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The story
On October 15, Game 2 of the Pacific League Climax Series was played at PayPay Dome, where the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks rallied to beat the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 6-2 in walk-off fashion. Ryoya Kurihara sealed it with a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 9th, pushing the Hawks to a second straight win and the brink of advancing, while the Fighters suffered their second straight loss. In the thread, posters lined up to praise Kurihara’s blast, fans of both teams traded barbs, and opinions split over just how confusing the CS advantage system and required win counts really are.
Nippon-Ham ２ ０ ０ ０ ０ ０ ０ ０ ０ ｜２
SoftBank . ０ ０ ２ ０ ０ ０ ０ ０ ４X｜６
[Batteries]
Source: nikkansports.com / Original article here
What people said
The other five Pacific League teams all have total payrolls somewhere between 3.8 and 4.2 billion yen, but this one team alone is over 8 billion yen.
And yet the diehard fanboys are all 'Hawks are soooo strong!!'
'Team X is trash, way too weak lol'
What's even fun about this?
Only people from Fukuoka could possibly cheer for a team like this.
Ham-kasu (a common slur for Fighters fans, from 'Ham' + trash) got absolutely owned lmaooo
Walk-off loss, dying laughing
Hey Ham-kasu, you just served up a walk-off grand slam — give us a poem about how you're feeling right now!
Ryoya Kurihara:
'THIS is what a two-crown batting champion's walk-off grand slam looks like!!!'
Flip-flopper
Pon-ko (an old slur)
Treasure
96 wins
Big Baka
Copycat
Hokkaido local
Dentsu
Old man
Scrub
One-year deal
lol
Non-tender
Dodgers
— a troll's go-to catchphrases
Now unveiling: the words walk-off loser Ham-kasu never wants to hear lmaooo
Doesn't really have anything to do with the manager, does it?
If you win the regular season by too wide a margin,
you get a 2-win advantage —
but you still need 5 wins total. Some mystery rule.
What even is that lol
Why are there more games than the actual Japan Series, 'Perfect League'? lol
The rules just keep getting more nonsensical. They should've just called it today — what's even the point of playing tomorrow?
So you're saying it'd be different with another manager?
Of course.
This year's Fighters have been demolished at the Fukuoka dome over and over, so this outcome was easy to call.
Seibu would've been somewhat better.
Well-deserved payback
Was that the computer calling the shots?
What a piece of junk lol
Facing Kondo, the league's #1 in on-base percentage, was a lost cause anyway —
it was already over the moment Shuto got his hit.
Pretty sure it's not Koshien lol
Well, they've got money to burn —
they're paying absurd salaries to mediocre players and everything.
It's not even really a blowout though
or swap pitchers.
Loading the bases on purpose and then giving up a homer? That's straight-up incompetence.
Against Kondo you're at least guaranteed a fight, but against Kurihara a double play is well within reach —
anyone would've made that same call.
With Kondo there was also the chance he just pokes a soft single somewhere right from the start.
Yeah, that's exactly what I thought too
And the other team needs 5 wins anyway
Background and Talking Points
Pro baseball’s Climax Series (CS) gives regular-season-leading teams a numerical head start, with win-loss rules that differ from the Japan Series. In the thread, several posters flagged how confusing this system is, and posts even disagreed with each other over how to count the required number of wins. The CS rules have been revised repeatedly over the years, which is part of why questions like these resurface every single postseason. Meanwhile, praise for Kurihara’s blast was unanimous regardless of which team people supported, and the decision to intentionally walk Kondo in a tight spot to instead face Kurihara also became a point of debate. Note that trading derogatory nicknames between rival fanbases is a recurring fixture of every CS thread; posts amounting to personal harassment have been excluded from this article.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisoku+) thread “[Baseball] Pacific League CS Game 2: H 6x-2 F [10/15] — Hawks’ Kurihara Hits Walk-Off Grand Slam, Takes 4-0 Series Lead; Fighters Fall Again.”
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