SAPPORO -- Enough standing around, say the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. Waiting for last weekend's first-stage Pacific League playoffs to take place may have been a bit unnerving for the PL's No. 1 seed, but if it was, the team's attitude did not reflect it in the practices leading up to Wednesday's Game 1 of the second stage.

Manager Trey Hillman cracked jokes with his players, and they were easygoing under the huge media troupe's shadow at Sapporo Dome.

When the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks beat the Seibu Lions on Sunday to push a decisive Game 3, the Fighters still stayed loose, one of the main objectives of the layoff between the end of the season and the beginning of the second round.