On Oct. 16, the SoftBank Hawks lost their chance to play in the Nippon Series and become the Japanese Baseball champions for a third consecutive year. They lost the fifth game of the Climax Series in the Final Stage to the Nippon Ham Fighters by a score of 4 to 7. The Hawks scored four points in the first inning, but the Fighters came from behind to win. The 9th inning was closed-out by Nippon Ham Fighters pitcher, Shohei Otani, who threw a fastball clocked at 165km.
