Nippon Professional Baseball’s “Climax Series First Stage,” the league’s equivalent of Major League Baseball’s Wild Card Series, took place over the weekend, with both matchups ending in decisive sweeps.
Orix Buffaloes at Nippon-Ham Fighters – In the Pacific League, the second-place Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters hosted the third-place Orix Buffaloes at Es Con Field Hokkaido. The sides split the regular season head-to-head at 12-12-1.
Game 1 featured a marquee pitching matchup between Hiromi Itoh, who finished the campaign with an NPB-best 195 strikeouts, and Shunpeita Yamashita, arguably the most talented 23-year-old pitcher in the world, though he made just three regular season starts due to injury.
Chusei Mannami opened the scoring for the Fighters with an RBI single into left field in the second inning. Yuya Gunji extended the lead with a solo homer on a hanging curveball in the fourth to make it 2-0.
Yamashita was solid, striking out five over six solid innings and allowing just those two runs. But the Buffaloes were unable to solve Itoh, who dominated through seven shutout frames with nine strikeouts, allowing four hits and three walks over 115 pitches.
Seigi Tanaka and Yukiya Saito finished it off with two perfect innings to secure the Game 1 win for the Fighters.
Game 2 featured another high-level pitching matchup, as two of the PL’s top five ERA leaders took the mound, with Koki Kitayama starting for the Fighters and Hiroya Miyagi for the Buffaloes.
Yutaro Sugimoto quickly opened the scoring for Orix with a solo homer in the second inning, but Shun Mizutani answered with an RBI hit in the bottom half to even things up.
In the third, Kotaro Kurebayashi launched a three-run blast to left to make it 4-1 Orix, only for Kotaro Kiyomiya to respond with a two-run triple past the diving reach of center fielder Taishi Hirooka in the bottom half to pull Nipponham back within one.
Kitayama went just four innings, having allowed four hits and four runs, for his shortest outing of the year. Meanwhile, Miyagi was surprisingly lifted after just three, handing the ball to Allen Kuri, who made his first relief appearance of the season despite being slated to start a potential Game 3.
Both teams were kept off the board until the eighth inning, when Mannami and Kota Yazawa sparked a two-out rally against veteran reliever Sho Iwasaki, whom the Buffaloes acquired in a June trade.
Franmil Reyes, who won the PL home run title with 32, then delivered the decisive blow, crushing a two-run double off the right-field wall to flip the score to 5-4, sending the home crowd into a frenzy.
Saito slammed the door again in the ninth, striking out two and finishing the game with a 99 mph fastball that induced a groundout to second.
The Fighters will advance to the “Climax Series Final Stage,” the equivalent of the League Championship Series, for a rematch of last year’s matchup against the pennant-winning Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
All games will be played at Mizuho PayPay Dome Fukuoka, with the Hawks starting the series with an automatic 1-0 advantage. The first team to four wins will move on to the Japan Series. Game 1 is set for Wednesday, October 15, at 6:00 pm local time. The game will be available to stream for free outside Japan, with English commentary, on WatchDingo.
Yomiuri Giants at Yokohama DeNA BayStars – On the Central League side, the defending Japan Series champion Yokohama DeNA BayStars took on the three-seed Yomiuri Giants at Yokohama Stadium. Yomiuri held the upper hand during the regular season, winning 15 of the 25 matchups.
Game 1 saw Anthony Kay take the mound for DeNA, coming off a season in which he posted the lowest ERA by a starting pitcher in franchise history at 1.74. Opposing him for the Giants was Iori Yamasaki, who was coming off a career year of his own.
Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, who hit 15 home runs after the All-Star break, opened the scoring in the second inning with a solo shot.
Tatsuo Ebina added an RBI single in the third to make it 2-0, and Tsutsugo struck again with a clutch base hit to extend the lead to 3-0.
Yomiuri clawed back in the fourth when Gakuto Wakabayashi launched a two-run homer. But in the sixth inning, Tsutsugo took Yamasaki deep for his second long ball of the afternoon to make it 4-2.
Kay wrapped up his outing with seven strong innings, allowing just two hits and two runs while striking out eight on 118 pitches. Yamasaki completed six innings for Yomiuri, fanning six but coughing up four runs.
DeNA added insurance against Kota Nakagawa in the eighth, scoring twice behind Tsutsugo’s fourth hit of the game to make it 6-2. Kohei Morihara took care of the ninth, closing out the win to give the BayStars the series lead.
Game 2 produced one of the wildest openings in postseason history. The Giants jumped all over BayStars starter Andre Jackson for five runs in the first inning, highlighted by home runs from Shunsuke Sasaki and Raito Nakayama.
However, DeNA wasted no time responding, as Keita Sano crushed a two-run homer and Taiki Ishikami followed with a three-run bomb off Shosei Togo to tie the game at 5-5.
Yutaro Ishida took over for Jackson in the second inning and steadied things for DeNA, throwing four scoreless frames with three strikeouts. For Yomiuri, Togo lasted three innings before giving way to Yuhi Nishidate.
Both bullpens then locked in, turning the game into a stalemate after the wild first inning, with neither side able to push across a run.
The Giants nearly gifted the go-ahead run to the BayStars in the eighth when Ebina reached on a dropped third strike and advanced to second on a pickoff error by Taisei. But closer Raidel Martinez came in and put out the fire, keeping things tied at five apiece.
The game headed to extra innings, with the BayStars needing only a tie to clinch the series. In the top of the 11th, Sasaki put the Giants ahead with an RBI infield single to first as Shugo Maki’s throw home came up late. Yomiuri had a chance to break it open with the bases loaded and just one out, but failed to tack on.
That missed opportunity proved costly. Down to their final out in the bottom half, Ishikami reached on an infield single off Eito Tanaka and stole second. Takuma Hayashi, who had earlier drawn a 19-pitch walk, came through with an RBI single to left to tie the game.
Ryuki Watarai followed with a pinch-hit single to put runners on the corners, and Tatsuo Ebina lined a walk-off single to left to propel the BayStars into the Final Stage.
DeNA will now face the powerhouse Hanshin Tigers, whom they defeated in last year’s Wild Card Series. However, the Tigers enter as heavy favorites after finishing 13 games ahead of DeNA in the regular-season standings.
As in the PL, the CL Championship Series will begin at 6:00 pm local time on Wednesday, Oct. 15, with Hanshin already holding a 1-0 ghost win advantage. The winner will advance to the Japan Series to play the Hawks or Fighters starting on Saturday, Oct. 25.
Photo: Yomiuri Giants manager Abe Shinnosuke watches play against the Chicago Cubs in the ninth inning of an MLB Japan Series exhibition baseball game in Tokyo, Japan, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
