YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) -- The pre-series favorite SoftBank Hawks faced a devastating end to their season Sunday, losing the Japan Series to the DeNA BayStars four games to two.

The Hawks had reached Japanese baseball's biggest stage after ending the regular season 13-1/2 games ahead of the second-place Nippon Ham Fighters and needed only the minimum of three games to beat the runners-up in the Pacific League Climax Series final stage.

By contrast, the BayStars bounced back from a third-place finish in the Central League to eliminate the second-place Hanshin Tigers and the champion Yomiuri Giants in the Climax Series.

"I thought the tide of the series would turn after rain postponed Game 6, but things didn't go our way," first-year Hawks manager Hiroki Kokubo said.

"It's all my fault. My players did well. The BayStars demonstrated the depth of their lineup throughout the series."

Most baseball watchers expected the Japan Series to be over in Fukuoka when the Hawks won the first two games at the BayStars' Yokohama Stadium.

And most data from the regular season also backed up SoftBank's winning probability.

But the wheels began to come off for the Fukuoka-based club when the Hawks dropped Game 3 by a score of 4-1, despite having 10 hits, four more than the BayStars.

The PL champions then went 29 straight innings without scoring a run until Yuki Yanagita's two-run homer snapped the streak in the fourth inning of Game 6.

In 143 regular-season games, SoftBank scored a Nippon Professional Baseball-leading 607 runs.

Hawks cleanup hitter Hotaka Yamakawa, who led the PL with 34 home runs and 99 RBIs, made an impact in only Game 2 with a home run and three RBIs, going hitless in the other five games.

Speedster Ukyo Shuto was limited to just one stolen base.

"I want manager Kokubo to think what he's doing is right. We won 91 games in the regular season," Hawks chairman and Japanese baseball all-time home run leader Sadaharu Oh said.

"We lost the series because Yokohama played so well. We have to develop young players. That's what we're going to do for next season."