The Hanshin Tigers are headed to the Japan Series for the first time since 2023 after sweeping the defending champion Yokohama DeNA BayStars in the Central League Climax Series Final Stage, capping the series with a 4-0 victory in front of 42,649 fans at Koshien Stadium in the final game.
As Central League pennant winners, they began the Climax Series Final Stage, Nippon Professional Baseball’s equivalent of the League Championship Series, with an automatic 1-0 advantage and then proceeded to win three straight games at home to secure the sweep.
“Just four more wins to go,” rookie manager Kyuji Fujikawa said after the game. “We’re going to give it our best in the Japan Series.” The Tigers, who became the fastest team in league history to clinch the pennant during the regular season, will now await the winner of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in the Pacific League. SoftBank currently leads the series, 3-1. Game 1 of the Japan Series is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 25.
The series finale proved to be a comfortable affair for Hanshin, as Teruaki Sato launched a three-run homer in the first inning off Anthony Kay, his first of the postseason and 41st overall this year. Yusuke Ohyama made it 4-0 in the third with an RBI double off the wall.
Haruto Takahashi completely shut down the BayStars’ offense, carrying a no-hitter into the eighth while allowing only one baserunner on an error through seven innings. Shion Matsuo broke up the no-hit bid with a one-out single in the eighth, and DeNA followed with two more hits to load the bases for their first real threat of the game.
But Takahashi induced a flyout from Yasutaka Tobashira before Daichi Ishii, who set an NPB record with a 0.17 ERA in the regular season, struck out Tatsuo Ebina to extinguish the rally. Takahashi finished his night with seven strikeouts, no walks, and just three hits allowed over 7 2/3 dominant innings.
Veteran Suguru Iwazaki sealed the victory in the ninth, retiring Yoshitomo Tsutsugo on a pop-up to second base to end the game – and the series.
Game 1 stayed scoreless until the bottom of the sixth, when Shota Morishita ripped an RBI single off Katsuki Azuma to bring home Koji Chikamoto. Chikamoto had singled earlier in the inning, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, and stole third before scoring. Dan Onodera then delivered a pinch-hit RBI single later in the frame to make it 2-0.
Tigers ace Shoki Murakami threw five shutout innings, while Masaki Oyokawa and Daichi Ishii combined for three scoreless frames in relief. Iwazaki closed it out to earn the save.
In Game 2, Hanshin once again jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a bloop RBI single by Sato and a sacrifice fly from Ohyama. DeNA quickly answered in the third inning, as Ebina and Keita Sano each delivered RBI doubles off Hiroto Saiki to tie the game.
Shugo Maki put the BayStars ahead for the first time in the series with a solo homer in the fourth inning, before the game entered a rain delay in the fifth. After play resumed, Koh Nakagawa and Yutaro Ishida each tossed a clean inning to carry DeNA into the eighth, but Sato tied it up with an RBI single off Hiromu Ise with one out in the frame.
The game went into extra innings as Oyokawa stifled the top of DeNA’s order in the top of the 10th. In the bottom half, Takumu Nakano led off with a single, and moments later, Shota Morishita crushed a walk-off two-run homer off Chihaya Sasaki, which proved to be the defining moment of the series.
The Tigers outscored the BayStars 11-3 over the course of the series, once again flexing its muscle on both sides of the ball. The 25-year-old Morishita, coming off a career-best campaign in which he slashed .275/.350/.463 with 23 long balls and 6.1 WAR, was named Series MVP after going 6-for-9, highlighted by his clutch walk-off blast.
If the Kansai-based team goes on to win the Japan Series, it would be the team’s second championship in three years and only the third in franchise history, having ended the infamous “Curse of the Colonel” in 2023 to snap a 38-year title drought.
Photo: Hanshin Tigers’ Teruaki Sato gestures after hitting a three-run home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the fourth inning in an MLB Japan Series exhibition baseball game, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
