The third game of the 2020 Japan Series — which the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks won 4-0 after nearly throwing a combined no-hitter to take a 3-0 lead in the series — almost felt like an actual Japanese baseball game.
Almost.
Holding a Japan Series in the middle of a pandemic hasn’t resulted in too many changes on the field. There, the NPB formula is largely the same — throw the ball, hit the ball, Hawks win. What’s missing is the overall atmosphere of a normal Japanese baseball game, which has been altered by the so-called new normal that has sprang up in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.