The Yomiuri Giants began the season by falling flat on their faces and languishing in the lower reaches of the standings for the first few weeks of the year.
They battled back from that to win the Central League title, but quickly found themselves on the brink of elimination after the Chunichi Dragons swept into Tokyo Dome and won three straight games to begin the CL Climax Series final stage.
Yomiuri avoided that pitfall and won the first two games of the Japan Series, only to have the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters snatch the momentum with a rout in Game 3 and a grueling one-run, 12-inning victory in Game 4.