Time flies, and as September comes around, the 2016 Nippon Professional Baseball regular season is entering its closing stage.
Looking at the current standings, this year's Central League champion seems almost certain.
The Yakult Swallows, who sparked an offensive frenzy in the Central League last season with a powerful and explosive batting lineup and eventually climbed to the top, have reverted to their previous form this new season: Team core Yamada Tetsuro's stats remain impressively splendid, but when his teammates are all experiencing a slump, his exceptional skill alone cannot hold up the team — it's hard to believe that this year's bottom-ranked team is the same one that won the Central League last season.
And the ruler of this year's Central League is neither the familiar dominant team Yomiuri Giants nor the Kansai powerhouse Hanshin Tigers, but a team that has been in Class B for years, and hasn't seen the climax battle for ages—
