Jingu Stadium was mostly silent on the eve of the Japan Series — save for the constant drone of bats hitting balls and the other assorted sounds of a Japanese baseball practice.

The scene will be different Saturday night when the fans — some draped in blue and gold and others clutching small umbrellas — file into the venerable old ballpark for a rematch of last year's epic six-game showdown for the title.

The Tokyo Yakult Swallows and Orix Buffaloes staged one of the most competitive series in recent memory last season and put the finishing touches on their preparations for the rematch at Jingu Stadium on Friday. Both teams practiced for a couple of hours on a day when the wind was blowing out and sunlight streaked through the clouds overhead.

"I want to put on a great Japan Series," Swallows manager Shingo Takatsu said.

Game 1 is scheduled for Saturday night and will begin with a battle of aces, as Yasuhiro "Ryan" Ogawa takes the mound for the Swallows, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto toes the rubber for the Buffaloes.

"I want to have a competitive series as the Pacific League representative," Buffaloes manager Satoshi Nakajima said.

The Swallows won the title in six games last season and are looking to repeat.

The club is led by slugger Munetaka Murakami, who finished the regular season with 56 home runs, four short of the single-season record, and hit .318 with 134 RBIs to become the youngest NPB player to win the Triple Crown

On paper, the series looks like a matchup of strength against strength, as Murakami and the Swallows hitters try to get the best of Yamamoto and a talented Orix rotation.

Yakult led all NPB teams with 619 runs scored and hit 174 homers. Orix, meanwhile, had a 2.84 team ERA.

While Murakami led the Swallows in most offensive categories, Tetsuto Yamada was second on the team with 23 homers and Jose Osuna drove in 74 runs.

The matchup between Murakami and Yamamoto, Japan's top pitcher, is among the most anticipated in the series.

Yamamoto will get the start in Game 1 for the second straight year. He struck out nine in six innings of one-run ball in the opener last season. The right-hander was 15-5 in 2022, leading NPB in wins, strikeouts (205), ERA (1.68) and innings pitched (193).

Yamamoto, who threw his first-career no-hitter on June 18, was also tied for the NPB lead with four complete games and was second with a 0.93 WHIP.

The club also features lefty Hiroya Miyagi as well as Daiki Tajima and Taisuke Yamaoka.

The Buffaloes have revenge on their minds after coming close last season.

"Our goal was to stand on this stage," Nakajima told reporters during the NPB draft on Thursday night. “We’ll do whatever we can for payback.”

Jingu Stadium is hosting a Japan Series Game for the first time since Game 5 in 2015, when the Swallows lost to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. Yakult played its Japan Series home games at Tokyo Dome last season due to scheduling conflicts at Jingu.

This will be just the third time since 2000 that teams have met in the Japan Series in consecutive years.

The most recent instance saw the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks sweep the Yomiuri Giants in 2019 and again in 2020. Before that, Yu Darvish led the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters past the Chunichi Dragons in 2006, only to see the Dragons get their revenge in 2007, when they clinched the title with a combined perfect game in Game 5.