The 1979 Japan Series was the championship series of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the 1979 season. The 30th edition of the Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff that matched the Central League champion Hiroshima Carp against the Pacific League champion Kintetsu Buffaloes.

For the Series, the Buffaloes hosted its four games at Osaka Stadium due to issues with both Nippon Life Stadium (lack of capacity over 30,000) and Fujiidera Stadium (no night game facilities). The home team won each of the first six games. Game 7 went down to the wire, with Hiroshima hanging on to a one-run lead. The 9th inning saw reliever Yutaka Enatsu throw 21 pitches in one of the most famous 9th inning duels in NPB history, which saw the Buffaloes get the bases loaded with no outs before Enatsu got out of the jam, with the final out being a strikeout of Shigeru Ishiwatari.

Summary

GameScoreDateLocationAttendance
1Buffaloes – 5, Carp – 2October 27Osaka Stadium25,121
2Buffaloes – 4, Carp – 0October 31Osaka Stadium27,848
3Carp – 3, Buffaloes – 2October 28Hiroshima Stadium29,032
4Carp – 5, Buffaloes – 3October 30Hiroshima Stadium29,057
5Carp – 1, Buffaloes – 0October 31Hiroshima Stadium29,090
6Buffaloes – 6, Carp – 2November 3Osaka Stadium27,813
7Buffaloes – 3, Carp – 4November 4Osaka Stadium24,376

See also