2015 Nippon Professional Baseball season

The 2015 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the 66th season since the NPB was reorganized in 1950. In the Central League, the Yakult Swallows claimed the pennant and defeated the Yomiuri Giants in the final stage of the Climax Series. In the Pacific League, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks won the penant and defeated the Chiba Lotte Marines in the final stage of the Climax Series.

This article is about the 2015 Nippon Professional Baseball season only. For information on all of baseball, see 2015 in baseball.

2015 NPB season
League	Nippon Professional Baseball
Sport	Baseball
Duration	March 27 – October 29
Central League pennant
League champions	Tokyo Yakult Swallows
Runners-up	Yomiuri Giants
Season MVP	Tetsuto Yamada (Yakult)
Pacific League pennant
League champions	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
Runners-up	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
Season MVP	Yuki Yanagita (SoftBank)
Climax Series
CL champions	Tokyo Yakult Swallows
CL runners-up	Yomiuri Giants
PL champions	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
PL runners-up	Chiba Lotte Marines
Japan Series
Champions	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
Runners-up	Tokyo Yakult Swallows
Finals MVP	Dae-ho Lee (SoftBank)

Incidents

A gambling scandal involving members of the Yomiuri Giants was reported in October. Pitchers Satoshi Fukuda, Shoki Kasahara, and Ryuya Matsumoto were found to have bet on both NPB games and Major League Baseball games, as well as high school baseball.^[1][2]

Regular season standings

Central League regular season standings

Team	G	W	L	T	Pct.	GB
Tokyo Yakult Swallows	143	76	65	2	.539	–
Yomiuri Giants	143	75	67	1	.528	1.5
Hanshin Tigers	143	70	71	2	.496	6.0
Hiroshima Toyo Carp	143	69	71	3	.493	6.5
Chunichi Dragons	143	62	77	4	.446	13.0
Yokohama DeNA BayStars	143	62	80	1	.437	14.5

Pacific League regular season standings

Team	G	W	L	T	Pct.	GB
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks	143	90	49	4	.647	–
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters	143	79	62	2	.560	12.0
Chiba Lotte Marines	143	73	69	1	.511	19.0
Saitama Seibu Lions	143	69	69	5	.500	20.5
Orix Buffaloes	143	61	80	2	.433	30.0
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles	143	57	83	3	.410	33.0

Climax Series

Main articles: 2015 Central League Climax Series and 2015 Pacific League Climax Series

Note: In each league's stepladder playoff system (Climax Series), all games in that series are held at the higher seed's home stadium. The team with the higher regular-season standing also advanced if the round ended in a tie.

	First stage					Final stage					Japan Series
	Central League					1	Tokyo Yakult Swallows	4
	2	Yomiuri Giants	2			2	Yomiuri Giants	1
	3	Hanshin Tigers	1								CL1	Tokyo Yakult Swallows	1
											PL1	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks	4
	Pacific League					1	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks	4
	2	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters	1			3	Chiba Lotte Marines	0
	3	Chiba Lotte Marines	2

First stage

The regular season league champions, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (PL) and the Tokyo Yakult Swallows (CL), received byes to the championship round.

Central League

Yomiuri Giants (2) vs. Hanshin Tigers (1)

Game	Date	Score	Location	Time	Attendance
1	October 10	Hanshin Tigers – 2, Yomiuri Giants – 3	Tokyo Dome	3:40	45,298
2	October 11	Hanshin Tigers – 4, Yomiuri Giants – 2	Tokyo Dome	3:48	46,698
3	October 12	Hanshin Tigers – 1, Yomiuri Giants – 3	Tokyo Dome	2:48	46,067

Pacific League

Chiba Lotte Marines (2) vs. Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (1)

Game	Date	Score	Location	Time	Attendance
1	October 10	Chiba Lotte Marines – 9, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 3	Sapporo Dome	3:28	41,138
2	October 11	Chiba Lotte Marines – 2, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 4	Sapporo Dome	3:06	41,138
3	October 12	Chiba Lotte Marines – 2, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 1	Sapporo Dome	3:42	32,201

Final stage

The regular season league champions, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (PL) and the Tokyo Yakult Swallows (CL), received a one-game advantage.

Central League

Yomiuri Giants (1) vs. Tokyo Yakult Swallows (4)

Game	Date	Score	Location	Time	Attendance
1	October 14	Yomiuri Giants – 4, Tokyo Yakult Swallows– 1	Meiji Jingu Stadium	3:38	31,502
2	October 15	Yomiuri Giants – 0, Tokyo Yakult Swallows– 4	Meiji Jingu Stadium	2:51	31,274
3	October 16	Yomiuri Giants – 0, Tokyo Yakult Swallows– 2	Meiji Jingu Stadium	3:27	33,102
4	October 17	Yomiuri Giants – 2, Tokyo Yakult Swallows– 3	Meiji Jingu Stadium	2:58	34,038

Pacific League

Chiba Lotte Marines (0) vs. Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (4)

Game	Date	Score	Location	Time	Attendance
1	October 14	Chiba Lotte Marines – 2, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 3 (10 innings)	Fukuoka Dome	3:43	37,360
2	October 15	Chiba Lotte Marines – 1, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 6	Fukuoka Dome	2:59	37,603
3	October 16	Chiba Lotte Marines – 1, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 3	Fukuoka Dome	2:53	37,235

Japan Series

Main article: 2015 Japan Series

CL Tokyo Yakult Swallows (1) vs. PL Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (4)

Game	Date	Score	Location	Time	Attendance
1	October 24	Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 2, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 4	Fukuoka Dome	3:04	35,732
2	October 25	Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 0, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 4	Fukuoka Dome	3:35	35,764
3	October 27	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 4, Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 8	Meiji Jingu Stadium	3:38	31,037
4	October 28	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 6, Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 4	Meiji Jingu Stadium	4:06	31,288
5	October 29	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 5, Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 0	Meiji Jingu Stadium	3:36	31,239

League leaders

^[3]

Central League

Batting leaders Stat Player Team Total Batting average Shingo Kawabata Tokyo Yakult Swallows .336 Home runs Tetsuto Yamada Tokyo Yakult Swallows 38 Runs batted in Kazuhiro Hatakeyama Tokyo Yakult Swallows 105 Runs Tetsuto Yamada Tokyo Yakult Swallows 119 Hits Shingo Kawabata Tokyo Yakult Swallows 195 Stolen bases Tetsuto Yamada Tokyo Yakult Swallows 34

Pitching leaders Stat Player Team Total Wins Kenta Maeda Hiroshima Carp 15 Losses Atsushi Nomi Hanshin Tigers 13 Earned run average Kris Johnson Hiroshima Carp 1.85 Strikeouts Shintaro Fujinami Hanshin Tigers 221 Innings pitched Yudai Ono Chunichi Dragons 207.1 Saves Tony Barnette Tokyo Yakult Swallows 41 Oh Seung-hwan Hanshin Tigers

Pacific League

Batting leaders Stat Player Team Total Batting average Yuki Yanagita Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks .363 Home runs Takeya Nakamura Saitama Seibu Lions 37 Runs batted in Takeya Nakamura Saitama Seibu Lions 124 Runs Yuki Yanagita Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 110 Hits Shogo Akiyama Saitama Seibu Lions 216 Stolen bases Takuya Nakashima Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 34

Pitching leaders Stat Player Team Total Wins Shohei Ohtani Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 15 Losses Ayumu Ishikawa Chiba Lotte Marines 12 Earned run average Shohei Ohtani Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 2.24 Strikeouts Takahiro Norimoto Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 215 Innings pitched Takahiro Norimoto Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 194.2 Saves Dennis Sarfate Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 41

See also

• 2015 Korea Professional Baseball season
• 2015 Major League Baseball season