The Tohoku Rakuten Eagles beats Yomiuri Giants 3-0

Japan’s Cinderella baseball team, The Tohoku Rakuten Eagles (simply called Rakuten (??)), has beaten Yomiuri Giants 3-0 in the deciding Game Seven of the Japan Series on Sunday night. The Tohoku Rakuten Eagles is from the region (Miyagi Prefecture) which was by the 2011 quake-tsunami-nuclear disaster and this is the first championship of the region!

Sunday’s win also allowed  star pitcher Masahiro Tanaka  to end on a high note his memorable season. Tanaka is expected to follow fellow Japanese star pitchers like Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers and Koji Uehara of the Boston Red Sox, and jump next season to Major League Baseball in the U.S:

"The Tohoku Rakuten Eagles captured the first Japan Series title in their nine-year history, blanking the defending champion Yomiuri Giants 3-0 in a decisive Game 7 on Sunday night at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi. Manager Senichi Hoshino added a special twist to the historic victory when he sent out ace Masahiro Tanaka to pitch the ninth inning, a day after the right-hander threw 160 pitches while being dealt his only loss of the season. 

Tanaka, who had a 30-game winning streak ended Saturday night, gave up a leadoff single to Shuichi Murata and a two-out single to nemesis Jose Lopez, but kept his cool to strike out pinch-hitter Kenji Yano and finish up a five-hit shutout."
Source : Eagles blank Giants to capture 1st Japan Series title

Weekend did not start good for Rakuten. 22-time champion Giants has won against them on Saturday.

Sendai celebrated on Monday as the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles advanced to their first Japan Series by clinching the Pacific League Climax Series Final Stage with an 8-5 win in Game 4 over the Chiba Lotte Marines.

Rakuten was hard hit by 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Miyagi Baseball Stadium was badly damaged during the tusinami.