TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Masahiro Tanaka earned the 204th win of his combined Japanese and U.S. professional baseball career, moving into outright second place on the all-time list, as the Yomiuri Giants routed the Chunichi Dragons 14-1 on Saturday.

Tanaka (4-4) pitched seven innings of one-run ball, allowing four hits and striking out three at Tokyo Dome.

The Giants currently sit second in the Central League behind the reigning champion Hanshin Tigers.

In May, the right-hander tied former New York Yankees teammate Hiroki Kuroda with 203 combined wins in Nippon Professional Baseball and MLB.

The 37-year-old became the fourth pitcher to reach 200 wins across Japan and the United States. Only Yu Darvish of the San Diego Padres stands ahead of him with 208 victories, including 93 with the Nippon Ham Fighters.

Tanaka began his professional career with the Pacific League's Rakuten Eagles in 2007 and made his Yankees debut in 2014, the final year of Kuroda's stint with the club.

He returned to the Eagles in 2021 before moving to the Giants last season.

Hanshin Tigers third baseman Teruaki Sato hit two home runs on Thursday night against the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, bolstering his lead in all three Central League Triple Crown categories.

The 27-year-old went 3 for 4 with two homers and four RBI in Hanshin’s 7-4 victory at Meiji Jingu Stadium. He is now batting .324 with 34 home runs and 91 RBI this season.

Sato opened the scoring with an RBI single against rookie southpaw Shota Masui in the first inning. The hit gave him 500 RBI for his Nippon Professional Baseball career.

Sato then hit his 33rd home run of the year in the third inning, driving a slider from Masui into the right-center field seats. According to NPB+, the solo shot had an exit velocity of 112.1 mph and traveled an estimated 451 feet.

He added No. 34 in the fifth inning, hitting a two-run bomb off right-hander Kengo Matsumoto. It was Sato’s fourth multi-homer game of the campaign.

Sato has now homered in three consecutive games and has four home runs during that span. The stretch moved him three home runs ahead of teammate Shota Morishita for the Central League lead and into a tie with Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks star Ryoya Kurihara for the NPB lead.

Sato also leads the CL with a .324 batting average and 91 RBI, giving him sole possession of first place in batting average, home runs, and RBI. His .400 on-base percentage and .637 slugging percentage also lead the league, putting him atop all three slashline categories.

No Hanshin player has won the Triple Crown since Randy Bass in 1986. Bass batted .389 with 47 home runs and 109 RBI that season, winning his second consecutive CL MVP Award. With a 40-homer season and an MVP Award already under his belt from 2025, Sato has a chance to follow Bass by winning back-to-back MVPs.

The most recent NPB Triple Crown winner was Munetaka Murakami of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in 2022. The current Chicago White Sox infielder batted .318 with 56 home runs and 134 RBI, becoming the first NPB player to win the Triple Crown since Nobuhiko Matsunaka in 2004. At 22 years old, Murakami was also the youngest Triple Crown winner in NPB history, while his 56 home runs set the single-season record for a Japanese-born player.

Sato could also become one of the most prominent Japanese players available to Major League teams this offseason. Because he has not yet reached international free agency, Hanshin would have to make him available through the posting system. That decision will not be announced until after the season.

Sato is in his sixth season with the Tigers after being selected in the first round of the 2020 NPB Draft out of Kinki University. He has been a regular in Hanshin’s lineup since his rookie season and was part of the club’s Japan Series championship team in 2023. After winning the CL MVP in 2025, he represented Samurai Japan at the 2026 World Baseball Classic.

He is now in the midst of his best season yet, chasing a potential Triple Crown with a possible move to MLB looming this offseason.

The story of Negro League baseball is much bigger than the story of players who were denied entry into Major League Baseball. It’s also a story of international influence, cultural exchange, and seeds planted in countries around the world — including Japan.

In 2027, the 100-year connection between Negro League baseball and Japan will be celebrated through the Centennial Tokyo Tour, commemorating the historic 1927 Philadelphia Royal Giants (PRG) tour of Japan.

The tour will bring together the Japan Afro-American Friendship Association USA (JAFA), JAFA Japan, the Biz Mackey Family Foundation, and institutional partners, including Keio University, Meiji Jingu Stadium, the Negro League Baseball Museum, and MLB Japan. At the center of the celebration will be James Raleigh “Biz” Mackey, the legendary Negro League catcher and National Baseball Hall of Famer whose impact reached far beyond the U.S.

TOKYO - Nippon Professional Baseball has decided to introduce the PitchCom wireless communication system from next season and has already notified all 12 clubs, a source with knowledge of the matter said Monday.

The system, which lets catchers and pitchers quickly relay signs without using hand signals, was adopted by Major League Baseball in the 2022 season and was also used at the World Baseball Classic this past March.

The NPB has run pilot tests of PitchCom in farm team games this season in preparation for its introduction at the top level. Its use is expected to be optional, with further trials to be conducted during next year's spring training and preseason games.

PitchCom's adoption by NPB has been supported by members of the Japan national team who used the system during the WBC.

All 12 NPB clubs have already backed the introduction of a pitch clock, further bringing Japanese professional baseball into line with MLB and top-level international competition, although the timing of its introduction has yet to be determined.

It’s fun to think of Tokyo Yakult Swallows pitcher Masanori Ishikawa as kind of an ageless wonder. He’s pitched in NPB for over two decades — longer than some players have been alive — and at 46, the left-hander is the oldest player in the league. 

​The problems with that line of thinking, though, are games such as the one on Thursday night at Jingu Stadium, when Ishikawa was charged with six runs while recording just a single out against the Yomiuri Giants in the top of the first. His fastball topped out at just 132 kph (82 mph), though he may have been hindered by a shoulder issue.

​You have to go back to 2001 to find the last NPB season in which Ishikawa did not play. With Thursday’s brief appearance, he has started at least one game in 25 consecutive seasons.

Ishikawa, who has a career 3.94 ERA in 3,165⅔ innings, all for Yakult, remains popular with fans and as long as he has the desire, it looks like he is going to pitch until the wheels fall off. Based on recent years, however, he looks destined to finish his career tantalizingly close to the 200 wins that would get him into the Meikyukai (Golden Players Club), a secondary Japanese Hall of Fame for batters with 2,000 hits or pitchers who reach 200 wins or 250 saves. Ishikawa is currently 12 wins short.

​Ishikawa is just one of NPB’s crop of 40-somethings, a club that this year consists of eight players still grinding away.

​Players who stay on the field into their 40s remain relatively rare overall due to the natural decline that comes with aging, the physical toll of staying in game shape and the constant churn of younger players in or around their primes vying for spots on the roster. 

​So it is hardly surprising that those who do are not lighting up the box scores en masse day in and day out. 

Still, it’s hard to play that long by accident, as teams have to deem the player at least worthy of a roster spot. 

​Even in MLB, where there are far more teams and players, there were only three players over 40 on active Opening Day rosters, according to Baseball America. One of those players, 42-year-old Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer, turned back the clock on Sunday, striking out 10 and walking over seven shutout frames.

​The members of Japan’s senior circuit in 2026 have mostly been used sparingly.

​The Seibu Lions have the two oldest position players in NPB — 43-year-old Takeya Nakamura and 42-year-old Takumi Kuriyama, who, like Ishikawa, are both in their 25th seasons. 

​Nakamura was once among Japan’s premier sluggers, with three 40-homer campaigns and three more with at least 30 during his career. He has appeared in just 17 games this year.

Nakamura homered on Aug. 21, connecting on a tiebreaking grand slam in the 11th inning against the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, giving him at least one homer in 23 straight seasons. 

​Kuriyama, who will hang up his cleats this year, has appeared in 11 games, including on Sunday, when he played in his retirement game against the Eagles. 

”I did my best to get a hit whenever I was called up to the top team (this season),” Kuriyama said during a news conference before the game. “I learned a lot every day in the ni-gun while playing with players whose goal is to reach the top team.”

With the Lions all wearing Kuriyama’s No. 1 in his honor, the veteran, who is in the Meikyukai, singled in the eighth inning to record the 2,152nd hit of his career. 

The starting pitcher for the Eagles was Takayuki Kishi, another member of this year’s over-40 club, who played alongside Kuriyama and Nakamura with the Lions from 2007 to 2016. The trio won the 2007 Japan Series together. 

Kishi retired Kuriyama in the second inning. 

​“Thank you for throwing such a great ceremony for me today,” Kuriyama said after the game. “Thanks also to the Rakuten fans. Kishi, nice pitch. You are a really great pitcher. I wanted to get a hit, but I could not.”

​Kishi, 41, has made nine starts this season and is 4-4 with a 2.67 ERA in 54 innings, remaining effective in limited duty. Before this year, Kishi had thrown at least 100 innings in five straight seasons. He is just two years removed from posting a 2.83 ERA in 143⅓ frames.  

​Another player over 40 planning to call it quits this year is 42-year-old Orix Buffaloes pitcher Yoshihisa Hirano. A former standout closer and another Meikyukai member, Hirano has 250 NPB saves in addition to the eight he recorded during three seasons in MLB. Hirano has played in two games this season.

”These young kids are leaving me behind,” Hirano, who has also dealt with a thigh issue this season. reportedly told his teammates when he revealed his decision,” according to Nikkan Sports. 

Hirano’s retirement game is scheduled for Sept. 25.

​Meanwhile, former Sawamura Award winner Hideaki Wakui, 40, is 4-2 with a 2.79 ERA in 51⅔ innings in nine appearances for the Chunichi Dragons.

​The other players on the list are the Dragons’ Yohei Oshima, 40, who has 2,079 career hits but has played in only 21 games this year, and 41-year-old Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters reliever Naoki Miyanishi, NPB’s career leader in holds. Miyanishi is fourth all-time with 904 appearances, though only four have come this season. 

​Reaching 40 is not always the end of the road in terms of effectiveness, and there are players who produced late flourishes before signing off. 

​Hiromitsu Kadota might have had the best season by a 40-year-old in Japan in 1988 when he hit 44 homers and finished with 125 RBIs and a 1.062 on-base plus slugging percentage for the Nankai Hawks on his way to being named Pacific League MVP.

​Kadota was not done either, recording a pair of 30-homer seasons for the Orix BlueWave the next two years and then hitting 18 for the Daiei Hawks in 1991. 

NPB legend Sadaharu Oh ended his career with a 30-homer campaign in his age-40 season in 1980, though his batting average slumped to to .236.

“Mentally, I have not been able to inspire myself enough to maintain my true stature,” he said, according to the New York Times. “All this season I tried to regain it, but I never could.”

Katsuya Nomura had a 28-homer, 92-RBI campaign in his age-40 season for Nankai in 1975 and reached double digits in each of the next two seasons. 

Former Dragons lefty Masahiro Yamamoto, who pitched until he was 50, won 11 games and posted a 3.32 ERA in 170⅔ innings in his age-40 season in 2006. He turned 41 during the season, on Aug. 11, then became the oldest NPB pitcher to throw a no-hitter when he shut down the Hanshin Tigers on Sept. 16 of that year.

Yamamoto was nearly perfect, with the Tigers’ only baserunner reaching on an error in the fourth inning.

​While Yamamoto was much less effective in 2007, he bounced back in 2008 with a 3.16 ERA in 133⅔ frames. 

​Ishikawa, Kishi and Wakui are more than just popular players nearing the end of the line. All three can see the 200-win mark in NPB off in the distance, and in an era when more star players are going to MLB and managers are increasingly relying on their bullpens, it might be a very long time before anyone else challenges that summit. 

Yamamoto is the most recent to get there, notching his 200th NPB win in 2008. Only 24 players have achieved 200 NPB wins. 

​Ishikawa is the closest with 188 victories, while Kishi has 174 and Wakui has 170. After that is 35-year-old Yuki Nishi with 127. Nishi pitched in one game last season and just seven so far this year.

The only other players with at least 110 are 37-year-old Masahiro Tanaka (125), who would be closer if not for his seven years in MLB and is in the Meikyukai with 203 combined wins, and 35-year-old Takahiro Norimoto (122), who spent a couple of seasons as a reliever. 

​Baseball might be a young person’s game for the most part, but there are still veterans hanging on, trying to contribute for as long as they can.

NISHINOMIYA, HYOGO PREF. – A siren blares, cutting through the sticky August air as two teams bow in a show of respect before the biggest game of their young lives.

As the air raid-like alarm begins to fade, players from Hachiman Commercial High School and Kendai Takasaki High School part and the typical sounds of Koshien Stadium become audible once again: vendors advertising sales of beer and snacks, the murmur of the crowd, the thud of baseballs hitting leather and the fluttering of thousands of hand fans as spectators desperately try to keep cool under the unrelenting afternoon sun. 

The mercury at 1:30 p.m., the time of the game’s first pitch on Day 3 of the National High School Baseball Championship, reads 36 degrees Celsius. A thermometer placed in direct sunlight just above one of the concrete stadium’s plastic outfield seats, however, shows the extent of the danger: 45 C and climbing.

Experienced fans bring a cushion to sit on — not for a softer seat, but to avoid burning their rear ends on the historic ballpark’s scorching dark-green bleachers. 

As human-caused climate change makes Japan’s summers ever hotter, one of the country’s most cherished summer traditions is under threat. 

While organizers have enacted a number of measures in a bid to improve the safety of players and fans, some observers are now raising a question that once seemed unthinkable: Is Summer Koshien, as the tournament is commonly known, compatible with a rapidly warming world?

Summer tradition

It’s a stage unlike any other.

Each summer, 49 high school teams from across Japan do battle over 2½ weeks in a bid for baseball immortality and it all happens inside a 102-year-old ballpark that is as revered as the nation’s thousands of shrines and temples.

The tournament has a unique power to draw in even nonbaseball fans by evoking images of youth through the exuberance and innocence of the players, who give it their all in what serves as the high point of their high school athletic careers.  

Games are televised nationally and top players become household names before they ever suit up for a pro team. The tournament’s place within the fabric of Japanese society is such that one could argue it sits right alongside fireworks shows, yukata and Bon odori (dance festivals to honor ancestors) in the realms of summer traditions.   

Osaka Prefecture native Tatsuki Tanaka is a former high school player who follows the Spring and Summer Koshien tournaments religiously. He carries fond memories of his time playing youth baseball and says that helps fuel his fandom for the high school game even now.

“You can learn teamwork and things like that through baseball, and it makes for three incredibly fulfilling years,” he said.

Taking place during summer vacation and over the Bon holiday period, fans regularly pack Koshien Stadium, located a short train ride away from Osaka in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, filling in the seats not already occupied by each team’s boisterous cheering sections.

“Of course, there are errors since it’s amateur compared to the pros … but that’s part of the charm,” Tanaka said. “There are a lot of come-from-behind wins and moments like that, so I think it’s fun to watch.”

After a team is eliminated, teary-eyed players fill up bags with dirt from Koshien’s hallowed infield to bring home as a final souvenir of their time in the spotlight, highlighting the stadium’s leading role in making the tournament special.

But for the players, coaches, cheering squads and thousands of fans who attend each year, one unsettling truth is becoming increasingly clear: soaring temperatures caused by climate change are making Koshien increasingly uncomfortable and, at times, downright dangerous.

“We brought plenty of frozen drinks and cold towels,” mother Eri Ishijima said as she fed shaved ice to her children on Day 3 of the tournament.

Like many fans, Ishijima and her three children left their seats to take shelter in the concourse, where large air conditioning units were a popular spot for people to get some relief from the heat.

“It’s too hot so we can’t watch now. … The little one just stays here,” she said, pointing to her 4-year-old.   

Growing safety concerns

Japan endured its hottest summer on record in 2025, rewriting the record books for a third consecutive year. 

This year, a later end to the rainy season meant cooler temperatures in early to mid-July, but temperatures in the high 30s and even “brutally hot” days — declared on days in which the mercury hits 40 C or higher — arrived in many parts of the country by late July. 

The danger is clear: Japan marked an average of more than 1,500 heatstroke deaths per year in the five years through 2024.   

While the large majority of deaths are elderly patients who are more susceptible to the worst outcomes of heat-related illnesses, young people, even in-shape athletes, are far from immune. 

The recent death from suspected heatstroke of professional rugby player Saimoni ⁠Vunilagi, a 26-year-old from Fiji who played with Fukuoka-based Kyushu Electric Power ⁠Kyuden Voltex, served as a grim reminder of the dangers of physical activity in high temperatures.

“When something bad really occurs and we look back, there are so many obvious points, like ‘why did you host this to begin with?’” said Yuri Hosokawa, an associate professor at Waseda University’s Faculty of Sport Sciences and an expert on heatstroke, during an interview a day before Vunilagi’s death. “It’s not just Koshien. There are a lot of (youth sports) contexts in Japan … where some of those obvious risks are already there, but the adults, the organizers aren’t swift enough to make the decision.”

While baseball is not as grueling as rugby or soccer, Hosokawa highlights the fact that players tend to spend a prolonged period of time in direct sunlight as a cause for concern. And in high temperatures, any physical activity carries a certain degree of risk.

Case in point, Nippon Professional Baseball teams largely avoid day games in outdoor stadiums during the summer, while earlier this month the Korea Baseball Organization went on a six-day hiatus amid a record-breaking heat wave in South Korea.  

In the case of Koshien, Hosokawa also highlights the player’s youthful exuberance as an obstacle for heatstroke safety. 

“Because they are giving all that they have … they’re not gonna say, ‘Oh, I give up,’ right? Because there is no second chance for them,” she said. “It could be their last day for their entire high school baseball career. So all that motivation too is also putting a lot of strain on them, both physically and mentally.” 

Essentially, with all that’s at stake on the field, players can hardly be expected to protect themselves from heatstroke — and that’s where the Japan High School Baseball Federation comes in. 

Mitigating measures

Traditionally a daytime tournament, the 2024 edition of Summer Koshien saw the introduction of a limited split schedule as an anti-heat measure, with two games scheduled for the morning and two more scheduled from late afternoon into the evening in order to avoid the hottest part of the day. 

The split schedule was expanded for 2025 and then modified for 2026, marking a fairly significant shift for a tournament that had long scheduled early-round matches to run back-to-back for a nearly continuous day of action. In fact, before technology made it somewhat obsolete, the stadium’s famous siren was traditionally used to notify players and fans outside the stadium when a game was either starting or ending.

Despite this momentum, the sheer number of games means it’s unlikely that organizers can avoid 35 C heat altogether through scheduling tweaks alone. This year, games have regularly taken place between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when temperatures typically peak and the sun is at its highest point, meaning shade provided by the stadium is scarce. 

Cooling breaks after the fifth inning have been the norm since the 2023 season, while stadium improvements could soon serve to protect more fans and student cheering sections from the sun. Koshien Stadium’s partial roof, which currently covers the infield seats, is due to be extended down the foul lines by 2028.  

The biggest change under consideration — shortening games to seven innings — has garnered significant opposition from baseball purists and some of the sport’s biggest names, including Ichiro Suzuki. 

But that shouldn’t stop the federation from doing what’s needed to safeguard against heat, former Samurai Japan manager Hideki Kuriyama said during a panel discussion earlier this year.  

“If you think about protecting the kids, you have to consider their physical well-being,” he said, adding that decision-makers should listen carefully to people not involved in baseball. 

“By taking proper precautions in advance and showing what we’ve done … sending a message to society might actually be a positive thing. We should discuss these issues together, do everything we can, and do it for the sake of the kids.” 

Hosokawa gives Summer Koshien, which is co-organized by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, credit for taking the heat issue seriously, but questions whether any of it is enough to avoid an even bigger debate: In its current location and timing, can the tournament as it looks in 2026 remain viable at all?

“In the past few years they’ve made substantial changes in making sure that these athletes have means to cool their body, take rest,” she said. “I think they are making a lot of progress. But the next step, I think, needs to be drastic. It can’t be this little prevention added here and there. It needs to be a total change in scheduling or shift in location.”

Long-term future

Like the proposal for shorter games, moving Summer Koshien to a different season or location would almost certainly be met with strong opposition from baseball traditionalists, but it’s a conversation that may become inevitable. 

The tournament is intrinsically linked with the stadium, which was built specifically to host the high school tournament. The importance of having it at Koshien Stadium is such that the ballpark’s primary tenant, the uber-popular Hanshin Tigers, are evicted from their home every August in order to prioritize the high school players. 

“Of course it sucks that it’s so hot, but this stadium has history,” said Naoki Kato, a Tigers fan who attended Day 3 of the high school tournament. “I want them to keep playing at Koshien if possible.” 

Finances also play a key role in keeping the tournament at Koshien. According to a report by the Nikkei daily, the federation uses the historic stadium free of charge. And because the organization doesn’t collect broadcast fees, it is heavily reliant on ticket sales for its funding, which helps subsidize travel costs for participating schools. Of the federation’s ¥1.6 billion in revenue in fiscal 2024, ticket sales at the Spring and Summer Koshien tournaments accounted for ¥1.4 billion.  

Hosokawa notes the prefectural tournaments that immediately precede Summer Koshien and determine its participants are equally problematic, so simply moving the main tournament indoors wouldn’t solve all of high school baseball’s problems, either. 

Moving the tournament to another time of the year might seem like an easier solution, but that would create other problems given these are student athletes and the current tournament conveniently falls during summer break.  

With those obstacles in mind, momentum could remain on the side of the status quo for some time yet. 

“The one thing that I fear the most is that they won’t (act) until they see an actual catastrophic case,” Hosokawa said. “They have all the successes. … They know that they can host it and they know that they haven’t had a true catastrophic, fatal outcome. But do we need to have that to realize it’s dangerous?” 

Back at Koshien, cloud cover provides some welcome relief for the latter half of Kendai Takasaki’s 7-1 win over Hachiman Commercial. 

As the two teams line up to pay their respects after a hard-fought contest, the sun re-emerges, blasting the stadium with another dose of heat. 

Then the players bow and the familiar siren blares, marking the end of one game and, soon, the start of another.    

At least for now, Summer Koshien’s daily rhythm is just the same as it’s always been.  

It’s not October yet, but NPB teams will have to be mindful of ghosts as the season prepares to enter the stretch run. 

As NPB clubs jockey for playoff positions, there is a little extra intrigue this year with the possibility of the league champions in the Central and Pacific League finding their paths to the Japan Series a little clearer than usual. 

Since 2008, the league champions not only received a bye in the first round of the playoffs but also began the six-game final stage of the Climax Series, which determines who goes to the Japan Series, with an automatic one-game advantage as a reward for winning the regular-season title. 

​In March, however, NPB decided to take things further and award a second “ghost” win in the final stage if the league champion won the pennant by at least 10 games, or the lower-seeded team in the final stage finished 10 games behind the pennant winner or ended the regular season below .500.

When the extra win is in effect, the final stage becomes a seven-game series where the first team to five, instead of the usual four, advances. In that scenario, the league champion begins with a 2-0 lead and needs just three wins to advance, whereas the other team has to win five games, essentially making it easier for the pennant winner to advance.

The change sparked a wide range of reactions, from some saying it adds more meaning and weight to the regular season to others saying it greases the wheels in favor of the pennant winner almost to the point of mockery.

“It will encourage teams to be aware of the game differential and winning percentage and play until the end,” NPB Secretary-General Katsuhiko Nakamura said at the time of the change. “The importance of winning the league will also be respected.”

The current iteration of the Climax Series has always been tilted in favor of the league champion. In addition to the first-round bye and automatic win in the final stage, the pennant winner also hosts the entire final stage series. 

This year’s change simply puts another finger on the scale if the right criteria are met.

Since 2007, when the CL joined the PL in staging a three-team playoff system, seven clubs have reached the postseason with a losing record. Of those, five pulled off a first-round upset to reach the final stage. None reached the Japan Series. ​

Of the 13 instances since 2007 when a team won the league by at least 10 games, only the 2017 Hiroshima Carp failed to reach the Japan Series.

There have only been two teams that finished third in the regular season and went on to win the Japan Series — the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2010 and the 2024 DeNA BayStars. The 2017 BayStars reached the Japanese Fall Classic and lost.

If nothing else, though, the new format might add more urgency to the end of the season, even when the playoff spots are decided, as prospective pennant winners push to trigger the extra win while the second and third place teams try to avoid it. 

​No matter what side of the debate anyone falls on, however, fans might not have to wait long to see the new format in action.

​The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks currently lead the PL by 7½ games over the Seibu Lions and Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, who are separated only by percentage points. So it is within the realm of possibility that SoftBank could win the league by double digits. The Hawks would also get the extra win if they finish 10 games ahead of the third-place club, and that team reaches the final stage.

As things currently stand in the CL, it will probably take a first-stage upset to trigger the extra win in the final stage.

​The Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants are locked in a battle for the pennant, with the Tigers atop the standings by two games.

​The battle for third is mainly between the Tokyo Yakult Swallows (49-55-1) and the BayStars (48-56-3), with the Chunichi Dragons further back. If the team that finishes third does so with a losing record and then upsets the No. 2 seed in the first stage, the league champion would get two ghost wins in the final stage.

​Even if the eventual third-place team finishes above .500, there is still the chance the league champion might finish 10 games ahead. As the standings currently sit, the Swallows are 9½ games behind the Tigers.

The change seems to be rooted in the desire to preserve a postseason format, and the revenue it generates, while making sure the league champions reach the Japan Series. 

While there is still plenty of baseball left to play, the new change, for better or worse in regard to the playoffs, gives teams and fans a new wrinkle to watch out for as the regular season plays out over the next several weeks.