This season has seen a lot of wacky turns: Hanshin comes from 12 games back to take the top spot for a time before fading badly in the final days of the season. A team that lost the 2006 Central League MVP not only contends, but would beat the pennant winner in the playoff final. A club that was expected by everybody to finish in the second division, perhaps even last, after losing the man who could very well end up with the CL MVP and who is a dead cert hall of famer, managed to grab the Pacific League flag. The Softbank Hawks, with, at least on paper, arguably the finest starting rotation in Japanese history and who were thought to be about to walk away by a bunch with the PL, suffers injuries and a suprisingly anemic power output by a guy they signed to a five year contract not too long ago and laid an egg by slotting into third in the pennant chase. They are then ushered out of the playoffs in no time. An American NPB manager, Terry Collins, hooks up romantically with a Japanese comedienne. 

Thursday, this attained its zenith when Chunichi Dragons journeyman pitcher Daisuke Yamai not only tossed eight perfect innings, but only after 86 pitches, he gets the hook and closer Hitoki Iwase, in what is certainly his final appearance in NPB before he uses free agency to go to MLB next season, caps it off with a flawless ninth for the first perfecto in Japan Series annals to outduel a superb effort by Fighters righthander Yu Darvish and realize their first Nippon ichi (best in Japan) since 1954. 

Darvish permited only a run on five hits in seven innings while striking out 11 and walking two, but it stained him with his first ever postseason loss because Dragons third baseman Norihiro Nakamura, who carted off the MVP, set up a sacrifice fly with a double in the second to send Trey Hillman to Kansas City with the agony of defeat. 

All of the action was in the second, as first baseman Tyrone Woods singled to left and Darvish hung a slider to Nakamura, who smoked it into the rightcenter gap for a double. One out later, teenage centerfielder Ryosuke Hirata flew out to right and Woods tagged up and rumbled home for a 1-0 lead. 

The Dragons would generate only three more hits for the duration, one of them liquidated on a double play and the others came with two outs and were thus harmless. 

That was enough for Yamai, who had excellent command of his diving slider and his fastball, Nippon Ham getting out of the infield once over the intial six innings. Yamai's goal going into this was just to last six innings and hand it over to the pen, but a groundout and two flyouts got him through the seventh and a groundout, a strikeout and a flyout saw him through eight. 

At the end of the inning, Chunichi's pitching coach asked Yamai how he was. I hope this is true and he wasn't just covering for his manager, but Yamai apparently said that he was done and to go ahead in bring Iwase in. 

When the announcement was made of Iwase's entrance, it was like the air had been let out of a balloon, the crowd, which was chanting Ymai's name, sounding puzzled by this turn of evenths. And you can't blame them. It also put tremendous pressure on Iwase. He wasn't affected by it, striking out pesky shortstop Makoto Kaneko for the first out. Shinji Takahashi pinch hit for catcher Shinya Tsuruoka and flied out to left. Backup third baseman Eiichi Koyano, who had gone hitless so far, grounded to second baseman Masahiro Araki and that was ballgame and history. 

Ochiai said afterward that he was being cautious with how he handled Yamai since Darvish was giving no quarter. For what it's worth, team owner Bungo Shirai supported Ochiai's decision.

Yamai didn't even pitch at the top level in 2006 due to shoulder issues. He is 17-13 lifetime in 84 games, but he bested Hanshin hall of famer Minoru Murayama, who had been flawless for 7.1 innings in game two of the 1962 series against Toei, which is a previous incarnation of the Fighters and that was the record before Thursday. Yamai also outdid the mark for most hitters retired consecutively at any time in a game, 23, which was held by teammate Kenshin Kawakami, who did it in 2004. 

A Sports Nippon survey after the game determined that 53% of their readers were in favor of removing Yamai and 37% against, but the press and most baseball people obnjected. Both Senichi Hoshino,. an ex-Dragons field boss, and Rakuten skipper Katsuya Nomura revealed that had it been them Yamai would have been pushed back on to the mound.

The last perfect game was in 1994, by Giants great Hiromi Makihara. Makihara has been hired by Yomiuri to be a special instructor at their fall camp. 

During the hero interviews afterward, Nakamura, who had gone 8-18 with four RBIs, was presented with his MVP trophy and cried while speaking to the crowd. He had begun the 2007 campaign on the Dragons taxi squad after being released by Orix due to a salary dispute. He helped end a six Japan Series losing streak by his ballclub.

Nippon Ham's inability to get untracked with the bat was record setting. Aside form the fact that leadoff man and centerfielder Hichori Morimoto had gone 3-19, the Fighters hit .147, a new low for a five game set. They had the fewest hits ever as well, 22, for five games and, accompanying that, a new standard for the meagerest total bases, 35.. Their seven runs tied a Japan Series worst and it was just the second time it had been done. And with all that, Nippon Ham's quest to become the first team since 1992 to snag consecutive series championships. 

This was the third time a 1-0 outcome had decided a Japan Series, the other two times were Chunichi in 1954 and the Taiyo Whales (now the Yokohama Bay Stars) in 1960. Both were their first pennants as well.; The previsou low for hits in a Japan Series game was one, by Kintetsu against Kazuhisa Ishii and Yakult in 2001. 

Darvish, though, struckout the most men ever for a five game series, 24. That helped Chunichi set a new team strikeouts mark, 42. 

Hillman hugged a rather uncomfortable looking Ochiai once the on field celebration abated. Ochiai is prickly at the best of times and Japanese men aren't exactly the huggy sort anyway when it comes to other guys. 

Chunichi rightfielder Kosuke Fukudome got into uniform after the game to take part in the celebration. Everybody went to a first floor parking lot and sprayed 2,000 bottles of beer all over each other. It also included team staff and even Ochiai's wife Nobuko, which had to be weird. Hirata is 19, (20 is the drinking age in Japan), so he couldn't actually imbibe any of the suds. 

Oneitme Dragons shot caller Wally Yonamine, whose club ended the Giants run of nine straight pennants, averred that Ochia has built a team that has good balance between hitting and pitching. He then compared them to his Japan Series experience, when Hoshino, who was a pitcher at the time, got injured shortly before it and that killed their chances. 

Sankei Sports posted a photo collection from the Japan Series Here .

For Nippon Ham, Seguignol was 0-3 and is at .333. 

For Chunichi, Woods was 2-3 and is at .235. He also set a record with four double plays in the series. Rightfielder Byung-kyu Lee was 0-3 with two strikeouts and is at .111.