2021 Japan Series
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| 2021 Japan Series | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Dates | November 20–27 | |||||||||
| MVP | Yuhei Nakamura (Yakult) | |||||||||
| FSA | Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix) | |||||||||
| Broadcast | ||||||||||
| Television | NHK-BS1 (Games 1–6) Fuji TV (Games 1, 4–5) TV Tokyo (Game 2) TV Asahi (Game 3) TBS (Game 6) | |||||||||
The 2021 Japan Series (known as the SMBC Nippon Series 2021 for sponsorship reasons) was the championship series of Nippon Professional Baseball for the 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.
A mid-season hiatus for the 2020 Summer Olympics and other game postponements required the Japan Series to be pushed back into late November, requiring some games to be played at stadiums other than the team's usual home fields due to scheduling conflicts. The series began on November 20 and concluded on November 27. The Swallows won the series, 4–2. It was their sixth Japan Series title in franchise history and their first since 2001. Yuhei Nakamura of Yakult won the Japan Series Most Valuable Player Award. This would also be the first time since the 2016 Japan Series and the second time since the 2013 Japan Series that there would be a new champion as the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks failed to qualify for the playoffs. This would also mark the first time since the 2012 Japan Series that a Central League team won the Japan Series. The teams would meet again the following year, but Orix came out on top, 4–2–1.
The Orix Buffaloes finished the regular season in first place to win the Pacific League (PL) pennant, their first league title since 1996 and 13th overall. Orix started the season slow but went on to finish first in interleague play in June. They also won 11 straight winning decisions, their longest streak in 37 years, and spent the majority of the summer in first place.[1] The championship advanced the Buffaloes directly to the Final Stage of the PL Climax Series to host the second-place Chiba Lotte Marines, the winner of the First Stage.[2] The Buffaloes defeated the Marines in the best-of-seven series, winning the series, 3–0–1 (including the one-game advantage).[3]
In the Central League (CL), the Tokyo Yakult Swallows were awarded the league pennant. The championship was their first title since 2015 and eighth overall.[4] The Swallows advanced directly to the Final Stage of the CL Climax Series to host the Yomiuri Giants, the winner of the First Stage.[5] As in the PL Final Stage, Yakult also advanced to the Japan Series by defeating the Giants, also with a 3–0–1 result.[3][6]
| First Stage | Final Stage | Japan Series | |||||||||||
| 1 | Tokyo Yakult Swallows | 3 | |||||||||||
| 2 | Hanshin Tigers | 0 | 3 | Yomiuri Giants | 0 | ||||||||
| 3 | Yomiuri Giants | 2 | CL1 | Tokyo Yakult Swallows | 4 | ||||||||
| PL1 | Orix Buffaloes | 2 | |||||||||||
| 1 | Orix Buffaloes | 3 | |||||||||||
| 2 | Chiba Lotte Marines | 1 | 2 | Chiba Lotte Marines | 0 | ||||||||
| 3 | Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles | 0 | |||||||||||
Series notes
The Buffaloes and Swallows both finished in last place in their respective leagues in the two seasons prior to 2021.[7] It is the first time that the two last-place teams from the previous season played each other in the Japan Series.[8] It is also only the second time since 2010 that the Japan Series didn't feature either the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks nor the Yomiuri Giants, and the first time since 2016 that the Pacific League representative wasn't the Hawks. Orix's last Japan Series appearance and title was in 1996, when Ichiro Suzuki helped to lead the then-named BlueWave to victory. Since the championship, the team had merged with the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes (as part of the 2004 NPB realignment), and the team had finished with a winning record only four times from 2000 to 2020. The Swallows' last Japan Series title came more recently in 2001, against the defunct Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, making this matchup, technically speaking, a rematch of the 2001 Japan Series. Yakult also won the Central League title in 2015 and advanced to the 2015 Japan Series, but lost to the Hawks. Since then, Yakult had only one winning season from 2016 to 2020, in 2018, where they were swept by the Yomiuri Giants in the first stage of that year's Climax Series.[7] In their only meeting during interleague play in June, Orix won the series 2–1[9] The two teams have only met each other in the Japan Series twice: 1978 and 1995, with the Swallows winning both.[3] During the 1995 series, the teams' two current managers, Yakult's Shingo Takatsu and Orix's Satoshi Nakajima, played against each other for their respective teams. Takatsu also recorded a save for the Swallows in the clinching game of the 2001 series against the Kintetsu Buffaloes prior to their merger with the BlueWave.[7]
In mid-July, NPB entered a nearly four-week hiatus so its players could participate in the 2020 Summer Olympics.[10] This break, along with games cancelled or postponed by weather or COVID-19, required the Japan Series to be pushed back into late November.[11] Prior to the start of the series, the two managers did not agree to name probable starting pitchers before each game, the first time since 2017, and therefore the teams were not required to do so.[12] The home field advantage for the Japan Series alternates between the Pacific and Central leagues every year. For this series, it was the PL's turn to hold the advantage, so home field was awarded to the Buffaloes.[13] The three games hosted by Yakult, Games 3–5, were played at Tokyo Dome instead of the Swallows' traditional home field, Meiji Jingu Stadium. With the postseason delayed by one week due to the COVID pandemic, a scheduling conflict arose with an amateur baseball tournament. During the regular season, the Swallows were forced to play several home games in August and September in Tokyo Dome as well because of Jingu's proximity to the Olympics and Paralympic games being held at the time.[14] Additionally, Orix held the last game of the series at Hotto Motto Field in Kobe instead of Kyocera Dome Osaka because of scheduling conflicts with AAA concerts.[15] Hotto Motto Field was the home stadium of the Orix BlueWave before merging with the Kintetsu Buffaloes. After merging, the team split their home games between Kobe and Osaka, however, Orix has played less than ten games in total at the stadium in the previous two seasons.[16] Due to COVID, attendance for the games was limited to 50% of each stadium's maximum capacity, however approximately 6,000 extra fans that could show proof of vaccination were allowed into Games 1 and 3.[17][18] For the eighth consecutive year, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) acted as the sponsor and held the naming rights for the Japan Series, which was officially known as the "2021 SMBC Japan Series".[19]
Unlike the 2021 regular season and Climax Series games that ended after nine innings because of COVID-19 restrictions, Japan Series games were allowed to go the regulation limit of 12 innings before concluding with a tie. Game 7 of the Japan Series was set for November 28. The first five games were played in domed stadiums. However, a contingency plan was set by NPB in case Game 6, 7, or potentially 8 were postponed by rain, setting the last possible date of the series for November 30. Under NPB rules, if there was even one tie game, the last day would be November 29 because of a travel day for a possible Game 9 (which has never happened). If Games 6 or 7 were postponed by rain, November 30 would be the last possible date for the series. The Series could not be played into December, unlike Taiwan's CPBL, which established a last possible date of December 5. If inclement weather did not allowed for seven games to be played by November 30, the team with the most wins after the November 30 game was completed would have been declared the winner. If a game needed to be played on November 30 and was tied after 12 innings, the 13th inning onward would have used the World Baseball Softball Confederation's extra innings rule that starts both teams with baserunners on first and second base with no outs, and would have continued until a winner was decided.[20]
Summary
Yakult won the series, 4–2.
| Game | Date | Score | Location | Time | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | November 20 | Tokyo Yakult Swallows − 3, Orix Buffaloes − 4 | Kyocera Dome | 3:46 | 19,297[21] |
| 2 | November 21 | Tokyo Yakult Swallows − 2, Orix Buffaloes − 0 | Kyocera Dome | 2:56 | 17,075[22] |
| 3 | November 23 | Orix Buffaloes − 4, Tokyo Yakult Swallows − 5 | Tokyo Dome | 3:45 | 24,565[23] |
| 4 | November 24 | Orix Buffaloes – 1, Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 2 | Tokyo Dome | 2:50 | 20,617[24] |
| 5 | November 25 | Orix Buffaloes – 6, Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 5 | Tokyo Dome | 3:16 | 20,580[25] |
| 6 | November 27 | Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 2, Orix Buffaloes – 1 (12) | Hotto Motto Field | 5:00 | 15,239[26] |
