SMBC Japan Series 2026 Game 4: Softbank Hawks 4-2 DeNA (28th, Mizuho PayPay)

The Softbank Hawks defeated DeNA with four consecutive wins to secure their 13th Japan Series title, winning for the second year in a row.

This marks the 8th time in history, and the first time in 6 years since the 2020 Softbank Hawks (against The Giants), that a 'sweep' has been achieved with four consecutive undefeated wins. Including its predecessors, The Hawks have accounted for 4 of these 8 instances, which is half of the total.

The first-ever Japan Series sweep occurred in 1959 with Nankai. The Hawks, led by manager Kazuto Tsuruoka, won four consecutive games against The Giants. Softbank Hawks swept The Giants for two consecutive years in 2019 and 2020 during the era of manager Kudo. The Giants have lost after four straight defeats from the opening game a total of four times.

In terms of a vivid four-game sweep that remains fresh in memory, it would be the 2005 Lotte. Led by Manager Valentine, who advanced through the post season, Lotte overwhelmed the Okada-led Hanshin Tigers with a total score of 33-4 across four games (10-1, 10-0, 10-1, 3-2).

Past Japan Series 4-game sweeps, key players, and MVP winners

1959 Nankai (vs. The Giants)

Main players = Katsuya Nomura, Kohei Sugiyama, Tadashi Sugiura, Masatoshi Haraikawa (Shigeo Nagashima, Motoshi Fujita)

MVP = Tadashi Sugiura

1960 Taiyo (vs. Daimai)

Kazuhiko Kondo, Takeshi Kuwata, Noboru Akiyama, Gentaro Shimada (Kihachi Enomoto, Kazuhiro Yamauchi, Shoichi Ono)

MVP = Akihito Kondo

1990 Seibu Lions (vs. The Giants)

Koji Akiyama, Kazuhiro Kiyohara, Orestes Destrade, Hisanobu Watanabe, Tomoo Watanabe (Tatsunori Hara, Masaki Saito)

MVP = Destrade

2002 The Giants (vs Seibu Lions)

Hideki Matsui, Yoshinobu Takahashi, Koji Uehara, Masumi Kuwata (Cabrera, Kazuo Matsui, Fumiya Nishiguchi)

MVP = Tomohiro Nioka

2005 Lotte (vs. Hanshin Tigers)

Franco, Lee Seung-yuop, Shunsuke Watanabe, Masahide Kobayashi (Tomoaki Kanemoto, Kei Igawa)

MVP = Toshiaki Imae

2019 Softbank Hawks (vs. The Giants)

Nobuhiro Matsuda, Despaigne, Kodai Senga, Rei Takahashi (Hayato Sakamoto, Shun Yamaguchi)

MVP = Gracial

2020 Softbank Hawks (vs. The Giants)

Yuki Yanagita, Ukyo Shuto, Kodai Senga, Shuta Ishikawa (Kazuma Okamoto, Tomoyuki Sugano)

MVP = Ryoya Kurihara