Everyday Journeys: Play Ball! Playoffs Round 1

After regular season ended, the boys had a couple off days and short practices before we made our way to the playoffs. An early morning, 2 hour flight brought us to the city of Osaka, Japan for round 1. Osaka is located on the southern portion of the main island so we were all looking forward to some warmer weather - Sapporo was already beginning to feel like fall and rapidly cooling down.

Playoffs are much different here than they are for MLB. Playoffs consist of the top 3 teams out of the 6 in each league (Pacific and Central league). The first place teams in each league automatically make it to the second round, while the 2nd and 3rd place teams play a best of 3 series. All 3 games in the 1st round are played at the 2nd place team's location. If any game ends in a tie (no game is played past the 12th inning) the 2nd place team automatically wins since they had the better record all season. For the 2nd round of playoffs "the nlcs or alcs", the 1st place team hosts a best of 6 series and goes in with a game advantage over the first round winner (aka it's like a best of 7 where the 1st place team has already won a game). The final round of playoffs "the world series" is a true best of 7 series that is split between each team's location.

Game 1 the Fighters managed to win - which obviously gave us a huge advantage being away and going into Game 2 not having to worry about elimination. Unfortunately though we couldn't pull out the win and forced a Game 3! Originally this game was scheduled for Monday so whichever team won could use Tuesday as a travel day, however, typhoon Vongfong had other plans for Japan and slammed into the southern island of Okinawa. The storm was supposed to hit Osaka hard on Monday so all flights, and unfortunately for us, entertainment venues were forced to shut down. Even the malls and restaurants were abandoned which left us with nothing to do but stay huddled inside for a lazy movie day and a short postponement of the suspense of knowing whether or not we'd continue our Japanese adventure or start making the trek home.

The Kyocera Dome - Capacity 36,000+

The storm didn't hit Osaka as hard as expected, so by the time Tuesday rolled around we were anxious for the game. I think Ashley and I almost had a heart attack from the suspense in this game. The Buffaloes scored on us right away with a home run off Mendoza (one of the other foreigners who had been on fire all season). But the teams quickly settled down and kept a good pace going until we tied it up in the 6th. Before we knew it we were headed into the bottom of the 9th tied. Michael was sent in and, no surprise to me, pitched a scoreless inning. He was unstoppable this post season. If no one else scored and we were still tied after 12 innings, we would have to go to the tie breaker (team with the better record all season) and the Fighters would be going home. We didn't have to wait long to break the tie though - a home run in the next inning by the Fighters would end up being the winning run. What a series!

Below are some pictures from the games. Interesting to me, the Fighters didn't celebrate their win - I'm guessing out of respect for the opposing team.

Our favorite alcoholic drink, chūhai. The vendors would open a bag of flavored ice first, then pour the alcoholic beverage over it. We tried grape, apple and grapefruit (due to a misunderstanding by the vendor). Grape was by far our favorite! *Note - I received the orange bracelet on my wrist from a worker at a small shrine. Wonderful older man who was excited we stopped by