The Yokohama BayStars, after 18 seasons without postseason baseball and 11 without an A-Class finish, probably weren't going to be very picky about how those two things got crossed off of their to-do list.

But there was still something poetic about the way the team did it Monday on a slightly chilly, rainy afternoon that was miserable just about everywhere except in Yokohama Stadium, where the team's first-ever golden ticket to the Climax Series, and a first A-Class season since 2005, shone like the rays of the sun.

"You guys have been waiting for this for many years, and now you've got it," manager Alex Ramirez told BayStars fans after the game. "Omedeto gozaimasu (congratulations)."