2009 Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (Champions)

It has been 21 years since the team moved to Hokkaido, and Nippon-Ham has won the championship five times in these 21 years. With Trey Hillman, Masataka Nashida, and Hideki Kuriyama, they have won the pennant race under three consecutive managers since the move to Hokkaido. If the current manager, Tsuyoshi Shinjo, also wins, he would be the fourth consecutive manager to win a championship after the move to Hokkaido.
Now, I have already covered the championships and Japan Series titles under Hillman and Kuriyama. So, this time, I would like to focus on 2009, the year of the Nashida Nippon-Ham championship. What kind of team was Nashida's Nippon-Ham?

The "Second Year" Jinx

First, since the image of Masataka Nashida is not strongly associated with Nippon-Ham, I will explain a bit about him. During his playing career, he was a one-team man for Kintetsu and became the manager of Kintetsu in 2000. In his second year as manager, he successfully rebuilt the team that had slumped to last place the previous year, built the super-powerful "Ite-mae Lineup," and led them to a championship. Manager Nashida stepped down when Kintetsu was dissolved in 2004. After working as a baseball commentator for a while, he received an offer to manage Nippon-Ham in 2008. In 2008, his first year back in the dugout in four years, Nippon-Ham finished the season in 3rd place, failing to win a third consecutive title.
Hoping to capture a championship in his second year, just as he did with Kintetsu, Nippon-Ham completed a trade with the Yomiuri Giants during the off-season.
It was a major 2-for-2 trade where they let go of 2006 closer Michael Nakamura and defensive/base-running specialist Takuhito Kudo, and acquired Tomohiro Nioka, who was a star shortstop for the Giants but had lost his spot due to the rise of Hayato Sakamoto and his own scandal, along with Masanori Hayashi, who could serve as both a starter and a reliever.
At the time, Nippon-Ham's scoring power had dropped sharply due to the retirement of Tsuyoshi Shinjo after the 2006 season and the departure of Michihiro Ogasawara to the Giants via free agency. They were forced to transition away from the "Big Bang Lineup."

In the draft, they selected Toyo University's Shota Ohno, who was considered the No. 1 catcher in the amateur world, in the first round. It was the first time Nippon-Ham had selected a catcher in the first round since Kazunari Tsuruoka from Saga Gakuen High School in 1998. Overall, they selected immediate-impact players in the early rounds and high schoolers in the later rounds.

Position Players

The Nippon-Ham lineup, which had previously lacked scoring power, led the league with 689 runs that year. They built an incredibly strong lineup that also led the league in batting average and OPS.
Leadoff man Kensuke Tanaka played in every game, boasting a high on-base percentage (.373) and leading the team with 31 stolen bases, becoming the absolute second baseman who supported the team with his running, hitting, and fielding. He is the ideal leadoff man.
In the cleanup spot, Atsunori Inaba, who also served as the cleanup hitter for the WBC team, recorded a batting average of .300 for the fourth consecutive year. Although he was getting older at 37, he contributed to the team's championship with stats that felt like a classic mid-range hitter. Shinji Takahashi took the 4th spot. Although he didn't hit many home runs, Takahashi, who left stable results as a "connecting" cleanup hitter, reached the required number of plate appearances for the first time since 2004. During interleague play, he was the batting champion with a .411 average. Also, this year, he primarily played as a first baseman. The team's home run leader was second-year player Terrmel Sledge. He fulfilled his role as a point-getter, recording the most home runs and RBIs on the team, even with time spent off the roster due to injury, acting as the one who would drive in the chances created by Takahashi.

Eiichi Koyano reached the required number of plate appearances for the first time. He maintained a pace of nearly .300, hit double-digit home runs for the first time, and recorded the third-most RBIs on the team, behind Sledge and Inaba.
And the one who showed a breakthrough was Yoshio Itoi. Itoi joined the team as a pitcher in the 2003 draft through the free-acquisition slot, but due to various circumstances, he converted to a position player in 2006. In 2009, he won the opening day starting spot and established himself as a regular. When he pushed aside the regular center fielder, Hichori Morimoto, to take over center field, he used his high physical ability to excel in both offense and defense. Ultimately, he reached the required number of plate appearances for the first time, finishing with a .306 average, 15 home runs, 58 RBIs, 24 stolen bases, and an OPS of .901. People often focus on Itoi's conversion to a position player, but he was originally the ace of Kinki University. It's not like he was a high school pitcher who hit a ceiling as a pitcher but was converted because he was a good hitter; it's a truly rare case where a future ace candidate was converted to a position player and an incredible talent blossomed.
The 9th-spot shortstop was, as expected, Makoto Kaneko. Kaneko's hitting was in top form that year, setting the then-NPB record for consecutive games with a double in April (7 games), hitting double-digit home runs for the first time since 1997, and recording a .300 batting average for the first time in his career. If you think about it, a lineup with a .304 average, 14 home runs, and an .818 OPS in the 9th spot is too scary.

Catchers Shinya Tsuruoka and first-round pick Shota Ohno were used in a platoon.
Nioka, who joined via trade from the Giants, was primarily used as a DH and a pinch-hitting specialist. Nioka was known for his clutch hitting with the Giants, and that remained true with Nippon-Ham. He was even called "Mr. Right-Center." His popularity was also certain, as he was voted 1st in the DH category for the All-Star game.
In addition to their scoring power and hitting ability, their defensive prowess was also wonderful. That year, seven players—Tsuruoka, Takahashi, Tanaka, Koyano, Kaneko, Itoi, and Inaba—won the Golden Glove Award, and the infield won it at all four positions. The team's total errors were 55, the fewest in the league.

Pitching Staff

Above all, we cannot talk about this team without mentioning the performance of Yu Darvish.
Darvish, who was also selected for the WBC, showed a great performance in May with 4 wins, 0 losses, and a 0.90 ERA, and also won the Nippon Life Award during interleague play. He accumulated wins at the fastest pace in history, reaching 60 career wins in his 107th appearance, and ultimately finished with 15 wins, 5 losses, and a 1.73 ERA. Since this era was more hitter-friendly than today, a sub-2.00 ERA in this environment is insane. He didn't allow unnecessary baserunners, and his WHIP was an incredible 0.90. And he was only 23 years old.
Masaru Takeda reached the required number of innings for the first time in two years. He also achieved double-digit wins for the first time in his career. His selling point was his outstanding control, with a low BB% of 3.4%.
Tomoya Yagi, the 2006 Rookie of the Year who had been struggling for the two years since, recovered that year with a 2.88 ERA and recorded 9 wins. Shugo Fujii, in his second year after transferring, had several cases where he was pulled after 5 or 6 innings due to Manager Nashida's policy, but unlike the previous year, he recorded 7 wins and finished with a winning record.

I personally think the relief corps had a good balance where no one was overused. When Hisashi Takeda took over as the closer after Michael left the team, he had a great year, his first as a closer, with a sub-2.00 ERA in 55 appearances and a league-leading 34 saves.
For set-uppers, they used left-hander Naoki Miyanishi and right-hander Kazumasa Kikuchi. Kikuchi had a career-high 58 appearances and 21 holds (3rd in the league), while Miyanishi showed stable pitching, including a perfect 7-game winning streak, finishing with 13 holds and a 2.89 ERA.
Hayashi, who joined via trade, had 46 appearances with a 3.33 ERA and was also used in high-leverage situations. Yoshinori Tateyama also had 46 appearances; he kept his ERA in the 1.00s during the first half of the season, but due to lower back pain, his control became loose, leading to 7 losses.
Shintaro Ejiri, who had 45 appearances, converted to a sidearm delivery under the new pitching coach, Shigeru Kobayashi. Out of his 45 appearances, 33 were in tie games or with a lead of 3 runs or less, which shows how much he was trusted.

Nippon-Ham was 2nd in the league in both starter and relief ERA, but 1st in team ERA. The solid defense also contributed to the ability to suppress runs.

Toward the top after two years!

In the opening series against Rakuten, it was immediately a pitching duel between Darvish and the previous year's 21-win ace, Hisashi Iwakuma. Darvish gave up 3 runs in the first inning on a Teppei RBI single and a Seguinol 2-run homer, and although the lineup got one run back, they lost. They then lost the second and third games, starting the season with three consecutive losses.
Nippon-Ham finally got their first win in the game against Lotte on April 7th. Nioka hit his first home run since transferring, and TDN... Tadano pitched well, allowing only 1 run in 8 innings. The next day, the 8th, Koyano hit a 3-run homer in the first inning to take the lead, and Inaba hit a 2-run homer in the 3rd. Although the Lotte lineup caught up to a 5-run deficit in the 5th, in the bottom of that inning, Koyano and Inaba added 2 more runs with their second home runs of the game. Even though they were caught again by a Saburo home run in the 7th, Inaba hit a solo home run in the bottom of the inning—his third consecutive at-bat with a home run—and they won the slugfest 8-7.

Starting with the Lotte game on the 7th, they went on a 4-game winning streak, and after two losses, they went on a 5-game winning streak starting from the Orix game on the 15th, ending April with 12 wins and 10 losses.
Nippon-Ham, which was also in good form in May, didn't have any huge winning streaks but steadily piled up wins with stable strength, taking the lead. In interleague play, they played at a .500 pace, finishing 6th with 12 wins, 11 losses, and 1 tie.

After interleague play, they won the series against Lotte and swept Rakuten in 3 games, but then lost 5 in a row. However, they recovered by sweeping the following series against Lotte.
In particular, in the Lotte game on the 10th, Nippon-Ham starter Tadano was in great form. The lineup also scored 4 runs, and Tadano was pitching a no-hitter until there were 2 outs in the 9th inning. However, the last batter, Naoyuki Ohmatsu, hit a single to right field, and he didn't achieve the no-hitter. As expected of KY, that was shocking. Tadano won the game with a 1-hit shutout.

In the final game of the first half on the 22nd against Lotte, it was a pitching duel between Darvish and Yoshihisa Naruse. Tsuruoka hit an RBI single in the 5th and a solo home run in the 8th, and Darvish, supported by his battery mate, held the Lotte lineup to 1 run to earn his 12th win. Nippon-Ham finished the first half in first place, leading the 2nd place SoftBank by 1 game.
Darvish, Hisashi Takeda, Takahashi, Kaneko, Inaba, Itoi, and Nioka were selected for the All-Star game (traveling between the first game at Sapporo Dome and the second game at Mazda Stadium must have been super tough).

They swept the three-game series against Lotte after the second half of the season began. On the 31st, Darvish earned his 13th win against SoftBank, extending the winning streak that began on the 15th, before the first half, to nine games.
In August, the first half saw a pattern of alternating wins and losses. However, starting from the game against Rakuten on the 18th, they suffered their longest losing streak of the season at six games. This was because influenza was spreading within the team at the time. Head coach Junichi Fukura, Sledge, and Miyanishi were infected with the novel influenza, leading to a series of absences and removals of key players from the roster. However, they went on a four-game winning streak starting from the game against Orix on the 26th. In the game against SoftBank on the 28th, after Takahashi hit a two-run homer in the first inning to take the lead, they pulled Fujii in the middle of the fourth inning for an early pitching change, using a relay of five relief pitchers to eventually win, with Miyanishi earning his seventh unblemished win. With a 5.5-game lead, Nippon-Ham's magic number of 29 was lit.

Nippon-Ham wanted to win and clinch the title all at once, but they struggled to maintain a winning record in September, starting a six-game losing streak from the game against Rakuten on the 6th. At one point, the gap with SoftBank closed significantly. However, it was fortunate that SoftBank also lost quite a few games during the same period. Nippon-Ham finished September with 11 wins, 14 losses, and 1 tie, their first losing month of the season. Nevertheless, at this stage, the magic number had been reduced considerably, and in the hero interview after a 12-3 blowout win against Orix on the 29th, Itoi made a comment like a team chasing the leader, saying, "I will do my best without giving up in the remaining 9 games," but in reality, with the magic number at 6, the championship was almost in their hands.
Then, on October 6th, they faced Seibu at Sapporo Dome with a magic number of 1. They took an early lead with an RBI hit from Tsuruoka in the 2nd and Takahashi in the 3rd, and a two-run homer from Kaneko in the 4th gave them a 4-run lead. However, Seibu fought back starting in the 5th. Despite giving up 4 runs by the 9th inning, Nippon-Ham held on and the game went into extra innings. At other stadiums, the second-place Rakuten lost, and at that moment, Nippon-Ham's championship was decided. The game ended in the bottom of the 12th with a walk-off sacrifice fly by Kaneko. Nippon-Ham secured their third championship since moving to Hokkaido, their first in two years, and manager Nashida was tossed into the air three times on the mound.

The final record was 82 wins, 60 losses, and 2 ties, with a winning percentage of .577 and a surplus of 22 wins. They finished 5.5 games ahead of second-place Rakuten.
Personally, I think it was significant that Nippon-Ham won decisively against the lower-ranked teams. They had a strong winning record against the 5th-place Lotte (18 wins, 6 losses) and the 6th-place Orix (16 wins, 8 losses). On the other hand, SoftBank, who competed for the title but fell out of contention and dropped to 3rd place, had a losing record against both Lotte and Orix.

CS

In the CS, they faced the 2nd-place Rakuten, who had advanced from the 1st stage.
Rakuten was in their 5th year since founding and had reached the A-class for the first time, and with manager Katsuya Nomura's retirement already decided, they had momentum.
Nippon-Ham, starting with a one-win advantage, would go on to crush Rakuten's momentum in the first game.
First, this game was a slugfest, and they were trailing by 2 runs at 4-6 after 8 innings. Moreover, in the top of the 9th, Teppei hit a two-run homer, worsening the situation to a 4-run deficit. Rakuten's closer, Kazuo Fukumori, took the mound. Nippon-Ham fought back against Fukumori. After Kaneko was retired, Tanaka and Morimoto hit consecutive singles, and Inaba hit his third consecutive single to cut the lead to 3 runs. The following batter, Takahashi, drew a walk to load the bases, and Sledge came to the plate. As the "Kita no Kuni kara" theme song played, he swung at the 21st pitch of the inning from Fukumori, and the ball landed in the cheering left-field stands. It was a walk-off grand slam with no outs left. They had managed to flip the game by scoring 5 runs from a 4-run deficit.

In the second game, Takahashi hit a game-winning two-run RBI, and they held the Rakuten lineup to 1 run to win.
They lost the third game due to a complete game by Masahiro Tanaka, but in the fourth game, Sledge exploded again. Thanks in part to his stellar performance of 3 hits in 3 at-bats with 5 RBIs, they won 9-4 and advanced to the Japan Series.

Japan Series

In the Japan Series, they faced the Yomiuri Giants, who had achieved a three-peat in their league. This Giants team was also quite good, leading their league in runs scored, batting average, and OPS, just like Nippon-Ham. With the league's top team ERA as well, it was a clash between the strongest teams representing each league.

In the first game at Sapporo Dome, Masaru Takeda started for Nippon-Ham, and Gonzalez started for the Giants.
Takeda gave up a home run to Yoshitomo Tani in the 2nd inning, but Sledge hit a home run immediately after.
However, in the 5th inning, Hayato Sakamoto hit a two-run RBI for the Giants, which proved to be the game-winner. Nippon-Ham closed the gap to 1 run but lost 3-4.
The second game was an ace showdown between Darvish and Tetsuya Utsumi. Tsujo Shinjo also appeared before the game. In this game, starting with an Inaba hit in the 3rd inning, they scored 4 runs on 5 consecutive hits, knocking Utsumi out of the game. Ultimately, Darvish pitched well, allowing 2 runs in 6 innings. The relief corps held firm, and they won 4-2, tying the series at 1-1.

Moving the stage to Tokyo Dome, the third game featured Itokazu for Nippon-Ham and Obispo for the Giants.
Inaba hit a home run for the second consecutive game to take the lead in the first inning, and Koyano added a solo shot in the 2nd. However, they were tied in the bottom of the inning by back-to-back homers from Lee Seung-yuop and Shinnosuke Abe, and then fell behind after a home run by Michihiro Ogasawara in the 3rd, eventually losing 4-7.
The fourth game featured Yagi for Nippon-Ham and Hisanori Takahashi for the Giants.
In the 3rd inning, Shinji Takahashi hit a two-run RBI and Koyano hit a two-run RBI to take a 4-run lead. They added more runs later to win 8-4 and even the series again.
The fifth game featured Fujii for Nippon-Ham and Gonzalez, the starter from the first game, for the Giants.
Nippon-Ham took the lead in this game as well (making it 4 consecutive games), and it became a pitching duel with Fujii and Gonzalez pitching well, remaining 1-0 until the 7th inning. However, after pulling Fujii in the 8th, the second pitcher Tateyama and the third pitcher Hayashi invited trouble, and Noriyoshi Omichi hit a game-tying RBI. In the 9th, it seemed like they had broken the tie again with a home run by Shinji Takahashi, but in the bottom of the 9th, closer Hisashi Takeda gave up a home run to Yoshiyuki Kamei to tie the game, and then gave up a walk-off home run to Abe, resulting in a loss. In a dramatic fashion, the Giants were one win away from the title.

The sixth game at Sapporo Dome featured Masaru Takeda for Nippon-Ham and Shun Tono for the Giants.
However, Giants starter Tono was forced to leave the game after 14 pitches when a batted ball from Shinji Takahashi hit his hand. After that, Utsumi stood in their way. Facing Utsumi, the Nippon-Ham lineup went silent. Nippon-Ham starter Takeda allowed the first run on a grounder by Tani in the 2nd inning, and gave up a second run in the 6th, partly due to an error by Inaba. Nippon-Ham was unable to do anything against Kiyoshi Toyoda, Tetsuya Yamaguchi, Daisuke Ochi, and Krane, losing without scoring a run. They missed out on becoming Japan's number one.

For Nippon-Ham, Shinji Takahashi, who won the Fighting Spirit Award, batted .385 with 2 HRs and 5 RBIs, and Koyano, who won the Outstanding Player Award, performed well with .391, 1 HR, and 5 RBIs.
On the other hand, Inaba hit 2 HRs but had a low batting average of .208, and Sledge hit .182, while Morimoto hit .176; the power hitters in particular were in a slump.

Summary

It is clear that the Nippon-Ham lineup that year had moved away from the poor hitting of the past few years to form a streamlined, powerful lineup, and had formed a strong pitching staff centered around Darvish.
Next year will be Nashida's third year with Nippon-Ham; what kind of season will they have in their quest for their long-cherished Japan title and a repeat championship?

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