1989 Japan Series
# 1989 Japan Series

The 1989 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 1989 season. It was the 40th Japan Series and featured the Pacific League champion Kintetsu Buffaloes against the Central League champion Yomiuri Giants. Kintetsu barely scraped into the series with a winning percentage only .001 higher than the second place Orix Braves, and Yomiuri won the CL pennant by 8 games to return to the series for the 25th time in franchise history. Played at Fujiidera Stadium and Tokyo Dome, the Giants won the series after losing the first three games to the underdog Buffaloes and staging a miraculous comeback, winning four games in a row with the final two wins coming on the road. Yomiuri slugger Norihiro Komada was named Most Valuable Player of the series. The series was played between October 21 and October 29 with home field advantage going to the Pacific League.

## Summary

CL Yomiuri Giants (4) vs. PL Kintetsu Buffaloes (3)

| Game | Date | Score | Location | Time | Attendance |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | October 21 | Yomiuri Giants – 3, Kintetsu Buffaloes – 4 | Fujiidera Stadium | 2:40 | 23,477 |
| 2 | October 22 | Yomiuri Giants – 3, Kintetsu Buffaloes – 6 | Fujiidera Stadium | 3:40 | 24,207 |
| 3 | October 24 | Kintetsu Buffaloes – 3, Yomiuri Giants – 0 | Tokyo Dome | 2:50 | 45,711 |
| 4 | October 25 | Kintetsu Buffaloes – 0, Yomiuri Giants – 5 | Tokyo Dome | 3:05 | 45,825 |
| 5 | October 26 | Kintetsu Buffaloes – 1, Yomiuri Giants – 6 | Tokyo Dome | 3:01 | 45,717 |
| 6 | October 28 | Yomiuri Giants – 3, Kintetsu Buffaloes – 1 | Fujiidera Stadium | 3:31 | 23,030 |
| 7 | October 29 | Yomiuri Giants – 8, Kintetsu Buffaloes – 5 | Fujiidera Stadium | 3:11 | 23,091 |

## Matchups

### Game 1

Saturday, October 21, 1989 at Fujiidera Stadium, Fujiidera, Osaka :

| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Yomiuri | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 2 |
| Kintetsu | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | X | 4 | 7 | 0 |
| WP: Hideyuki Awano (1–0) LP: Masaki Saito (0–1) Home runs: YOM: Kaoru Okazaki (1) KIN: Daijiro Oishi (1), Takahisa Suzuki (1) |||||||||||||

### Game 2

Sunday, October 22, 1989 at Fujiidera Stadium, Fujiidera, Osaka :

| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Yomiuri | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 1 |
| Kintetsu | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | X | 6 | 10 | 2 |
| WP: Hideaki Sato (1–0) LP: Masumi Kuwata (0–1) Home runs: YOM: Takayoshi Nakao (1) KIN: None |||||||||||||

### Game 3

Tuesday, October 24, 1989 at Tokyo Dome, Bunkyo, Tokyo :

| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Kintetsu | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| Yomiuri | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| WP: Tetsuro Katoh (1–0) LP: Kazutomo Miyamoto (0–1) Sv: Masato Yoshii (1) Home runs: KIN: Hidekazu Mitsuyama (1) YOM: None |||||||||||||

### Game 4

Wednesday, October 25, 1989 at Tokyo Dome, Bunkyo, Tokyo :

| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Kintetsu | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Yomiuri | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | X | 5 | 8 | 0 |
| WP: Isao Koda (1–0) LP: Kazuyoshi Ono (0–1) Sv: Masato Yoshii (2) |||||||||||||

### Game 5

Thursday, October 26, 1989 at Tokyo Dome, Bunkyo, Tokyo :

| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Kintetsu | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| Yomiuri | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | X | 6 | 8 | 1 |
| WP: Masaki Saito (1–1) LP: Hideyuki Awano (1–1) Home runs: KIN: Ralph Bryant (1) YOM: Tatsunori Hara (1) |||||||||||||

### Game 6

Saturday, October 28, 1989 at Fujiidera Stadium, Fujiidera, Osaka :

| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Yomiuri | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 2 |
| Kintetsu | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 0 |
| WP: Masumi Kuwata (1–1) LP: Shintaro Yamasaki (0–1) Sv: Katsuhito Mizuno (1) Home runs: YOM: Kaoru Okazaki (2) KIN: Germán Rivera (1) |||||||||||||

### Game 7

Sunday, October 29, 1989 at Fujiidera Stadium, Fujiidera, Osaka :

| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Yomiuri | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 10 | 0 |
| Kintetsu | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 3 |
| WP: Isao Koda (2–0) LP: Tetsuro Katoh (1–1) Sv: Kazutomo Miyamoto (1) Home runs: YOM: Norihiro Komada (1), Tatsunori Hara (2), Kiyoshi Nakahata (1), Warren Cromartie (1) KIN: Yasunaga Makishi (1), Takayuki Murakami (1), Daijiro Oishi (2) |||||||||||||
