By Jim Allen, KYODO NEWS - Oct 27, 2017 - 20:20 | Sports

Kimiyasu Kudo is expecting the usual from his players, and the unusual from his opponents, he said Friday, a day before his SoftBank Hawks host Game 1 of the Japan Series against the DeNA BayStars.

"We feel poised. Of course there are nerves, but the players have given everything they had to get us this far, to the battle with the BayStars, and I want them to just go out there and do their thing," Kudo said.

"You get nervous in the Japan Series and the players will feel that, but I also believe in them and think they will play to their strengths."

Like many others, Kudo was watching BayStars manager Alex Ramirez cast conventional wisdom aside in the Central League Climax Series, bringing in a top starter for two innings of clutch relief in Game 4, and pulling his starting pitcher after one inning in Game 5.

"I'm look forward to seeing what manager Ramirez brings," Kudo said. "He is going to be a tough customer from what I could tell. After all, who takes their starter out after one inning? I think this is going to be entertaining."

Asked about his moves during the Climax Series, Ramirez said it was all about knowing his players strengths and weaknesses and acting accordingly.

"We had to play case by case," he said, and said that would be his same approach in the Japan Series -- even though he has been unable to study the Hawks the way he broke down the Central League champion Hiroshima Carp in the playoffs.

"We don't play as much against SoftBank (during the season), so I need as much time as I can get to prepare myself."

Although the BayStars' 84 sacrifice bunts were the fewest in either the Central or Pacific leagues, Ramirez suggested he might play for one run early to get some kind of a lead. But he also suggested no one should expect a set plan.

"We went through that in Hiroshima," Ramirez said." We have to score early in the game. Their bullpen is unbelievable, not only their bullpen but their starting pitchers, they can go six, seven innings. The use of strategy to score early in the game is going to be a key and that's what I'm going to do."

"But everything is going to be case by case, so I can't tell you what we're going to do in advance."

In keeping with that theme, the teams will not be announcing their starting pitchers in advance, although Kudo had hoped to do so.

And starting pitching is where the two teams are probably most comparable.

The Hawks starting pitchers combined for a 3.46 earned run average this season, that was the third best in NPB, but pitching in a park that cuts scoring by quite a lot, there won't be quite as big a difference between what the two teams can bring to the table to start the game.

It's after that that the differences grow. In Games 1 and 2 in Fukuoka and Games 6 and 7 if the series goes that long, the BayStars will be able to use a designated hitter. But as a typical CL club, they don't really have an extra big bat on the bench that can match up with the PL's premier DH, Alfredo Despaigne, who hit 36 home runs and drove in 105 runs in his first season with SoftBank.

That switch forces most CL teams to use the DH to improve their defense, and it is possible that left fielder Yoshitomo Tsutsugo will be used as the DH in Game 2.

"In the first game of the Japan Series, I want my main players on the field, and that's what I told Tsutsugo," Ramirez said. "I want you in left field."

The other big trouble in store for the BayStars is the Hawks' elite relief corps. Although Ramirez will likely bolster his bullpen again with starting pitchers, it is hard to see DeNA matching SoftBank in the ability to put up zeroes out of the pen.

So while it will be a tough task for the BayStars, they may feel they have momentum on their side. The only other time a third-place team reached the Japan Series via the Climax Series playoffs, the PL's Lotte Marines won Nippon Professional Baseball's grand finale in 2010.

But with the CL having won the Series just three times in the past since 2002, and losing many more interleague games than it wins, it's hard to see momentum counting for much.

"It (SoftBank) is a very complete team. It's not going to be any easier for us," Ramirez said. "But we're going to try and do our best."