Regular Season Ends for NPB
The NPB regular season concluded in both leagues and the championship series will get under way Friday, October 16th JST. The Tokyo Yomiuri Giants, the winner of the Central League and the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, the winner of the Pacific League will get a bye during the first round.
The Chunichi Dragons and the Tokyo Yakult Swallows will square off in the first round of the Central League Championship series, and the Rakuten Golden Eagles versus the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks will match up in the Pacific League.
With the regular season in the books, the awards for each batting and pitching categories have been determined (Central League and Pacific League winners listed respectively):
Batting Average: Alex Ramirez, .322Â (Giants) & Teppei (Golden Eagles), .327
Home Runs/RBI: Tony Blanco (Dragons), 39/110 & Takeya Nakamura (Lions), 48/122
Stolen Base: Kazuki Fukuchi (Swallows), 42 & Yasuyuki Kataoka (Lions), 51
ERA: Wei-Yin Chen (Dragons), 1.54 & Yu Darvish (Fighters), 1.73
Wins: Kazuki Yoshimi (Dragons)/ Shohei Tateyama (Swallows), 16 & Hideaki Wakui (Lions), 16
Strikeouts: Colby Lewis (Carp), 186 & Toshiya Sugiuchi (Hawks), 204
Saves: Hitoki Iwase (Dragons), 41 & Hisashi Takeda (Fighters), 34
Another season of baseball in the books and now the fight for the Championship will begin. It was another exciting year of regular season baseball in Japan as the attendance rose five percent compared to the previous season and the Hanshin Tigers continued their winning ways at the gate, earning the top attendance record for five straight seasons.