The Orix Buffaloes effectively fired manager Hiroshi Moriwaki on Tuesday, promoting head coach Junichi Fukura to see out the rest of the season.
Moriwaki was placed on "leave" with Orix in last place in the Pacific League, 12 games out of first, ahead of Tuesday's interleague game against the Yomiuri Giants at Tokyo Dome.
"I've decided to take responsibility at this particular point in time after all the expectations we had," Moriwaki said during a press conference. "We were more than good enough to compete but our current record does not reflect that.
"I didn't have what it takes to lead this team, bottom line."
Moriwaki took over for Akinobu Okada late in the 2012 season and guided the Buffaloes to second place last year.
Orix is going for it this season, spending heavily in the winter to sign the big bats of Hiroyuki Nakajima and Tony Blanco, and convincing ace Chihiro Kaneko to forfeit his major league dream to stay with the team.
But the Buffaloes went 2-8 in their first 10 games and have been unable to turn their fortunes around.