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2021 Nippon Professional Baseball season

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72nd annual season of Nippon Professional Baseball

This article is about the 2021 Nippon Professional Baseball season only. For information onall of baseball, see2021 in baseball.

Sports season

2021 NPB season
League	Nippon Professional Baseball
Sport	Baseball
Duration	March 26 – November 21
Number of games	143
Number of teams	12
Central League pennant
League champions	Tokyo Yakult Swallows
Runners-up	Hanshin Tigers
SeasonMVP	Munetaka Murakami (Yakult)
Pacific League pennant
League champions	Orix Buffaloes
Runners-up	Chiba Lotte Marines
SeasonMVP	Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix)
Climax Series
CL champions	Tokyo Yakult Swallows
CL runners-up	Yomiuri Giants
PL champions	Orix Buffaloes
PL runners-up	Chiba Lotte Marines
Japan Series
Champions	Tokyo Yakult Swallows
Runners-up	Orix Buffaloes
FinalsMVP	Yuhei Nakamura(Yakult)
NPB seasons
← 2020 2022 →

The2021 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the 72nd season of professionalbaseball inJapan sinceNippon Professional Baseball (NPB) was reorganized in1950. There were 12 NPB teams, split evenly between theCentral League andPacific League.

Following theAll-Star Series held on 16–17 July, the regular season went on hiatus in preparation for the2020 Summer Olympics baseball tournament. The season resumed on 13 August. In the postseason, theTokyo Yakult Swallows defeated theOrix Buffaloes in theJapan Series.

Regular season standings

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Central League regular season standings^[1]
Rank	Team	G	W	L	T	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
1	Tokyo Yakult Swallows	143	73	52	18	.584	—	36–29–7	37–23–11
2	Hanshin Tigers	143	77	56	10	.579	0	36–31–4	41–25–6
3	Yomiuri Giants	143	61	62	20	.496	11	32–30–10	29–32–10

4	Hiroshima Toyo Carp	143	63	68	12	.481	13	30–34–8	33–34–4
5	Chunichi Dragons	143	55	71	17	.437	18½	33–27–11	22–44–6
6	Yokohama DeNA BayStars	143	54	73	16	.425	20	27–37–7	27–36–9

Pacific League regular season standings^[2]
Rank	Team	G	W	L	T	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
1	Orix Buffaloes	143	70	55	18	.560	—	38–22–12	32–33–6
2	Chiba Lotte Marines	143	67	57	19	.540	2½	33–32–7	34–25–12
3	Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles	143	66	62	15	.514	5½	31–33–8	35–29–7

4	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks	143	60	62	21	.492	8½	31–29–11	29–33–10
5	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters	143	55	68	20	.447	14	25–36–10	30–32–10
6	Saitama Seibu Lions	143	55	70	18	.440	15	30–34–7	25–36–11

Interleague

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Regular season interleague standings^[3]
Team	G	W	L	T	Win%	GB	Home	Away
Orix Buffaloes	18	12	5	1	.706	—	7–1–1	5–4
Hanshin Tigers	18	11	7	0	.611	1½	3–6	8–1
Yokohama DeNA BayStars	18	9	6	3	.600	2	6–2–1	3–4–2
Chunichi Dragons	18	9	7	2	.563	2½	5–2–2	4–5
Tokyo Yakult Swallows	18	10	8	0	.556	2½	5–4	5–4
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles	18	9	8	1	.529	3	3–5–1	6–3
Saitama Seibu Lions	18	7	7	4	.500	3½	5–3–1	2–4–3
Chiba Lotte Marines	18	8	9	1	.471	4	5–4	3–5–1
Yomiuri Giants	18	7	8	3	.467	4	4–3–2	3–5–1
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters	18	7	11	0	.389	5½	2–7	5–4
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks	18	5	9	4	.357	5½	3–4–2	2–5–2
Hiroshima Toyo Carp	18	3	12	3	.200	8	2–6–1	1–6–2

Climax Series

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Main articles:2021 Pacific League Climax Series and2021 Central League Climax Series


First stage			Final stage			Japan Series



Central League			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

Pacific League			1	Orix Buffaloes	3

2	Chiba Lotte Marines	1	2	Chiba Lotte Marines	0

3	Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles	0

First stage

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Central League

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Yomiuri Giants won the series, 2–0.

Game	Date	Score	Location	Time	Attendance
1	November 6	Yomiuri Giants − 4, Hanshin Tigers − 0	Koshien Stadium	3:11	21,478^[4]
2	November 7	Yomiuri Giants − 4, Hanshin Tigers − 2	Koshien Stadium	3:33	21,492^[5]

Pacific League

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Chiba Lotte Marines won the series, 1−0−1 as a higher seed.

Game	Date	Score	Location	Time	Attendance
1	November 6	Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles − 4,Chiba Lotte Marines − 5	Zozo Marine Stadium	3:10	14,904^[6]
2	November 7	Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles − 4, Chiba Lotte Marines − 4	Zozo Marine Stadium	3:07	14,891^[7]

Final stage

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The series started with a 1–0 advantage for the first-placed team.

Central League

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Tokyo Yakult Swallows won the series, 3−0−1 as a higher seed.

Game	Date	Score	Location	Time	Attendance
1	November 10	Tokyo Yakult Swallows − 4, Yomiuri Giants − 0	Meiji Jingu Stadium	2:38	17,792^[8]
2	November 11	Tokyo Yakult Swallows − 5, Yomiuri Giants − 0	Meiji Jingu Stadium	3:19	17,230^[9]
3	November 12	Tokyo Yakult Swallows − 2, Yomiuri Giants − 2	Meiji Jingu Stadium	3:08	19,022^[10]

Pacific League

[edit]

Orix Buffaloes won the series, 3−0−1 as a higher seed.

Game	Date	Score	Location	Time	Attendance
1	November 10	Orix Buffaloes − 1, Chiba Lotte Marines − 0	Kyocera Dome Osaka	2:23	17,915^[11]
2	November 11	Orix Buffaloes − 2, Chiba Lotte Marines − 0	Kyocera Dome Osaka	2:42	17,913^[12]
3	November 12	Orix Buffaloes − 3, Chiba Lotte Marines − 3	Kyocera Dome Osaka	3:33	18,006^[13]

Japan Series

[edit]

Main article:2021 Japan Series

Tokyo Yakult Swallows won the series, 4–2.

Game	Date	Score	Location	Time	Attendance
1	November 20	Orix Buffaloes – 4, Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 3	Kyocera Dome Osaka	3:46	19,297^[14]
2	November 21	Orix Buffaloes – 0,Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 2	Kyocera Dome Osaka	2:56	17,075^[15]
3	November 23	Tokyo Yakult Swallows − 5, Orix Buffaloes − 4	Tokyo Dome	3:45	24,565^[16]
4	November 24	Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 2, Orix Buffaloes – 1	Tokyo Dome	2:50	20,617^[17]
5	November 25	Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 5,Orix Buffaloes – 6	Tokyo Dome	3:16	20,580^[18]
6	November 27	Orix Buffaloes – 1,Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 2(12)	Hotto Motto Field	5:00	15,239^[19]

League leaders

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Central League

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Batting leaders^[20]
Stat	Player	Team	Total
Batting average	Seiya Suzuki	Hiroshima Toyo Carp	.317
Home runs	Munetaka Murakami Kazuma Okamoto	Tokyo Yakult Swallows Yomiuri Giants	39
Runs batted in	Kazuma Okamoto	Yomiuri Giants	113
Hits	Kōji Chikamoto	Hanshin Tigers	178
Stolen bases	Takumu Nakano	Hanshin Tigers	30
On-base percentage	Seiya Suzuki	Hiroshima Toyo Carp	.433

Pitching leaders^[21]
Stat	Player	Team	Total
Wins	Kōyō Aoyagi Aren Kuri	Hanshin Tigers Hiroshima Toyo Carp	13
Earned run average	Yūya Yanagi	Chunichi Dragons	2.20
Strikeouts	Yūya Yanagi	Chunichi Dragons	168
Saves	Robert Suárez	Hanshin Tigers	42
Holds	Noboru Shimizu	Tokyo Yakult Swallows	53
Winning percentage	Kōyō Aoyagi	Hanshin Tigers	.684

Pacific League

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Batting leaders^[22]
Stat	Player	Team	Total
Batting average	Masataka Yoshida	Orix Buffaloes	.339
Home runs	Yutaro Sugimoto	Orix Buffaloes	32
Runs batted in	Hiroaki Shimauchi	Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles	96
Hits	Takashi Ogino	Chiba Lotte Marines	169
Stolen bases	Sōsuke Genda Takashi Ogino Koshiro Wada Haruki Nishikawa	Saitama Seibu Lions Chiba Lotte Marines Chiba Lotte Marines Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters	24
On-base percentage	Masataka Yoshida	Orix Buffaloes	.429

Pitching leaders^[23]
Stat	Player	Team	Total
Wins	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	Orix Buffaloes	18
Earned run average	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	Orix Buffaloes	1.39
Strikeouts	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	Orix Buffaloes	206
Saves	Naoya Masuda	Chiba Lotte Marines	38
Holds	Mizuki Hori	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters	42
Winning percentage	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	Orix Buffaloes	.783

References

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^"2021 Central League Standings".Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. RetrievedOctober 28, 2021.
^"2021 Pacific League Standings".Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. RetrievedOctober 23, 2021.
^"2021年度交流戦" [2021 Interleague Play] (in Japanese).Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedJune 18, 2021.
^"Saturday, November 6, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 7, 2021.
^"Sunday, November 7, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 8, 2021.
^"Saturday, November 6, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 7, 2021.
^"Sunday, November 7, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 8, 2021.
^"Wednesday, November 10, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 11, 2021.
^"Thursday, November 11, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 12, 2021.
^"Friday, November 12, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 13, 2021.
^"Wednesday, November 10, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 11, 2021.
^"Thursday, November 11, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 12, 2021.
^"Friday, November 12, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 13, 2021.
^"Saturday, November 20, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 21, 2021.
^"Sunday, November 21, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 21, 2021.
^"Tuesday, November 23, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 24, 2021.
^"Wednesday, November 24, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 25, 2021.
^"Thursday, November 25, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 27, 2021.
^"Saturday, November 27, 2021".Nippon Professional Baseball. RetrievedNovember 27, 2021.
^"2021 Central League Qualifiers for Batting Championship".npb.jp.
^"2021 Central League Qualifiers for Earned-Run Average Title & Top Relief Pitchers".npb.jp.
^"2021 Pacific League Qualifiers for Batting Championship".npb.jp.
^"2021 Pacific League Qualifiers for Earned-Run Average Title & Top Relief Pitchers".npb.jp.

v t e Nippon Professional Baseball seasons
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Japan Series Climax Series