The Orix Buffaloes captured their franchise's 13th Pacific League pennant on Wednesday and the first since Ichiro Suzuki led the Orix BlueWave to the title in 1996.
Orix completed its regular season with a 4-0 shutout by ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto. That win required the second-place Lotte Marines to win two of their final three games without suffering a loss.
The Buffaloes gathered in uniform at their home park, Kyocera Dome Osaka. From the dugout, they watched Lotte lose 2-1 to the third-place Rakuten Eagles.