The 2024 was the championship series of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the season. The 75th edition of the Japan Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of the Central League (CL) and the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Pacific League (PL). The series began on October 26 and ended on November 3 with the BayStars winning in six games. It was the BayStars' first Japan Series appearance and win since 2017 and 1998 respectively, and the Hawks' first Japan Series appearance since 2020.
The Hawks were the best team in NPB all season and won the PL title, which advanced them directly to the final stage of the PL Climax Series where they swept the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters to advance to the Japan Series. The BayStars finished the regular season third in the CL, allowing them to face off against the Hanshin Tigers in the first stage of the CL Climax Series. After sweeping the Tigers in two games, DeNA took the CL-winning Yomiuri Giants to an ultimate Game 6 in the final stage and won to clinch their Japan Series berth.
SoftBank won the first two games of the series and extended their record consecutive Japan Series win streak to fourteen games. DeNA broke the streak, however, and won the next four games. In that stretch, they kept the Hawks scoreless for 29 consecutive innings, a Japan Series record. DeNA's win has been called one of the biggest upsets in Japan Series history. The championship was their first in 26 years and their third overall. Masayuki Kuwahara was named the Japan Series Most Valuable Player.
Background
The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks clinched their first Pacific League (PL) championship in four years and 20th overall on September 23. Hiroki Kokubo led the Hawks to the pennant in his first year as the team's manager. SoftBank led the league for the majority of the season, never relinquishing first place after taking the top spot on April 4th. SoftBank won their final game of the season, allowing Kokubo to break the record for most wins in single regular season by a first-year manager. The 91-win season was only the thirteenth time a team won 90 or more games in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) history and the first since they won 94 games in . Several Hawks players earned end-of-season PL superlatives. On offense, Hotaka Yamakawa finished the season with 34 home runs and 99 runs batted in, the most by a wide margin. Kensuke Kondo's .314 batting average earned him the PL batting title and the PL MVP award, and Ukyo Shuto stole the most bases. Among pitchers, Liván Moinelo had the best earned run average (ERA) among PL starting pitchers with a 1.88 ERA in his first season as a starter and Kohei Arihara ended the season tied for the most wins, with 14.
As winners of the Pacific League, SoftBank advanced directly to the final stage of the PL Climax Series where they hosted the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, the PL runner-up and eventual winner of the first stage. SoftBank began the best-of-six series with a one-win advantage and swept the next three games against Nippon-Ham to advance to the Japan Series.
In the Central League (CL), the Hiroshima Toyo Carp were narrowly in first place at the end of August. They had a disastrous September, however, losing 20 of 25 games, and quickly dropped in the rankings. As the season came to a close, Hiroshima continued to lose. A fourth Carp loss in a row on October 2 confirmed that the Yokohama DeNA BayStars would clinch third place and their third straight trip to the Climax Series. First-year team captain Shugo Maki and eventual 2024 batting champion Tyler Austin powered the DeNA offense, while ace Katsuki Azuma led the pitching staff with thirteen wins. From the start of the season, Azuma won eight straight games, helping the BayStars reach second place by the end of June. A month later, however, the team was in the midst of a nine-game losing streak and found themselves knocked down to fourth. Still in fourth and outside of Climax Series qualification on August 27, Maki introduced the motto "determined to win" to the team. The BayStars immediately went on a five-game win streak and finished the next month with a September record of . This push along with Hiroshima's fall secured DeNA a playoff appearance. They finished the season eight games behind the pennant-winning Yomiuri Giants.
As third-place finishers, the BayStars were the road team for all games played in the CL Climax Series. In the first stage, a best-of-three series, they defeated the second-place Hanshin Tigers in two games at Koshien Stadium. The sweep advanced DeNA to the final stage, where they faced off against the CL-champion Yomiuri Giants at the Tokyo Dome. The BayStars won the first three games of the series, giving them five straight Climax Series wins. The Giants won the second two games, however, with the one game advantage afforded to the league winner, the series was tied at three games a piece going into the final Game 6. DeNA won the game and series with a come-from-behind win and clinched their first Japan Series berth since 2017.
Series notes
SoftBank is considered to be a current NPB dynasty, winning seven of the ten Japan Series from 2011 to 2020. This series was their first Japan Series appearance since 2020, one they finished in a four-game sweep to earn their eleventh championship. Including the 2020 series, the Hawks won their last twelve straight Japan Series games coming into Game 1 of this season's championship series.
DeNA's last appearance in the Japan Series was seven years ago in the 2017 Japan Series, a series they lost to SoftBank that shared many parallels to the 2024 rematch. BayStars manager Daisuke Miura was a starting pitcher for the team the last time that they won the title 26 years ago in 1998, only their second championship. That season also marks the last time the BayStars won the league pennant, an NPB-record 28 years.
In their only regular season meeting during interleague play in June, SoftBank won the series . Both teams led their respective leagues in runs scored, but while the Hawks led the PL in pitching and defense, the BayStars led both leagues in errors and were fifth worst of the six teams in the CL in runs allowed. Along with the 2010 Japan Series champion Chiba Lotte Marines and the 2017 BayStars, DeNA is only the third team in NPB history to advance through the Climax Series as a third seed and only the ninth team to reach the Japan Series without the placing first in the regular season. They finished the regular season only two games above .500, for a final winning percentage of .507, the lowest of any Japan Series team. Conversely, the Hawks finished the season with a record of , 42 games above .500 and a .650 winning percentage. The difference between the two teams' winning percentages is the largest in Japan Series history.
Home field advantage for the Japan Series alternates between the Pacific and Central leagues every year. For this series, it was the CL's turn to hold the advantage, so home field was awarded to the BayStars. The designated hitter rule was only in effect for games three, four, and five played at Mizuho PayPay Dome, as the CL has not adopted the rule. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) sponsored the event for the eleventh consecutive year and held the naming rights for the series, with its full title being "SMBC Nippon Series 2024".
Summary
Game summaries Game 1
Before the start of Game 1, Nobuteru Maeda of the band Tube sang the Japanese national anthem, and Hall of Famer Hiroshi Gondoh, the former BayStars manager that led the team to its last Japan Series championship in 1998, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. The BayStars' starting pitcher was Andre Jackson, while the Hawks used Arihara. The game was the first home contest in nine games for the BayStars dating back to the start of the CL Climax Series. Arihara pitched seven scoreless innings for the Hawks, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out four batters. Playing in a CL ballpark with the designated hitter rule not in effect also meant that Arihara would bat. In the second inning, Jackson issued a one-out walk followed by a Taisei Makihara double. With runners at second and third bases, DeNA opted to intentionally walk the next batter to load the bases and instead pitch to the inexperienced Arihara. The pitcher, however, hit a ground ball single to score the runner from third, and Makihara also scored when the player fielding the ball bobbled it, giving the Hawks a 2–0 lead. The two runs batted in (RBI) were the first of Arihara's professional career. Jackson's next strike to end the inning was the first of five straight strike outs, tying a Japan Series record. In his -inning start, Jackson struck out a total of nine batters, issued four walks and allowed two runs on three hits.
In the ninth inning, two SoftBank singles put runners at first and second bases and Kenta Imamiya hit a double to score both. A throwing error on the play allowed him to advance to third base. Ryoya Kurihara then hit a single to score Imamiya and extend the Hawks' lead to 5–0. These extra three runs would prove important when DeNA scored their first runs of the series in bottom of the inning. Tyler Austin lead the inning off with a double off of Hawks closer Roberto Osuna. Koki Kajiwara and Keito Mori then drove in two runs with consecutive hits to bring the BayStars within three. Later in the inning, a throwing error by Osuna allowed DeNA to score one more run. The next at bat, Shugo Maki flew out with the potential tying runs on base to end the game 5–3. The win extended the Hawks' record consecutive Japan Series win streak to thirteen games.
Game 2
Wheelchair tennis player Yui Kamiji threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Game 2 featured starting pitchers Liván Moinelo for SoftBank and Shinichi Ohnuki for DeNA. Austin, one of the BayStars' most important offensive players, did not play after being hit in the left foot by a ball in Game 1. In the top of the first inning, all three outs were swinging strikeouts by Ohnuki, however he gave up three hits, including a two-run home run by Hotaka Yamakawa to give the Hawks an early 2–0 lead. Ohnuki was replaced in the third inning after Makihara singled to drive in two more runs. Takuya Kai added one more run to their lead via a sacrifice fly before the end of the inning to extend their lead to 5–0. Ukyo Shuto then reached second on a double and scored on a Yamakawa RBI single the next inning to make it 6–0. After that, BayStars pitchers prevented all of the remaining 16 Hawks batters from reaching base.
Moinelo kept the BayStars scoreless until he started to struggle in the fifth inning. In the inning, DeNA was able to get two men on base starting with a batted ball that hit the Hawks pitcher. Masayuki Kuwahara then hit a double to score both runners. Moinelo continued to pitch into the seventh inning until he was removed from the game after giving up two consecutive singles that ultimately allowed Maki to drive in DeNA's third run via a double. Unlike the previous game, Hawks closer Osuna retired the last three BayStars' batters in the ninth inning to earn himself save and the Hawks the win, their 14th consecutive win in the Japan Series.
Game 3