Card Of The Week October 13

Both the Central and Pacific Climax Series reached their...uh...climax today with the Giants knocking off the Tigers 4-1 to win that the CL Series 4 games to 1 and the Hawks beat Seibu 9-3 to upset the first place Lions 4 games to 1 also (although the "1" by the Lions was the phantom win the first place team gets at the start of the Final Stage).  Kenta Imamiya was the star of today's game for the Hawks, going 5 for 5 with three home runs and six RBIs.  He became the first player ever to hit three home runs in a Climax Series game and was named MVP of the Pacific League series.  Here's a card of Imamiya from the 2012 BBM "Celebration Of The Hawks" box set (#27):

I'm not particularly happy with the Nippon Series matchup this year as I'm not a Giants fan and I'm a little tired of the Hawks being in the Series (this is their fifth appearance in the last six years) but there is one interesting aspect of the matchup.  This is the sixth Nippon Series that the Hawks have been in this decade and their opponent is the sixth different Central League team they'll be facing.  They played the Dragons in 2011, the Tigers in 2014, the Swallows in 2015, the Baystars in 2017 and the Carp in 2018.  So they'll have played all six Central League teams in the Series this decade.

The Giants versus the Hawks is the most common matchup in Nippon Series history.  The 70th Nippon Series will be the 11th time the two franchises face off against each other and the first time since 2000.  The Giants have been the winning team in nine of the ten previous Series, winning in 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1961, 1965, 1966, 1973 and 2000 and only losing in 1959.