2012 Nippon Professional Baseball season

This article is about the 2012 Nippon Professional Baseball season only. For information on all of baseball, see 2012 in baseball.
2012 NPB season
League Nippon Professional Baseball
Sport Baseball
Duration March 30, 2012 – November 3, 2012
Central League Pennant
League champions Yomiuri Giants
  Runners-up Chunichi Dragons
Season MVP Shinnosuke Abe (YOM)
Pacific League Pennant
League champions Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
  Runners-up Saitama Seibu Lions
Season MVP Mitsuo Yoshikawa (NIP)
Climax Series
CL champions Yomiuri Giants
  CL runners-up Chunichi Dragons
PL champions Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
  PL runners-up Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
Japan Series
Champions Yomiuri Giants
  Runners-up Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
Japan Series MVP Tetsuya Utsumi (YOM)

Regular season standings

Central League regular season standings
Team G W L T Pct. GB
Yomiuri Giants 144 86 43 15 .667 —
Chunichi Dragons 144 75 53 16 .586 10.5
Tokyo Yakult Swallows 144 68 65 11 .511 20.0
Hiroshima Toyo Carp 144 61 71 12 .462 26.5
Hanshin Tigers 144 55 75 14 .423 31.5
Yokohama DeNA BayStars 144 46 85 13 .351 41.0
Pacific League regular season standings
Team G W L T Pct. GB
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 144 74 59 11 .556 —
Saitama Seibu Lions 144 72 63 9 .533 3.0
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 144 67 65 12 .508 6.5
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 144 67 67 10 .500 7.5
Chiba Lotte Marines 144 62 67 15 .481 10.0
Orix Buffaloes 144 57 77 10 .425 17.5

Climax Series

Note: All of the games that are played in the first two rounds of the Climax Series are held at the higher seed's home stadium. The team with the higher regular-season standing also advances if the round ends in a tie.

  First stage     Final stage     2012 Japan Series
                           
  Central League     C1  Yomiuri Giants 4  
  C2  Chunichi Dragons 2     C2  Chunichi Dragons 3    
  C3  Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1         C1  Yomiuri Giants 4
      P1  Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 2
  Pacific League     P1  Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 4    
  P2  Saitama Seibu Lions 1     P3  Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 0  
  P3  Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 2  

First stage

The regular season league champions, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (PL) and the Yomiuri Giants (CL), received byes to the championship round.

Central League

Chunichi Dragons (2) vs. Tokyo Yakult Swallows (1)

GameDateScoreLocationTimeAttendance
1October 13Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 1, Chunichi Dragons – 6Nagoya Dome3:1131,146[1]
2October 14Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 1, Chunichi Dragons – 0Nagoya Dome3:2633,852[2] 
3October 15Tokyo Yakult Swallows – 1, Chunichi Dragons – 4Nagoya Dome3:3923,264[3]

Pacific League

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (2) vs. Saitama Seibu Lions (1)

GameDateScoreLocationTimeAttendance
1October 13Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 2, Saitama Seibu Lions – 1Seibu Dome2:5432,074[4]
2October 14Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 0, Saitama Seibu Lions – 8Seibu Dome3:2333,918[5] 
3October 15Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 3, Saitama Seibu Lions – 2Seibu Dome3:2325,002[6]

Final stage

The regular season league champions, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (PL) and the Yomiuri Giants (CL), received a one-game advantage.

Central League

Yomiuri Giants (4) vs. Chunichi Dragons (3)

GameDateScoreLocationTimeAttendance
1October 17Chunichi Dragons – 3, Yomiuri Giants – 1Tokyo Dome3:2140,039[7]
2October 18Chunichi Dragons – 5, Yomiuri Giants – 2Tokyo Dome3:4039,135[8] 
3October 19Chunichi Dragons – 5, Yomiuri Giants – 4Tokyo Dome3:4144,744[9] 
4October 20Chunichi Dragons – 1, Yomiuri Giants – 3Tokyo Dome2:5746,158[10] 
5October 21Chunichi Dragons – 2, Yomiuri Giants – 3Tokyo Dome3:4045,897[11] 
6October 22Chunichi Dragons – 2, Yomiuri Giants – 4Tokyo Dome3:1844,351[12]

Pacific League

Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (4) vs. Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (0)

GameDateScoreLocationTimeAttendance
1October 17Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 2, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 3Sapporo Dome2:5631,022[13]
2October 18Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 0, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 3Sapporo Dome3:1723,610[14] 
3October 19Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 2, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 4Sapporo Dome3:1637,166[15]

Japan Series

Main article: 2012 Japan Series

CL Yomiuri Giants (4) vs. PL Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (2)

GameDateScoreLocationTimeAttendance
1October 27Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 1, Yomiuri Giants – 8Tokyo Dome3:1344,981[16]
2October 28Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 0, Yomiuri Giants – 1Tokyo Dome2:5144,932[17] 
3October 30Yomiuri Giants – 3, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 7Sapporo Dome4:0436,942[18] 
4October 31Yomiuri Giants – 0, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 1Sapporo Dome4:1540,433[19] 
5November 1Yomiuri Giants – 10, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 2Sapporo Dome3:5240,579[20] 
6November 3Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 3, Yomiuri Giants – 4Tokyo Dome3:2245,018[21]

League leaders

Central League

Batting leaders
Stat Player Team Total
Batting Average Shinnosuke Abe Yomiuri Giants .340
Home runs Wladimir Balentien Tokyo Yakult Swallows 31
Runs batted in Shinnosuke Abe Yomiuri Giants 104
Runs Hayato Sakamoto Yomiuri Giants 87
Hits Hayato Sakamoto
Hisayoshi Chono 		Yomiuri Giants
Yomiuri Giants 		173
Stolen bases Yohei Oshima Chunichi Dragons 32
Pitching leaders
Stat Player Team Total
Wins Tetsuya Utsumi Yomiuri Giants 15
Losses Bryan Bullington
Minoru Iwata 		Hiroshima Toyo Carp
Hanshin Tigers 		14
Earned run average Kenta Maeda Hiroshima Toyo Carp 1.53
Strikeouts Toshiya Sugiuchi
Atsushi Nomi 		Yomiuri Giants
Hanshin Tigers 		172
Innings pitched Kenta Maeda Hiroshima Toyo Carp 2061⁄3
Saves Tony Barnette
Hitoki Iwase 		Tokyo Yakult Swallows
Chunichi Dragons 		33

Pacific League

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2012 in Nippon Professional Baseball.
  1. ↑ "Saturday, October 13, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Sunday, October 14, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Monday, October 15, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Saturday, October 13, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Sunday, October 14, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Monday, October 15, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Wednesday, October 17, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Thursday, October 18, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Friday, October 19, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
  10. ↑ "Saturday, October 20, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
  11. ↑ "Sunday, October 21, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Monday, October 22, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
  13. ↑ "Wednesday, October 17, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  14. ↑ "Thursday, October 18, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  15. ↑ "Friday, October 19, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  16. ↑ "Saturday, October 27, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved October 27, 2012.
  17. ↑ "Sunday, October 28, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
  18. ↑ "Tuesday, October 30, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
  19. ↑ "Wednesday, October 31, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
  20. ↑ "Thursday, November 1, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
  21. ↑ "Saturday, November 3, 2012". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved November 3, 2012.