The 2024 BayStars finished third, played every Climax Series game on the road — and still won the Japan Series, ending a 26-year title drought with one of the greatest upsets in NPB history.
The club
The Yokohama DeNA BayStars play at Yokohama Stadium, in the heart of Yokohama. The club has won the Japan Series three times: 1960, 1998 and 2024 — the third of those under DeNA ownership, which began in 2012.
2024: the upset
After finishing third in the Central League (71–69–3), the BayStars knocked out the defending champion Hanshin Tigers and the league-winning Yomiuri Giants in the Climax Series — every game away from home. In the Japan Series they lost the first two games to the SoftBank Hawks, then won four straight.
29 scoreless innings
During that four-game streak, DeNA kept the Hawks scoreless for 29 consecutive innings — a Japan Series record. Masayuki Kuwahara was named MVP, and manager Daisuke Miura finally lifted a title after the heartbreak of 2017, when the Hawks rallied in the ninth inning of Game 6.
Why it matters
DeNA became only the second third-place team ever to win the Japan Series (after the 2010 Marines) and the first Central League team to do it — the smallest regular-season winning percentage ever to take the title.
Two losses down, four straight wins, 29 innings of silence for the Hawks.
How to experience it
Tickets for dome and stadium games are covered in our ticket guide, and watching from abroad in our overseas viewing guide. New to NPB? Start with what NPB is.