There is no example of a regular season debt team advancing to the Japan Stakes.
The 2022 Climax Series (CS) final stage will begin on the 12th. In Se, Yakult, who has won the league for the second time in a row, and Hanshin, who is in third place, will play against each other. Advancement to the final from 3rd place is 6 consecutive seasons in SE. However, there is no example of a team that has been in debt in the regular season and has advanced to the Japan Series. Will Hanshin be able to create a new history?
Hanshin defeated DeNA with 2 wins and 1 loss in the CS first stage. It advanced to the final for the first time in three years. Since DeNA in 2016, the 3rd place team has defeated the 2nd place team for 6 consecutive seasons (in 2020, Se’s CS was canceled due to the corona disaster). Among them, only DeNA in 2017 advanced to the Japan series. After winning the first stage with Hanshin with 2 wins and 1 loss, he defeated Hiroshima in the final with 4 wins and 2 losses (including 1 loss of advantage).
Hanshin finished the regular season with 68 wins, 71 losses and 4 draws with 3 debts. This is the seventh time that the debt team has advanced to CS, and the fifth time that they have advanced to the final. However, in the past four times, they have lost to the league winning team, and there has never been a case where a debt team has advanced to the Japan Series.
The match results of both teams this season are even with Yakult’s 13 wins, 11 losses and 1 draw. When limited to games at Jingu Stadium, Hanshin has won with 7 wins and 5 losses. Looking at past examples, Yakult, who won the pennant race, has an overwhelming advantage, but it will be interesting to see if Hanshin can make a new history by becoming the first team to advance to the Japan Series in debt.
(Full-Count editorial department)