||||||
| PL1 | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters | 1 | |||||||||||
| Pacific League | 1 | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters | 3 | ||||||||||
| 2 | Chiba Lotte Marines | 2 | 2 | Chiba Lotte Marines | 2 | ||||||||
| 3 | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | 1 | |||||||||||
Summary
Chunichi Dragons won the series, 4–1.
| Game | Date | Score | Location | Time | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | October 27 | Chunichi Dragons – 1, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 3 | Sapporo Dome | 2:48 | 40,616 |
| 2 | October 28 | Chunichi Dragons – 8, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 1 | Sapporo Dome | 3:43 | 40,770 |
| 3 | October 30 | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 1, Chunichi Dragons – 9 | Nagoya Dome | 3:39 | 38,068 |
| 4 | October 31 | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 2, Chunichi Dragons – 4 | Nagoya Dome | 3:45 | 38,059 |
| 5 | November 1 | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 0, Chunichi Dragons – 1 | Nagoya Dome | 2:26 | 38,118 |
Game summaries
Game 1
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chunichi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Nippon-Ham | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | |||||||||||
| WP: Yu Darvish (1–0) LP: Kenshin Kawakami (0–1) Home runs: CHU: None NIP: Fernando Seguignol (1) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Game 2
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chunichi | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Nippon-Ham | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | |||||||||||
| WP: Kenichi Nakata (1–0) LP: Ryan Glynn (0–1) Home runs: CHU: Lee Byung-Kyu (1), Masahiko Morino (1) NIP: Fernando Seguignol (2) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Game 3
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nippon-Ham | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Chunichi | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 9 | 12 | 0 | |||||||||||
| WP: Kenta Asakura (1–0) LP: Masaru Takeda (0–1) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Game 4
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nippon-Ham | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Chunichi | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 4 | 5 | 1 | |||||||||||
| WP: Yoshihiro Suzuki (1–0) LP: Mitsuo Yoshikawa (0–1) Sv: Hitoki Iwase (1) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Game 5
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nippon-Ham | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Chunichi | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 1 | 5 | 0 | |||||||||||
| WP: Daisuke Yamai (1–0) LP: Yu Darvish (1–1) Sv: Hitoki Iwase (2) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
This was the first perfect game in Japan Series history, but only recognised as such by the global governing body of baseball, the World Baseball Softball Confederation. NPB recognises only Complete Perfect Game or Complete Game No-hitter Shutout(also known as No-hit No-run).