In what had all the makings of a legendary pitching duel turned out to be…something less as the Hokkaido Nippon Fighting Ham  leaned on the bat of former Montreal Expo Fernando Seguignol to defeat the Chiba Lotte Marines 6-2 to advance to the Japan Series.

Yoshihisa Naruse  lasted just 3 innings in what was his  worst outing of the year, giving up four runs; three on a blast over the centerfield fence by Seguignol, before being  yanked by  manger Bobby Valentine, who’d pulled the surprise of the series  by holding his ace for the deciding game.

Chiba Lotte never got close to Hokkaido, who will now await the winner of the Yomuri Giants/Chunichi Dragons series, which also started Thursday night.

Yu Darvish was solid, though not spectacular, giving up a single run in 6 2/3 innings. Darvish, who averaged over a strikeout per inning in 2007, only struck out two before being lifted for Ryan Glynn by manager Trey Hillman.