2009 Chunichi Dragons season

The 2009 Chunichi Dragons season resulted in an 81-62-1 record and qualification for the 2009 Central League Climax Series. The team was eliminated in the 2nd stage of the playoffs by the Yomiuri Giants. The season started poorly due to the departure of longtime star pitcher Kenshin Kawakami; as the season progressed, the Dragons' pitching improved, led by Taiwanese pitcher Chen Wei-Yin, Kazuki Yoshimi, Kenta Asakura, and left-handed Yudai Kawai, who won eleven games as starting pitcher, including a streak of eight games in a row, before taking his first loss of the season on August 6. Chen had the lowest Earned Run Average of any pitcher in four decades in Japan (1.54) despite having a relatively poor 8-4 starting record.

Offensively, the Dragons had only two batters with over 500 plate appearances hit over .300 for the season, but Dominican slugger Tony Blanco was a surprising success. Despite striking out far and away the most times of anybody on the team (157 K), he hit 39 home runs and made 110 runs while batting .275. Batters Masahiko Morino and Kazuhiro Wada, hit respectively 23 and 29 home runs.

Chunichi finished second in the Central League in the regular season with an 82-61-1 record, and qualified for the 2009 Central League Climax Series. In the first round of the playoffs, they closely defeated the Yakult Swallows 2-1 but were eliminated in the second stage by eventual 2009 Japan Series champions the Yomiuri Giants.

Regular season

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Standings

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2009 Central League regular season standings
Team Pld W L T PCT GB
Yomiuri Giants 144 89 46 9 .649
Chunichi Dragons 144 81 62 1 .566 12
Tokyo Yakult Swallows 144 71 72 1 .497 22
Hanshin Tigers 144 67 73 4 .479 24.5
Hiroshima Carp 144 65 75 4 .465 26.5
Yokohama BayStars 144 51 93 0 .354 42.5
Source: [citation needed]

Game log

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2009 Game Log
April
# Date Opponent Score Win Loss Save Attendance Record
1 April 3 BayStars 4 - 1 Asao (1-0) Miura (0-1) Iwase (1) 37,678 1-0-0
2 April 4 BayStars 6 - 0 Yoshimi (1-0) Glynn (0-1) 36,528 2-0-0
3 April 5 BayStars 6 - 0 Chen (1-0) Kobayashi (0-1) 33,496 3-0-0
4 April 7 @Swallows 3 - 4 Takahashi (1-0) Oshimoto (0-1) Iwase (2) 17,538 4-0-0
5 April 8 @Swallows 8 - 4 Kida (1-0) Nakata (0-1) 15,089 4-1-0
6 April 9 @Swallows 10 - 7 Ishikawa (1-1) Asao (1-1) Lim (2) 14,526 4-2-0
7 April 10 @Carp 3 - 11 Yoshimi (2-0) Lewis (1-1) Nelson (1) 30,618 5-2-0
8 April 11 @Carp 2 - 0 Maeda (2-0) Shimizu (0-1) 30,268 5-3-0
9 April 12 @Carp 10 - 0 Shinoda (1-0) Yamamoto (0-1) 30,139 5-4-0
April 14 @Tigers Postponed (rained out)
10 April 15 @Tigers 2 - 9 Asakura (1-0) Shimoyanagi (1-1) 40,476 6-4-0
11 April 16 @Tigers 4 - 3 Atchison (1-0) Asao (1-2) Fujikawa (2) 40,195 6-5-0
12 April 17 Giants 3 - 5 Tono (2-0) Yoshimi (2-1) Kroon (3) 35,669 6-6-0
13 April 18 Giants 2 - 3 Yamaguchi (1-0) Chen (1-1) Kroon (4) 37,883 6-7-0
14 April 19 Giants 5 - 6 Nishimura (1-0) Nelson (0-1) Kroon (5) 37,815 6-8-0
15 April 21 Tigers 2 - 1 Asakura (2-0) Shimoyanagi (1-2) Iwase (3) 30,434 7-8-0
16 April 22 Tigers 6 - 2 Asao (2-2) Kubota (0-1) Iwase (4) 31,650 8-8-0
17 April 23 Tigers 1 - 4 (12) Fujikawa (1-0) Nelson (0-2) 30,850 8-9-0
18 April 24 @Giants 2 - 3 (10) Kobayashi (1-0) Ochi (2-1) Iwase (5) 42,262 9-9-0
19 April 25 @Giants 5 - 4 Toyoda (1-0) Iwase (0-1) 43,707 9-10-0
20 April 26 @Giants 0 - 8 Kawai (1-0) Greisinger (3-2) 43,020 10-10-0
21 April 28 Swallows 2 - 4 Kida (2-2) Asakura (2-1) Lim (5) 12,115 10-11-0
22 April 29 Swallows 1 - 7 Tateyama (2-0) Asao (2-3) 33,318 10-12-0
23 April 30 Swallows 0 - 3 Ishikawa (3-1) Yoshimi (2-2) Lim (6) 29,184 10-13-0
May
# Date Opponent Score Win Loss Save Attendance Record
24 May 2 @BayStars 6 - 1 Miura (3-2) Yamai (0-1) 21,080 10-14-0
25 May 3 @BayStars 0 - 2 Chen (2-1) Glynn (1-4) 23,920 11-14-0
26 May 4 @BayStars 2 - 4 Saito (1-0) Ishii (0-3) Hirai (1) 22,529 12-14-0
27 May 5 Carp 0 - 2 Otake (2-1) Asakura (2-2) Nagakawa (9) 37,494 12-15-0
28 May 6 Carp 4 - 2 Asao (3-3) Saito (2-2) Iwase (6) 36,159 13-15-0
29 May 7 Carp 4 - 3 Saito (2-0) Umetsu (2-1) 26,978 14-15-0
30 May 8 @Giants 10 - 4 Greisinger (4-2) Yamai (0-2) 42,927 14-16-0
31 May 9 @Giants 3 - 1 Gonzalez (2-0) Chen (2-2) Ochi (3) 42,047 14-17-0
32 May 10 @Giants 8 - 7 Nakamura (1-1) Saito (2-1) Ochi (4) 43,185 14-18-0
33 May 12 Swallows 6 - 3 Asakura (3-2) Ichiba (1-3) Iwase (7) 9,059 15-18-0
34 May 13 Swallows 1 - 7 Ishikawa (5-1) Asao (3-4) 26,258 15-19-0
35 May 14 Swallows 5 - 8 Matsuoka (1-0) Ogasawara (0-1) Lim (11) 25,010 15-20-0
36 May 15 BayStars 1 - 0 (10) Yoshimi (3-2) Ishii (0-4) 27,711 16-20-0
37 May 16 BayStars 2 - 1 (10) Iwase (1-1) Yamaguchi (3-2) 32,869 17-20-0
38 May 17 BayStars 4 - 1 Kawai (2-0) Kobayashi (1-3) Iwase (8) 33,935 18-20-0
39 May 19 @Lions 5 - 7 Asakura (4-2) Onuma (1-3) Iwase (9) 18,110 19-20-0
40 May 20 @Lions 2 - 1 (10) Nogami (1-2) Asao (3-5) 19,203 19-21-0
41 May 22 @Marines 1 - 4 Yoshimi (4-2) Omine (2-2) Iwase (10) 14,660 20-21-0
42 May 23 @Marines 2 - 1 Sikorski (3-2) Hirai (0-1) 28,117 20-22-0
43 May 24 Fighters 1 - 0 Kawai (3-0) Takeda (2-3) Iwase (11) 31,711 21-22-0
44 May 25 Fighters 10 - 4 Asakura (5-2) Itokazu (0-1) 29,051 22-22-0
45 May 27 Eagles 2 - 3 Tanaka (7-0) Takahashi (1-1) Aoyama (2) 32,208 22-23-0
46 May 28 Eagles 2 - 1 (10) Nagamine (1-0) Aoyama (0-2) 28,262 23-23-0
47 May 30 @Hawks 9 - 5 Satō (1-0) Nagamine (1-1) 30,387 23-24-0
48 May 31 @Hawks 5 - 4 Falkenborg (3-0) Takahashi (1-2) 33,231 23-25-0
June
# Date Opponent Score Win Loss Save Attendance Record
49 June 2 @Buffaloes
50 June 3 @Buffaloes
51 June 5 Marines
52 June 6 Marines
53 June 7 Lions
54 June 8 Lions
55 June 10 @Eagles
56 June 11 @Eagles
57 June 13 @Fighters
58 June 14 @Fighters
59 June 16 Hawks
60 June 17 Hawks
61 June 20 Buffaloes
62 June 21 Buffaloes
63 June 26 @Carp
64 June 27 @Carp
65 June 28 @Carp
66 June 30 Tigers
July
# Date Opponent Score Win Loss Save Attendance Record
67 July 1 Tigers
68 July 2 Tigers
69 July 3 Giants
70 July 4 Giants
71 July 5 Giants
72 July 7 @Swallows
73 July 8 @Swallows
74 July 9 @Swallows
75 July 10 Carp
76 July 11 Carp
77 July 12 Carp
78 July 14 @Tigers
79 July 15 @Tigers
80 July 16 @Tigers
81 July 17 @BayStars
82 July 18 @BayStars
83 July 19 @BayStars
84 July 20 Carp
85 July 21 Carp
86 July 22 Carp
87 July 28 @Giants
88 July 29 @Giants
89 July 30 @Giants
90 July 31 @Swallows
August
# Date Opponent Score Win Loss Save Attendance Record
91 August 1 @Swallows
92 August 2 @Swallows
93 August 4 Tigers
94 August 5 Tigers
95 August 6 Tigers
96 August 7 @BayStars
97 August 8 @BayStars
98 August 9 @BayStars
99 August 11 @Tigers
100 August 12 @Tigers
101 August 13 @Tigers
102 August 14 Swallows
103 August 15 Swallows
104 August 16 Swallows
105 August 18 @Carp
106 August 19 @Carp
107 August 20 @Carp
108 August 21 BayStars
109 August 22 BayStars
110 August 23 BayStars
111 August 25 Giants
112 August 26 Giants
113 August 27 Giants
114 August 28 @Swallows
115 August 29 @Swallows
116 August 30 @Swallows
September
# Date Opponent Score Win Loss Save Attendance Record
117 September 1 Carp
118 September 2 Carp
119 September 3 Carp
120 September 5 @BayStars
121 September 6 @BayStars
122 September 8 @Tigers
123 September 9 @Tigers
124 September 10 @Tigers
125 September 11 Swallows
126 September 12 Swallows
127 September 13 Swallows
128 September 15 @Carp
129 September 16 @Carp
130 September 17 @Carp
131 September 18 BayStars
132 September 19 BayStars
133 September 20 BayStars
134 September 21 @Giants
135 September 22 @Giants
136 September 23 @Giants
137 September 25 Tigers
138 September 26 Tigers
139 September 27 Tigers
140 September 28 Giants
141 September 29 Giants
142 September 30 Giants

Player stats

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Batting

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Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI SB

Pitching

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Player G GS IP W L SV ERA SO

References

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