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Baseball: Hawks overpower Giants to take control of Japan Series

Nov 23, 2020 (Kyodo) - The SoftBank Hawks built up a big early lead before easing their way to a second straight win in the Japan Series on Sunday, trouncing the Yomiuri Giants 13-2 with three home runs including a seventh-inning grand slam from Alfredo Despaigne.

The heart of the Hawks' batting order -- Yuki Yanagita, Yurisbel Gracial and Game 1 hero Ryoya Kurihara, who went 4-for-5 -- all had multiple hits at Osaka's Kyocera Dome. Despaigne, batting sixth, drove in six runs.

Having gone 11-3 during the Pacific League season, Shuta Ishikawa picked up where he left off on the mound. He held the Giants to one hit and a walk over the first four innings, by which time the game had swung heavily in favor of the three-time reigning Japan Series champions.

Yomiuri starter Nobutaka Imamura had a night to forget. The Hawks pounded the lefty for four runs, three earned, in 1-2/3 innings on four hits and a walk.

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Typhoon No. 30 formed near the Marshall Islands at 3 p.m. on October 15, bringing the annual number of typhoons to 30 for the first time in 13 years, with forecasts indicating that the storm will intensify into a very strong typhoon as it moves westward across the Pacific Ocean, potentially approaching Okinawa.

Burger King Japan has announced that approximately 11.18 million records containing personal information of its official app members were leaked following unauthorized access to its systems between October 2 and October 7.

Japan's first Disney cruise ship will be named "Disney Imagination," with Oriental Land and its partners planning to launch the service in spring 2029, offering a new Disney-themed travel experience departing from Tokyo.

Tokyo's 23 wards have decided to establish a new small-scale public crematorium to address rising fees at privately operated facilities and growing concerns that cremation capacity could become insufficient around 2040 as the city's aging population drives up the number of deaths.

Japan is facing a growing wave of cyberattacks as advances in artificial intelligence remove the language barrier that once made Japanese companies difficult targets for overseas hackers, with more than 68 million personal records potentially exposed in a series of security incidents over the past two weeks.

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More than 1,000 chickens escaped from a truck onto a busy national highway in Osaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, on October 15 after the vehicle's load shifted, prompting traffic restrictions that lasted approximately four hours.

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A fire broke out at a factory handling waste plastic in Nara City on October 13, sending thick black smoke into the air and prompting the dispatch of 12 fire engines after firefighters received an emergency call shortly before 3:30 p.m. from a factory representative reporting smoke rising from inside the building, with all workers safely evacuated and no injuries reported.

Four people, including a 13-year-old junior high school girl, were injured when a large festival float collided with a roadside tree during an autumn festival in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, on October 12th.

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