Hideki Matsui provided much of the offense and Darrell May pitched in with a stellar performance on the mound Saturday night at the Tokyo Dome as the Yomiuri Giants claimed their 19th Japan Series title in emphatic style, blowing out the defending champion Daiei Hawks 9-3 in Game 6.

Giants' manager Shigeo Nagashima rises to the occasion.

Matsui, the Japan Series MVP, drove in four runs with a two-run homer and a two-run double while May whiffed nine Hawks over 5 1/3 innings as Yomiuri won its fourth straight game in the Series after dropping the first two in the so-called O-N matchup featuring managers Shigeo Nagashima and Sadaharu Oh, both former legendary players for the Giants.

"There was a lot of publicity regarding the O-N matchup, but the focus should have been on the players, not the managers, because they went out there and won the games," commented Nagashima, who has now won the Japan Series twice as a manager and 11 times as a player, all with the Giants.

"We lost the first two, but they were close so I wasn't worried," added Nagashima. "We regrouped and got back in sync. All the players contributed, especially the pitching staff at the end."

After an extended trip home to Fukuoka for three games -- which included a unique two-day break to accommodate a doctors' convention, of all things, at the Fukuoka Dome -- the Hawks seemed to come out flat and were unable to continue a Japan Series streak that had seen the visiting team win the last nine games, dating back to last year.

The Hawks did get on the board first, however, in the top of the third inning. With veteran Koji Akiyama on first and two out, Yusuke Torigoe smacked a line drive double to left-center field. The speedy Akiyama, running on the 3-2 pitch, beat the relay home, scoring easily.

The Giants didn't take long to strike back, however. In the bottom half of the inning, Toshihisa Nishi doubled to the corner in deep left field, just out of the reach of outfielder Noriyoshi Omichi, scoring May, who had drawn a walk, all the way from first. After Koji Goto's deep fly to center advanced Nishi to third, Kazuhiro Kiyohara hit a high chopper down the third-base line for a single that scored Nishi and put the Giants up 2-1.

Daiei manager Oh then hit the panic button and yanked starter Tomohiro Nagai, who had given up just two hits. Not a wise move, as Yomiuri slugger Matsui promptly deposited reliever Masakazu Watanabe's second offering 135 meters over the fence in center field to put the Kyojin up 4-1.

Hawks catcher Kenji Jojima got a run back in the top of the fourth inning with a solo homer -- his record-tying fourth of the Series -- off Giants starter May.

Matsui was at it again in the bottom of the fifth. With runners on first and second, the big guy cranked a double to the base of the wall in left-center, scoring Nishi and Kiyohara. After an Akira Eto single moved Matsui over to third, shortstop Tomohiro Nioka singled up the middle to bring in another run.

Yomiuri catcher Shinichi Murata followed up with a shallow fly to left-center field that bounced past two Hawks outfielders and rolled to the wall. Eto and Nioka scored on the play for a 9-2 lead while Murata was gunned out trying to reach third.

"I'm especially happy with my performance today as my parents are here at the game," said Matsui, who hit .381 (8-for-21) with three home runs and eight RBIs in the Series and also led the Central League with 42 home runs this season. "Throughout the series, I was able to do well because I had a lot of confidence after homering in my first at-bat (in Game 1.)"

Daiei tried to mount a comeback in the sixth. After Torigoe drew a leadoff walk and Omichi singled to left, Matsunaka took a called third strike. At this point, Giants manager Shigeo Nagashima replaced May with Ryuji Kimura. Jojima proceeded to hit a ball past Eto at third to score Torigoe from second, but that was as good as it would get. Tadahito Iguchi hit a deep fly to right but Yoshinobu Takahashi made a nice leaping catch before doubling off Jojima at first to quell the uprising.

May, a Hanshin Tigers castoff who posted a 12-7 record this year with a 2.95 ERA, allowed five hits, two earned runs and one walk in getting his first postseason win. The Giants loaded the bases in the bottom of the frame, but reliever Junji Hoshino got Eto to fly out to left and keep Yomiuri in single digits.

Nagai, who lasted just 2 2/3 innings, was saddled with the loss after giving up two hits, three walks and three runs.

"We really wanted to win the Series as it was the O-N matchup held in the millennium year of 2000," lamented Oh. "We played well in the first two games but our batters were shut down afterward. Our pitchers worked hard but we couldn't play our style."

A raucous sellout crowd of 44,033 was on hand to cheer on the Giants. The Central League now holds a 30-21 edge over the Pacific League in the Japan Series since its inception in 1950.