Sports › Fighters, minus Darvish, face tough trial against Eagles in PL Climax Series

Wednesday 21st October, 05:20 AM JST SAPPORO — Now that the Nippon Ham Fighters will no longer have their perennial ace Yu Darvish to rely on in the second stage of the Climax Series against the Rakuten Eagles, victory for the Pacific League champions is far from a guarantee. The Fighters, who are given a one-win advantage for finishing the regular season in first, face second-place Rakuten starting Wednesday night at Sapporo Dome. Nippon Ham had a 13-11 win-loss record over Rakuten this season but 16 of those games were decided by three runs or less. And despite the dominant Fighters’ 40-19 record at home, they just scrimped by with a 6-5 record against the Eagles in Sapporo. The Eagles, led by outgoing manager Katsuya Nomura, are riding the wave of having swept the Softbank Hawks in two games in the first stage of the... [read full story]                    

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