The Hiroshima Carp, it seems, have arrived. After a long stretch of bad years and recent seasons of being a few pieces short of a whole, the Carp are finally in the thick of a pennant race again.
The team has the best record in NPB at 73-44-2 and enters this week with an 11-game lead over the second-place Yomiuri Giants in the Central League. The Carp's magic number to clinch the pennant, which would be their first since 1991, is currently at 13.
Hiroshima hasn't had a season like this in a while. A glut of B-class finishes ended in 2013, when the club finished third despite going 69-72-3 for its first A-Class season since 1997. The next year saw the Carp finish third again at 74-68-2, their first winning season since 1996. Even after the departure of manager Kenjiro Nomura that offseason, the improving Carp were the trendy pick to capture the CL flag in 2015. The team wilted under the spotlight, finishing in fourth place.