# 1994 Japan Series

The 1994 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 1994 season. It was the 45th Japan Series and featured the Pacific League champion Seibu Lions against the Central League champion Yomiuri Giants. The series was the eighth time the two franchises played each other for the championship.
Because this year's edition of the Japan Series took place during the Major League Baseball strike that scuttled the entire postseason, including the World Series, it received much more attention than normal in the United States. Most memorably, the cover of the October 31 issue of Sports Illustrated featured Lions pitcher Hisanobu Watanabe along with the tagline "The World's Series", in the Lions' 11-0 win in Game One. Chicago-area Regional Sports Networks broadcast the game in English on a week delay basis, with Ken Harrelson being the lead broadcaster. This resulted eventually in Major League Baseball acquiring Japanese players upon the end of the strike.
Two members of the winning Yomiuri Giants team -- Hideki Matsui (2009) and Dan Gladden (1987, 1991) -- also won a World Series.
This was the second Japan Series to feature night games after 1964 Japan Series although the night games were only on weekdays, and the first with a reduction in extra innings. The Series, which had an 18-inning limit before a tie game, adopted a 15-inning limit before Series night games were tied.

## Summary

CL Yomiuri Giants (4) vs. PL Seibu Lions (2)
| Game | Date | Score | Location | Time | Attendance |
| 1 | October 22 | Seibu Lions – 11, Yomiuri Giants – 0 | Tokyo Dome | 2:57 | 46,177 |
| 2 | October 23 | Seibu Lions – 0, Yomiuri Giants – 1 | Tokyo Dome | 2:25 | 46,342 |
| 3 | October 25 | Yomiuri Giants – 2, Seibu Lions – 1 | Seibu Lions Stadium | 3:20 | 31,838 |
| 4 | October 26 | Yomiuri Giants – 5, Seibu Lions – 6 | Seibu Lions Stadium | 4:12 | 31,883 |
| 5 | October 27 | Yomiuri Giants – 9, Seibu Lions – 3 | Seibu Lions Stadium | 3:40 | 31,872 |
| 6 | October 29 | Seibu Lions – 1, Yomiuri Giants – 3 | Tokyo Dome | 2:53 | 46,307 |

## Matchups
### Game 1

Saturday, October 22, 1994 at Tokyo Dome, Bunkyo, Tokyo :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Seibu | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 10 | 0 |
| Yomiuri | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| WP: Hisanobu Watanabe (1–0) LP: Masumi Kuwata (0–1) Home runs: SEI: Kazuhiro Kiyohara (1), Norio Tanabe (1) YOM: None |||||||||||||

### Game 2

Sunday, October 23, 1994 at Tokyo Dome, Bunkyo, Tokyo :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Seibu | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| Yomiuri | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| WP: Hiromi Makihara (1–0) LP: Kimiyasu Kudoh (0–1) |||||||||||||

### Game 3

Tuesday, October 25, 1994 at Seibu Lions Stadium, Tokorozawa, Saitama :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E |
| Yomiuri | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| Seibu | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 1 |
| WP: Hiroshi Ishige (1–0) LP: Takehiro Ishii (0–1) Sv: Masumi Kuwata (1) ||||||||||||||

### Game 4

Wednesday, October 26, 1994 at Seibu Lions Stadium, Tokorozawa, Saitama :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | R | H | E |
| Yomiuri | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 14 | 0 |
| Seibu | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 13 | 2 |
| WP: Takehiro Ishii (1–1) LP: Masao Kida (0–1) Home runs: YOM: Hideki Matsui (1), Hiromoto Okubo (1) SEI: Kazuhiro Kiyohara (2) ||||||||||||||||

### Game 5

Thursday, October 27, 1994 at Seibu Lions Stadium, Tokorozawa, Saitama :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Yomiuri | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 1 |
| Seibu | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 0 |
| WP: Masumi Kuwata (1–1) LP: Kento Sugiyama (0–1) Home runs: YOM: Sadaaki Yoshimura (1), Koichi Ogata (1), Henry Cotto (1) SEI: Kazuhiro Kiyohara 2 (4) |||||||||||||

### Game 6

Saturday, October 29, 1994 at Tokyo Dome, Bunkyo, Tokyo :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Seibu | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 |
| Yomiuri | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 3 | 10 | 0 |
| WP: Hiromi Makihara (2–0) LP: Kimiyasu Kudoh (0–2) Home runs: SEI: None YOM: Henry Cotto (2) |||||||||||||