2020 NPB season | |
---|---|
League | Nippon Professional Baseball |
Sport | Baseball |
Duration | June 19 – November 25 |
Number of games | 120 |
Number of teams | 12 |
Central League Pennant | |
League champions | Yomiuri Giants |
Runners-up | Hanshin Tigers |
Season MVP | Tomoyuki Sugano (Yomiuri) |
Pacific League Pennant | |
League champions | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks |
Runners-up | Chiba Lotte Marines |
Season MVP | Yuki Yanagita (SoftBank) |
Climax Series | |
CL champions | N/A |
CL runners-up | N/A |
PL champions | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks |
PL runners-up | Chiba Lotte Marines |
Japan Series | |
Champions | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks |
Runners-up | Yomiuri Giants |
Finals MVP | Ryoya Kurihara (SoftBank) |
The 2020 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the 71st season of professional baseball in Japan since Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) was reorganized in 1950. There were 12 NPB teams, split evenly between the Central League and Pacific League.
The 2020 season was originally scheduled to begin on 20 March, with a break from 21 July to 13 August, for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. [1] On 26 February 2020, the league announced that its remaining spring training games would be held without fans in attendance, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. [2] [3] With health related precautions in place, the media was allowed into some ballparks. [4] Following another league meeting on 9 March, commissioner Atsushi Saito stated that the 2020 season would be postponed until April. [5] [6] Saito also said that the league aimed to retain a full regular season schedule of 143 games. [7] This announcement marked the first time since 2011 that a Nippon Professional Baseball season was delayed. [8]
On 18 April, the league announced that it would remain delayed indefinitely through the entirety of May, with the 18-game interleague schedule removed to accommodate a 125-game schedule. The delay of the 2020 Olympics meant that the three-week Olympic break would no longer be needed. Therefore, it was removed from the schedule. [9] Before the league began play, the 2020 season was shortened to 120 games, and scheduled to end on 7 November. [10] [11] As a result of the condensed schedule, it was also announced that the First Stage of the Pacific League Climax Series would not be played, with the top two teams from the regular season competing in a best-of-5 Final Stage which the regular season winner enters with a one-game advantage. The Central League would do away with its Climax Series entirely, with its regular season winner advancing directly to the 2020 Japan Series. [12]
With the lifting of states of emergency over major Japanese cities, NPB announced that it would begin its regular season on 19 June behind closed doors. "Warm-up" games began 26 May. [13] All twelve NPB teams played on as scheduled on 19 June. [10] On 10 July NPB began allowing a limited number of fans to attend games, with plans to further ease restrictions in the near future. [14] On 19 September, attendance was expanded to a maximum of 20,000 fans per game, or 50% of stadium capacity. [15]
Pos | Team | G | W | L | T | Pct. | GB | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Yomiuri Giants | 120 | 67 | 45 | 8 | .598 | - | ||
2 | Hanshin Tigers | 120 | 60 | 53 | 7 | .531 | 7.5 | ||
3 | Chunichi Dragons | 120 | 60 | 55 | 5 | .522 | 8.5 | ||
4 | Yokohama DeNA BayStars | 120 | 56 | 58 | 6 | .491 | 12 | ||
5 | Hiroshima Toyo Carp | 120 | 52 | 56 | 12 | .481 | 13 | ||
6 | Tokyo Yakult Swallows | 120 | 41 | 69 | 10 | .373 | 25 |
Pos | Team | G | W | L | T | Pct. | GB | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | 120 | 73 | 42 | 5 | .635 | - | ||
2 | Chiba Lotte Marines | 120 | 60 | 57 | 3 | .513 | 14 | ||
3 | Saitama Seibu Lions | 120 | 58 | 58 | 4 | .500 | 15.5 | ||
4 | Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles | 120 | 55 | 57 | 8 | .491 | 16.5 | ||
5 | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters | 120 | 53 | 62 | 5 | .461 | 20 | ||
6 | Orix Buffaloes | 120 | 45 | 68 | 7 | .398 | 27 |
Pacific League Climax Series | Japan Series | |||||||
CL1 | Yomiuri Giants | 0 | ||||||
1 | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | 3 | PL1 | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | 4 | |||
2 | Chiba Lotte Marines | 0 |
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks won the series, 3–0.
Game | Date | Score | Location | Time | Attendance |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | November 14 | Chiba Lotte Marines – 3, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 4 | PayPay Dome | 3:19 | 19,901 [18] |
2 | November 15 | Chiba Lotte Marines – 4, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 6 | PayPay Dome | 3:27 | 19,995 [19] |
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks won the series, 4–0.
Game | Date | Score | Location | Time | Attendance |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | November 21 | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 5, Yomiuri Giants – 1 | Kyocera Dome Osaka | 3:34 | 16,489 [20] |
2 | November 22 | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 13, Yomiuri Giants – 2 | Kyocera Dome Osaka | 3:40 | 16,333 [21] |
3 | November 24 | Yomiuri Giants – 0, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 4 | PayPay Dome | 2:58 | 17,297 [22] |
4 | November 25 | Yomiuri Giants – 1, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 4 | PayPay Dome | 3:22 | 19,679 [23] |
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|
Central League | Pacific League | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Position | Player | Team | Player | Team |
Pitcher | Tomoyuki Sugano | Yomiuri Giants | Kodai Senga | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks |
Catcher | Ryutaro Umeno | Hanshin Tigers | Takuya Kai | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks |
1st Base | Dayán Viciedo | Chunichi Dragons | Akira Nakamura Sho Nakata | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters |
2nd Base | Ryosuke Kikuchi | Hiroshima Toyo Carp | Shuta Tonosaki | Saitama Seibu Lions |
3rd Base | Shuhei Takahashi | Chunichi Dragons | Daichi Suzuki | Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles |
Shortstop | Hayato Sakamoto | Yomiuri Giants | Sosuke Genda | Saitama Seibu Lions |
Outfield | Seiya Suzuki | Hiroshima Toyo Carp | Yuki Yanagita | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks |
Yōhei Ōshima | Chunichi Dragons | Taishi Ohta | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters | |
Norichika Aoki | Tokyo Yakult Swallows | Haruki Nishikawa | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters |
Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called Puro Yakyū (プロ野球), meaning Professional Baseball.
Dennis Scott Sarfate is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played for the Milwaukee Brewers, Houston Astros, and Baltimore Orioles in Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, Saitama Seibu Lions, and Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). While an average reliever in the MLB, Sarfate became one of the greatest closers in NPB history after moving his career overseas. Sarfate holds several NPB records, including most saves in a season and most by a foreign-born pitcher. As of 2020, his 234 career saves rank fifth-most in NPB history. He is a 3× NPB All-Star, a 3× Pacific League saves leader, a 5× Japan Series Champion, won the Japan Series Most Valuable Player Award, won the Pacific League MVP Award, and won the Matsutaro Shoriki Award.
Alfredo Despaigne Rodriguez is a Cuban professional baseball outfielder. He played for the Chiba Lotte Marines and the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
The Climax Series is the current annual playoff system implemented by Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). It determines which team from the Central League (CL) and from the Pacific League (PL) will advance to compete for the championship in the Japan Series. After the creation of the NPB's two-league system in 1950, the PL experimented with three different playoff systems. In 2004, it implemented the postseason structure from which the Climax Series is based. After three seasons, the CL adopted the same system in 2007, creating the current, unified playoff format.
Nobuhiro Matsuda is a Japanese professional baseball player for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
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Sho Iwasaki is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Chunichi Dragons in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. He formerly played for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
Kodai Senga is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
Yuito Mori is a professional Japanese baseball player. He plays pitcher for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
Interleague play, officially titled Nippon Life Interleague Play for event sponsor Nippon Life, is an event consisting of 108 regular-season baseball games played between Central League (CL) and Pacific League (PL) teams in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Prior to 2005, matchups between CL and PL teams occurred only during spring training, the All-Star Series, a short-lived exhibition tournament called the Suntory Cup, and the Japan Series. Central League teams were reluctant to implement regular-season interleague play as it would reduce the money generated from games played against the Yomiuri Giants, the hugely popular CL team that generates the most money in Japanese baseball. However, during the 2004 NPB realignment, the merger of two PL teams that were struggling financially, the rumor of a second PL team merger, and talks of contracting and restructuring the two-league system into one ten-team league prompted the suggestion of interleague play as a possible solution. Team representatives eventually approved one merger, agreed to maintain the two-league system, and approved to hold interleague regular-season games during the 2005 season.
The 2019 Nippon Professional Baseball season began on March 29. It is the 70th season since Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) was reorganized in 1950. There are 12 teams NPB, split evenly between the Central League and Pacific League. The 2019 NPB season is 143 games long; teams in each league will play 125 games against each other and 18 interleague games. The regular season was scheduled to end on September 24 except for any make-up games scheduled after it; the regular season eventually concluded on September 30. The top three teams in each league proceed to the Climax Series, NPB's postseason system.
Kotaro Otake is a Japanese Professional baseball pitcher for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball.
The 2020 Pacific League Climax Series (PLCS) was Nippon Professional Baseball's (NPB) playoff series to decide which Pacific League (PL) team would advance to the 2020 Japan Series. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the PL decided to modify the traditional Climax Series format and eliminate the First Stage series to instead only play one modified Final Stage series: a best-of-five series, with the PL champion receiving an automatic one-win advantage over the league's runner-up. The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, the league's champion, competed against runner-up Chiba Lotte Marines to determine who would advance to the 2020 Japan Series. The series was played from November 14 to 15 at Fukuoka PayPay Dome. With the advantage and two consecutive come-from-behind wins, the Hawks advanced past the Marines to the Japan Series and the Hawks' Akira Nakamura was named the series' Most Valuable Player. SoftBank will compete against the Central League's (CL) regular-season champion, the Yomiuri Giants, in the Japan Series. Because of the pandemic, the CL cancelled their Climax Series altogether, instead opting to send their regular-season champion.
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The 2021 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the 72nd season of professional baseball in Japan since Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) was reorganized in 1950. There were 12 NPB teams, split evenly between the Central League and Pacific League.
The 2021 Pacific League Climax Series (PLCS) was a set of two consecutive playoff series in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). The First Stage began on November 6 and the Final Stage concluded on November 12. The First Stage was a best-of-three series between the second-place Chiba Lotte Marines and the third-place Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. The Final Series was a best-of-six with the Orix Buffaloes, the Pacific League champion, being awarded a one-win advantage against the Marines, the winner of the First Stage. The Buffaloes advanced to the 2021 Japan Series to compete against the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, the 2021 Central League Climax Series winner.
The 2021 Central League Climax Series (CLCS) was a set of two consecutive playoff series in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). The First Stage began on November 6 and the Final Stage concluded on November 12. The First Stage was a best-of-three series between the second-place Hanshin Tigers and the third-place Yomiuri Giants. The Final Series was a best-of-six with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, the Central League champion, being awarded a one-win advantage against the Giants, the winner of the First Stage. The Swallows advanced to the 2021 Japan Series to compete against the Orix Buffaloes, the 2021 Pacific League Climax Series winner.
The 2021 Japan Series was the championship series of Nippon Professional Baseball's 2021 season. The 72nd edition of the Japan Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the Orix Buffaloes and Tokyo Yakult Swallows, the winners of the Pacific and Central League's Climax Series, respectively. Both teams were the winners of their respective league's regular season championship.
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