Autumn? Not Quite. Playoffs? Almost.

The Hawks win another pennant, Tanaka's still searching for 200, and more from the last two weeks in NPB

Between Kana’s birthday, work, and a stubborn cold, I’ve not posted as much as I’d like. So let’s catch up. The last two weeks in NPB have been a little bit of everything: rookies piling up hits, playoff spots clinched, playoff spots surrendered, and the Hanshin Tigers once again summoning the ghost of Randy Bass. Here’s what you might have missed while trying to remember what autumn* feels like (it was 32°C/90°F here on Friday).

Climax Bound

Yes, the name of the playoff system in NPB is the Climax Series. There are two rounds (referred to as stages) and the winners of the Climax Series in each league advance to the Japan Series. The Tigers clinched the Central League pennant weeks ago. Who else is playoff bound?

Back-to-back pennants.

• SoftBank Hawks: Remember when they opened the season by getting swept at home by the hapless Marines? Remember when they were 7 games under .500? Neither do they. The Hawks have had the best record in the Pacific League every month since May. and have won the pennant for the second year in a row.

• Nippon-Ham Fighters: Clinched a playoff berth for the second straight season and hit 80 wins* for the first time since Shohei Ohtani was still in Hokkaido.

• Orix Buffaloes: Secured last spot in the PL, the first trip to the postseason in two years.

• DeNA BayStars: Clinched their fourth straight playoff berths. Trying to hold onto second place in the CL to secure home field in the first round.

• Yomiuri Giants: Locked in a CL playoff spot, their second straight trip. Currently in third place and one game under .500. Their farm team also won the Eastern League pennant.

• Eliminated: Marines, Lions, Eagles, Swallows, Carp, Dragons.

*The first time since 2018 that two teams in the PL reached 80 wins. The Lions finished with 88, the Hawks with 82. The Hawks eliminated the Lions in the Climax Series and went on to defeat the Carp in the Japan Series.

The Year of the Rookie

The Pacific League might as well rename this season The Year of the Rookies. Three different first-year hitters have secured 100-hit seasons:

• Misho Nishikawa (Marines) became the first Lotte rookie since 2018 to notch 100 hits and the first PL rookie in 61 years to hit 25 doubles. He’s batting .284 with 113 hits in 103 games, and he doesn’t look like he’s slowing down.

• Rui Muneyama (Eagles) has 108 hits through 116 games and even broke the club rookie record for sacrifices — a stat that doesn’t make the highlight reels but earns plenty of clubhouse nods.

• Seiya Watanabe (Lions) slugged his 11th homer this week, making him the first Lions rookie with double-digit home runs since 2003. He’s batting .254 with 102 hits in 103 games.

Not to be outdone, Lotte’s second-year Ryusei Terachi has quietly piled up 102 hits of his own, giving the rookie crew some unexpected company. Terachi had started at catcher for most of the season, but has mostly appeared as a DH since the end of August.

And then there are the pitchers. Lions reliever Haruto Yamada (third year, still rookie-eligible) owns a 2.18 ERA across 46 appearances, with 14 holds and a save. But the headline belongs to Fighters righty Kota Tatsu, who threw his first career shutout on September 27th at ZOZO Marine*. Eight strikeouts, 116 pitches, and a handshake prank from manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo later, Tatsu sits at 8-2 with a 2.09 ERA—all while still technically rookie-eligible in his fourth professional season.

Shinjo congratulates Tatsu on a job well done… or does he? (Photo: Sponichi)

Shinjo, naturally, couldn’t resist the show. After the eighth inning he faked pulling Tatsu, shook his hand, then sent him right back out. He was already half-joking about Rookie of the Year being decided on the spot, and talked about sending Tatsu out again on October 4th against the Marines to secure the award.

*Tatsu outdueled Lotte’s Atsuki Taneichi who gave up 2 runs and struck out a career-high 15 while recording 42 swinging strikes. That’s baseball.

Around the League

• Yomiuri Giants: Tatsuya Ishikawa made it seven relievers with 40+ appearances. Taisei set a new club record with 50 hold points. Raidel Martinez broke the Giants’ saves record and now has 45. Honestly it feels like the bullpen is keeping an accountant busy full-time just to track all these milestones.

  Masahiro Tanaka is still (painfully) stuck at 199 career wins across MLB and NPB. Hideo Nomo, Hiroki Kuroda and Yu Darvish also lost games when they were 1 away from 200, but Tanaka is the first to stall for three straight starts after reaching 199. He’ll have one final shot to reach 200 this season.

• Hanshin Tigers: Teruaki Sato is chasing history as their first HR king since Randy Bass in 1986—fittingly, they share a birthday. Koji Chikamoto swiped his 200th base, and youngster Masaki Oyokawa tied an NPB record with a hold in 17 straight games, matching his manager Kyuji Fujikawa’s mark. Daichi Ishii extended his scoreless-appearance record to 49.

• Hiroshima Carp: Out of the playoffs again, sub-.500 for the second straight year, and went 6-19 against Hanshin—their worst record vs the Tigers since 2003. Also somehow managed five separate five-game losing streaks this year. Montero and Fabian are chasing history as the first foreign Carp duo with 100 hits and 10 HR each since 1977.

• Chunichi Dragons: No postseason for the 13th straight year (ouch), but set a new home attendance record at 2.52 million, selling out their final 31 games. Yudai Ohno, meanwhile, finally reached double-digit wins for the first time in five years.

• Yakult Swallows: Tetsuto Yamada scored his 1,000th run and extended his streak of double-digit HR seasons to 12, while Munetaka Murakami made it seven straight 20-HR seasons—only Alex Ramirez has done the same in a Swallows’ uniform.

• DeNA BayStars: Owner Tomoko Namba avoided making any clear statements about manager Daisuke Miura’s future, currently in his 5th year. The BayStars won it all last season.

• Lotte Marines: Officially eliminated, 80+ losses, 24 shutouts against (yes, 24). But in between the misery, they did run off a club-record 37 consecutive scoreless innings—proof that even bad seasons give you little trivia nuggets. Oh, and closer Naoya Masuda broke a bone in his hand after a poor performance. Masuda is only 2 away from 250 career saves but he’ll have to wait until next year.

• Orix Buffaloes: Eight straight losses to SoftBank sank their pennant bid. Shunpeita Yamashita tied a PL record by striking out the first six batters of a game, but Ryoma Nishikawa fractured his tibia while leading the batting race. Timing, as they say, is everything.

• Rakuten Golden Eagles: Yuya Ogo’s walk-off provided the franchise’s 2,000th home run, while Hideto Asamura joined the 350 doubles club. Not a bad week for milestone bingo.

• Seibu Lions: Eliminated again, losing season again. They’ll stick with manager Fumiya Nishiguchi for 2026 but it might be another rough year: the team has agreed to post pitcher Kona Takahashi after this season and is rumored to post Tatsuya Imai as well.

• Nippon-Ham Fighters: Attendance hit a club-best 2.23 million, proof that Es Con Field is doing its job as a world class ballpark. Maybe next year we’ll take a trip…

• SoftBank Hawks: Hiroki Kokubo is just the second NPB manager ever to win 80+ games in each of his first two seasons.

Oof. There you have it. Two weeks condensed into a few hundred words. I’m sure I missed something, and I’m sure I made some mistakes. And hopefully someone can chime in on the Central League’s rookies.

There’s only one week left in the regular season. We’ll be at Lotte’s final game on the 5th because even though this year has been a rough one, we still love Marines. Plus, we have to say goodbye to manager Masato Yoshii, who is reportedly stepping down at the end of the season. Finishing in last place for the first time in 8 years will do that.