SENDAI — One of Japanese baseball's marquee pitchers will be missing from the second stage of the Pacific League Climax Series.
No matter, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles are bringing a spare.
Offense may have stolen the show in Rakuten's victory over the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in stage one, but Hisashi Iwakuma and Masahiro Tanaka showed Rakuten's true strength is on the mound.