Card Of The Week November 7

The First Stage of the Climax Series in both the Central and Pacific Leagues kicked off yesterday and ended up concluding today.  In the Central League, the third place Giants ended up with an upset victory over the second place Tigers, beating them 4-0 yesterday and 4-2 today.  They'll take on the Swallows in the Final Stage starting Wednesday.

The games were a bit more interesting in the Pacific League with the second place Marines holding off the third place Eagles in two nail biting, roller coaster games.  The Marines had to come from behind late in both games, tying each game on a home run by a foreign player - Adeiny Hechavarria yesterday and Leonys Martin today.  They won yesterday's game 5-4 on a walk off double by pinch hitter Toshiya Satoh and finished in a 4-4 today.  That tie means that the Eagles can't win more than the Marines in the three games and puts the Marines into the Final Stage against the Buffaloes starting on Wednesday.

Pacific League TV has been adding a great deal of English language content to their YouTube channel in the past few months and they've got highlight videos available for both games.  If the narrator's voice sounds familiar, it's because it's John E. Gibson, half of the Japan Baseball Weekly podcast crew.

Hechavarria's home run in Game One was a thing of beauty, with a very impressive bat flip:

Make sure to watch the video for the full effect.  Here's Hechevarria's "Newcomer" subset card from this year's BBM Marines set (#M71):