The 2010 Japan Series was the
Nippon Professional Baseball
is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball".
The roots of the league ...
(NPB) championship series for the
2010 season. It was the 61st
Japan Series
The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series between the winning cl ...
and featured the
Pacific League
The , or , or the , due to sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the a ...
champions, the
Chiba Lotte Marines
The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba, Chiba, Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings, Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. The Marines were a founding member of the Pacific Le ...
, against the
Central League
The or , also known as the for sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League i ...
champions, the
Chunichi Dragons
The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011 ...
.
Climax Series
Summary
Background
Chiba Lotte Marines
In what was a roller coaster of a year for seemingly the entire Pacific League, the Chiba Lotte Marines finished third in the league behind the second-place Saitama Seibu Lions and the first-place Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. In the first round, Lotte earned the nickname "Miracle Marines" after pulling off two extra-inning wins, the first of which came thanks to a four-run 9th inning comeback against Seibu. Lotte continued their comeback trend after rallying from a 3-games-to-1 deficit against the Hawks to win the Pacific League title, their first since 2005.
The team was led by a rookie manager, former player
Norifumi Nishimura. Many of the team's components from the 2005 championship year were still in place, as
Tsuyoshi Nishioka,
Toshiaki Imae,
Saburo Ohmura, and
Kazuya Fukuura were all still in the lineup and contributing. New faces littered the pitching staff and the lineup, as
Yoshihisa Naruse won 13 games and was the ace of the staff, but the Marines' true pitching strength came from the back end of the bullpen, with one-time Major Leaguer
Yasuhiko Yabuta
is a Japanese former baseball pitcher.
Yabuta made his professional debut with the Marines in 1996, and spent 12 years with the organization. He competed in the 2006 World Baseball Classic and struck out Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon, and ...
,
Takuya Furuya and
Tatsuya Uchi, all potent middle relievers, setting up for starter-turned-closer
Hiroyuki Kobayashi.
Chunichi Dragons
The Dragons had been perennial contenders in the Central League, but had been ousted in the Climax Series by the Giants each of the last two years. Chunichi took first place in the CL and defeated their rivals to reach the Japan Series, needing just four games to do so. Chunichi owned the lowest team ERA in the league at just 3.29, but were next to last in stolen bases and in team batting average.
Despite using 13 different starters during the season, the Dragons still had a potent pitching staff. Taiwanese lefty
Wei-Yin Chen
Wei-Yin Chen (; born July 21, 1985) is a Taiwanese former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles and Miami Marlins, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Chunichi Dragons, Ch ...
led the team with 13 wins, while
Kazuki Yoshimi had 12. Like the Marines, the Dragons' strength was the back of their bullpen.
Takuya Asao and Akifumi Takahashi made for a potent two-headed relief monster, as they combined for 78 holds.
Hitoki Iwase
Hitoki Iwase (岩瀬 仁紀, born November 10, 1974) is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) from 1999 to 2018 for the Chunichi Dragons. He holds the NPB record for career saves and ...
, the team's longtime closer, recorded 42 saves in 2010.
Game summaries
Game 1
Starting on short rest after the deciding Game 7 win, Naruse was pegged as the Game 1 starter against veteran Kazuki Yoshimi. After matching 1-2-3 innings in the first, Lotte scored the first run of the Japan Series on a two-out RBI double by
Shoitsu Omatsu that scored Saburo. However, the Dragons would strike back in the bottom of the inning, as hometown hero
Kazuhiro Wada and venerable catcher
Motonobu Tanishige, playing in his 5th Japan Series, each hit solo home runs for a 2-1 lead.
However, that lead would he short-lived as Lotte countered with two more runs in the top of the 3rd. Rookie outfielder Ikuhiro Kiyota hit a solo blast of his own after hitting just two in the regular season to tie the score. Tadahito Iguchi legged out an infield single to continue the assault, and Saburo was hit with a pitch to set up 2005 Japan Series MVP Toshiaki Imae. Imae got a base hit that scored Iguchi, but Saburo was thrown out at third trying to get the extra base.
Kim Tae-Kyun was hit with a pitch to put Imae in scoring position, but
Yoshifumi Okada could not drive him home. Even still, the Marines led, 3-2. That would prove to be the end of the day for Yoshimi, as he gave up three runs on six hits in three innings. He also walked one, struck out two, and hit two batters.
Naruse kept the Chunichi bats off the board through the 5th inning, as he did not let another Dragons runner reach scoring position. The Pacific League Climax Series MVP gave up two runs on four hits, with six strikeouts and a walk on 88 pitches (he was pinch-hit for in the 6th). The Marines bullpen also held the line, as Yabuta, Uchi, and Yoshihiro Itoh all delivered perfect innings, with Yabuta and Itoh each striking out two batters.
Meanwhile, the Marines batters had a little better luck with the Chunichi bullpen, namely Masafumi Hirai. Nishioka hit an RBI single to score Okada, who had reached and was sacrificed to second for the Marines' run in the 6th. In the 7th, Iguchi supplied the offense himself with a solo home run, the fourth total in the game. The blast ran the score to 5-2.
Hiroyuki Kobayashi came on to slam the door like he had since his resurgence as a closer in the second half of the season. Pinch-hitter Kei Nomoto singled his way on to begin the 9th, but he was erased as part of a 6-4-3 double play. Wada also singled, but was thrown out attempting to stretch it into a double to end the game.
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4
Game 5
Game 6
Nicknamed "There are ties in baseball without
Bud Selig
Allan Huber "Bud" Selig
(; born July 30, 1934) is an American baseball executive who currently serves as the commissioner emeritus of baseball. Previously, he served as the ninth commissioner of baseball from 1998 to 2015. He initially served a ...
" after the
2002 MLB All-Star Game friendly that ended as a tie game, because of the result of this game, the 5:43 game was the longest game in history, and in theory is least likely to be eclipsed following a 2018 rule change standardising the limit on extra innings across the regular season and postseason to 12 innings.
Lotte LF Ikuhiro Kiyota's one-out double off Takuya Asao was the game-tying hit in the top of the eighth to knot the game up at 2-2. The teams played 7 1/2 scoreless innings after that, and was tied at the end of the postseason extra innings cap, the 15th inning.
Under the rules of the series, Chunichi had to win Game 7 in order to push it to a Game 8.
Game 7
See also
*
2010 Korean Series
*
2010 World Series
The 2010 World Series was the World Series, championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2010 Major League Baseball season, 2010 season. The 106th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American L ...
References
{{Chiba Lotte Marines
Japan Series
Japan Series
The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series between the winning cl ...
Chiba Lotte Marines postseason
Chunichi Dragons postseason