DeNA Prepares Special Pitching Plans for Climax Series Against Giants
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DeNA, a professional baseball club based in Yokohama, Japan, is weighing special pitching strategies as it prepares to face the Yomiuri Giants in the upcoming Climax Series.
The Climax Series is a postseason playoff format used in Japan's Central League, designed to determine which team advances to the Japan Series championship.
DeNA secured a third-place finish in the regular season, closing with a record of 71 wins, 69 losses, and 3 draws — a tally identical to the team's result in 2024, when it also placed third.
Should DeNA go on to win the championship from third place, it would mark another example of the kind of underdog triumph the Climax Series format is known for producing, since lower-seeded teams can still claim the title by winning the playoff rounds.
As DeNA's coaching staff prepares for the series, attention has turned to pitching tactics commonly seen in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States.
One such tactic involves using a team's closer — typically the most dependable relief pitcher, brought in to protect narrow leads — for more than a single inning during high-stakes postseason games, rather than restricting him to the traditional ninth-inning role.
Another MLB approach involves deploying a starting pitcher in a relief role, bringing in a pitcher who normally begins games to provide a short, high-intensity appearance later in a contest, often in critical late-game situations.
Japanese teams have historically used pitching staffs in more fixed roles, with starters and relievers rarely crossing over. DeNA's reported consideration of these more flexible, American-style tactics suggests a willingness to adapt internationally influenced strategies for a short playoff series, where single wins and losses carry greater weight than in the long regular season.
Whether DeNA ultimately implements such a strategy against the Giants remains to be seen, but the team's coaching staff appears to be studying all options ahead of the crucial series.
Separately, the full schedule for the 2026 JERA Climax Series Central League has been officially announced, giving fans and teams advance notice of when the postseason matches will take place.
Vocabulary7 words
- Climax Series
- a playoff after the normal season to decide the champion
- draws
- games that end with no winner
- underdog
- a team expected to lose, but that may still win
- Major League Baseball
- the top professional baseball league in the USA
- closer
- the main relief pitcher who finishes close games
- inning
- one section of a baseball game
- starting pitcher
- the pitcher who begins the game
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Quiz
Answer key
1. Third place 2. Using closers across multiple innings and starters in relief roles 3. True
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Discussion questions
- What advantages might flexible pitcher usage, as seen in MLB, offer in short playoff series compared to fixed roles?
- Why do you think Japanese baseball has traditionally kept starting and relief pitching roles more separate?
- Discuss the appeal of playoff systems that allow lower-seeded teams, like third-place finishers, to win championships.
- How might studying strategies from other countries' sports leagues help a team improve its performance?
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