Fukuoka Softbank Hawks won the 2025 Persol Climax Series Pacific League with a record of 4 wins and 3 losses, securing their place in the SMBC Japan Series 2025 for the second consecutive year. They will face off against Central League champion Hanshin Tigers in a bid to capture the Japan Series title they missed out on last year.

Koshien is the place where this year's interleague championship was decided.

The total record against each other in the exchange games, which began in 2005, is 41-29-4, with Fukuoka Softbank winning the last two games against Hanshin Tigers. In this year's "Nippon Seimei Central-Pa Exchange Games," three straight games were played at Hanshin Koshien Stadium, with the teams winning two games and losing one. Here is a recap of the three games played by the visitors.

In the first game, Moinello pitcher and Odeki Murakami pitcher pitched against each other. 1-1 extra inning in the top of the 10th inning, with two outs and a runner on third base Soichiro Ishizuka Murakami hit a winning run doble to right-center field for a hard-fought 2-1 victory. Fukuoka Softbank The Magic of winning the ACL is now 1.

◇6/20 T-H Game Recap

In the 2nd game, the starter Naoyuki Uwasawa pitcher Hanshin Tigers runs hit On the other hand, the Fukuoka Softbank line was silenced in the middle of the 6th inning by the starter, Kotaro Otake pitcher. The final half of the game also failed to produce one more run, resulting in a 0-3 shutout game loss.

6/21 T-H Game Recap

In the third and final game of this season's exchange tournament against Hanshin Tigers, Fukuoka Softbank got on the board first with a double by Downs in the top of the 4th inning. The starter Haru Matsumoto pitcher strike out runs reliever In the top of the 8th inning, the T-H team got a run back in the bottom of the inning with a run-scoring single by hit. Akira Nakamura In the top of the 8th inning, the team scored a valuable extra run in the 4th inning on a timely triple, and the score was 3-1 win. In the top of the 8th inning, the team scored a run in the 4th inning to win 3-1.

6/22 T-H Game Recap

Akira Nakamura and Yuki Yanagita were active in the series 11 years ago.

This will be Fukuoka Softbank 's second consecutive year in the Japan Series, and Hanshin Tigers 's first time in two years, but this will be the fourth time the two teams have faced off in the Japan Series, including their predecessors. In the past, The Hawks have been crowned champions in all three of those years.

The most recent match was in 2014. Fukuoka Softbank, led by then-manager Koji Akiyama, started off with a loss, but went on to win four straight games from the second game onwards to become the champions of Japan. The only players who played in this series 11 years ago and are still playing for Fukuoka Softbank this season are: Nao Higashihama pitcher, Kenta Imamiya Player Akira Nakamura, Taisei Makihara player, Yuki Yanagita There are five players.

Akira Nakamura who was in his seventh year as a pro at the time, hit a three-run walk-off extra inning home run in Game 4, and Yanagida, who was in his fourth year, contributed with a batting average of .400 in five games. He will be a veteran by 2025, and his mature hitting will surely surprise fans of both teams.

Text by Ayako Kikuchi