In professional baseball, the final stage of the climax series, which advanced to the Japan series, began on the 12th, with Yakult and Hanshin in the Central League and Orix and Softbank in the Pacific League.
In the final stage of the Climax Series, the winning team of both the Central and Pacific leagues will play against the team that has won the first stage.
In the Central League, Yakult, who won consecutive titles, and Hanshin, who won the first stage from 3rd place, will play at Jingu Stadium.
This season, Yakult is slightly ahead of Hanshin with 13 wins, 11 losses and 1 draw.
Yakult, aiming to be Japan's number one for the second consecutive year, hit 56 home runs, and the batting line centered on No. 4 Munetaka Murakami, who won the first triple crown in Reiwa, marked the top score in 12 teams. .
Murakami suffered from a slump in batting at the end of the regular season, but in the last game he hit No. 56 home run, and whether he can bat in a short-term decisive game is the key.
On the other hand, Hanshin, who advanced to the final stage for the first time in 3 years, started the season with 9 consecutive losses, but managed to come back to 3rd place, and from there, they have made it through the first stage and are showing momentum.
In the first stage, the starting pitchers made the game solid, and the relievers, including Kyomi Yuasa, pitched well and won the close game.
It seems that the pitchers, such as the starting pitcher Yuki Nishi, who will start in the first game, will be a point.
In the Pacific League, Orix, who won the championship for the second year in a row, and Softbank, who ranked second in the regular season, will play at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Both teams competed for the championship until the final game of the regular season, and in the end, Orix won the championship with 15 wins and 10 losses in a head-to-head match, even though the winning percentages were tied.
Orix will start pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, an absolute ace who has won four major titles for starting pitchers for the first time in history in the first game for the second year in a row.
Softbank has 3 wins and 2 losses this season, but their ERA is 1.93 and they won a shutout victory in their last match on September 17th.
On the other hand, Softbank's batting line was captain Yuki Yanagida, who scored a three-run in the first game of the first stage.
He hit a bases-loaded home run in the second game, and including the regular season, he is on the momentum with four consecutive home runs.
Attention will be paid to the match between pitcher Yamamoto and Yanagida in the first match.
The final stage will be a 6-game system, with the winning team given a one-win advantage, and if they win four first, they can advance to the Japan Series.