NAGOYA — After several months, the Japanese baseball landscape has cleared and there are two teams still standing.
The Chiba Lotte Marines had to win on the season's final day just to make the playoffs and overcame late-inning deficits on consecutive days to advance out of the first stage of the Pacific League Climax Series.
In the final stage, Lotte outlasted the Pacific League champion Fukuoka Softbank Hawks — overcoming the Hawks' one-game advantage — to become the first-ever third-place team to capture the Climax Series title.