TOKYO, Japan – The MLB postseason is underway, and Japan’s NPB will soon follow suit. With the Lotte Marines and DeNA BayStars clinching the final playoff berths in their respective leagues this week, the stage is set for October baseball.
Who made the postseason?
Pacific League:
#1 Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
#2 Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
#3 Chiba Lotte Marines
Central League:
#1 Yomiuri Giants
#2 Hanshin Tigers
#3 Yokohama DeNA BayStars
What is the postseason format?
The Climax Series First Stage — the NPB equivalent of the MLB Wild Card Series — will begin on October 12, with the two-seed hosting the three-seed in each league. Like MLB, the series is best-of-three, and the higher seed gets home field for the entire set. The winners will face the one-seed in the Climax Series Final Stage. The pennant winners not only receive complete home-field advantage for the entire series but also start the series with an automatic 1-0 lead. The regular season means something in NPB! The winners of those series move on to the Japan Series for all the marbles.
How can you watch the postseason outside Japan?
Pacific League TV provides all PL playoff games until the Japan Series. WatchDingo and FTF Sports on Roku will offer English commentary for many PL games. CL games cannot be viewed overseas, except for the Hanshin Tigers’ own streaming service, Toratele, which is only available in Japanese. TVer, a free Japanese video-on-demand service, will deliver the Japan Series, though a VPN will be necessary for foreign viewers.
Preview
The SoftBank Hawks cruised to a first-place finish in the Pacific League under rookie manager Hiroki Kokubo. The additional rest will be important as the presumptive PL MVP, Kensuke Kondoh, is still questionable for the playoffs with an ankle injury. Franchise icon Yuki Yanagita recently returned from a leg injury that kept him on the sidelines for four months. If the Hawks can get to full strength, they seem unstoppable.
The Nippon-Ham Fighters and Lotte Marines will be tasked with slaying the league’s juggernauts. Nippon-Ham, led by the quirky and energetic Tsuyoshi Shinjo, is in the playoffs for the first time since 2018. They last won the Japan Series in 2016 with Shohei Ohtani. Since taking the keys in 2021, Shinjo has gradually rebuilt and rejuvenated the club, taking it from the cellar into true contender status.
Meanwhile, the Lotte Marines limped across the finish line, barely fending off the Rakuten Eagles to clinch their second straight playoff appearance. Though they were one of the top sides in NPB for the first few months of the year, they played uninspiring .500 baseball in the second half. Moreover, their 6-17 record against the Fighters this season doesn’t inspire great confidence.
Over in the Central League, the Yomiuri Giants clinched the pennant under another rookie skipper, Shinnosuke Abe, who was the CL MVP in 2012, the last time Yomiuri won the Japan Series. They were neck and neck with the Hiroshima Carp through August, but Hiroshima had an unprecedented late-season collapse, falling out of the playoffs altogether with a 5-22 record since September 1.
The defending Japan Series champion Hanshin Tigers gave the Giants a scare, coming within a game of tying them last week, but eventually settled for second place. The DeNA BayStars swooped in to capture the final postseason spot, setting up a rematch of the unforgettable 2022 Climax Series First Stage, in which Hanshin won on a game-ending bases-loaded double play. This year, the Tigers are 12-11 against the BayStars. Hanshin leads the league in Fielding Independent Pitching, while DeNA leads in Batting Average and OPS, setting up the ultimate matchup of good pitching against good hitting.
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WBN NPB: https://worldbaseball.com/league/japan/
