[ODDS and EVENS] A Singular Focus Lifted the BayStars to the Top in 2024

"All for the win," was the team slogan of the Yokohama DeNA BayStars during the 2024 NPB season. 

It was an apt description of their unified mission, and the BayStars captured their first Japan Series title since 1998 on November 3.

Nine days later, manager Daisuke Miura and catcher Yasutaka Tobashira represented the BayStars organization during a news conference at The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ) in Tokyo.

The event was a happy occasion for Miura and Tobashira to look back on the team's success in the playoffs (winning the first and final stages of the Central League Climax Series against the 2023 champion Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants) and then the Japan Series over the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.

At the outset of the press gathering, sports reporter Jim Armstrong, a regular contributor to JAPAN Forward and SportsLook, asked Miura to describe the team's mood after it lost the first two games of the Japan Series to the Hawks at Yokohama Stadium. 

After dropping Game 2 on October 27, the BayStars had a day off before facing the Hawks again on October 29 at Mizuho PayPay Dome in Fukuoka.

"While practicing, our team members were really looking ahead, looking forward. They were not down at all," Miura recalled of the October 28 practice. "And although I thought maybe I should gather all the players and have a meeting, at that time I heard from [Shugo] Maki, who is our captain, that, yeah, he would like to gather members and have a meeting of the players alone.

"And when I heard that, I thought this is going to be OK because the players are taking the initiative to do something about the situation."

Players-Only Meeting Pays Off for BayStars

Miura, a starting pitcher on the BayStars' 1998 championship team, recognized that the players-only meeting was a positive development. By having that meeting, he said they were able to "change their mindset, so after the two losses the players were not down at all."

A quick reminder: SoftBank triumphed 5-3 in Game 1 and 6-3 in Game 2 before Yokohama began its unforgettable comeback against a team that won 20 more games (an NPB-best 91) in the regular season. 

It's also worth pointing out that the BayStars had the lowest winning percentage (.507 ― for their 71-69-3 regular-season record) of any team that's ever appeared in the Japan Series.

Steady leadership helped the BayStars overcome the odds. Miura maintained a positive attitude throughout the playoffs, telling the players, "If you make a mistake, if you make an error, just forget about it immediately."

And the BayStars seized control of the Japan Series with victories in Game 3 (4-1), Game 4 (5-0) and Game 5 (7-0) in Fukuoka on October 29-31.

A Team Joke Becomes Reality

Before the 2024 season started, Tobashira had playful conversations with former BayStars pitcher Shota Imanaga, who left the team and joined MLB's Chicago Cubs this year. 

"We are going to win the championship, we are going to win the Japan Series and you will regret it (leaving)," Tobashira shared at the FCCJ.

Added Tobashira, "That's the kind of joke that we were having before the season started, then we actually won the Japan Series and after we won the Japan Series I got in touch with Imanaga and talked about that. We are in this kind of relationship where we can always play with our jokes and so forth."

What was Imanaga's reaction to the BayStars' title-winning feat?

"He said he was very, very glad the team won the Japan Series," Tobashira stated.

How the BayStars Effectively Shut Down the Hawks

Of course, Miura and his coaching staff and Tobashira and the other BayStars players knew all about the Hawks' potent offense before the Japan Series began. Most notably, Hotaka Yamakawa led NPB with 34 home runs and 99 RBIs during the regular season.

Looking back, holding the Hawks to only one run in Games 3-5 was an impressive collaborative effort that began before any of those contests were played.

Tobashira described the prep work that was involved: "We took the learnings from Games 1 and 2 and I told the pitchers that they can feel comfortable in throwing the pitches that I ask them to. And we did a lot of research about the batters of the SoftBank Hawks and we did a lot of meetings before the games."

Like Miura downplaying fielding mistakes, Tobashira emphasized to the team's pitchers that allowing solo home runs is "OK, that's no problem."

From Game 3 until the series-clinching win on November 3, an 11-2 triumph, Tobashi observed that the BayStars' strong pitching was "the decisive factor."

Leadership Sets the Tone for the BayStars

During the 2024 season and throughout the playoffs, veteran BayStars players, including Maki, Japan Series MVP Masayuki Kuwahara and former MLB player Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, made important contributions.

For instance, Kuwahara batted .391 against the Hawks, while Tsutsugo drove in four runs in Game 6.

Veteran players also made a profound impact through their leadership, on and off the field.

As Miura pointed out, "The veteran players took the initiative of organizing meetings, and in that way they indeed motivated the other young players. And it was not just during the games but also in practices. There were no barriers between the veteran players and the young players."

Miura provided a revealing example of the team's growth and stronger bonds formed between players as the season progressed.

Upon his return to the BayStars in 2024 after his departure following the 2019 season to play in MLB, Tsutsugo, now 32, was nervous at first around Yokohama's younger players, according to Miura. Initially, that mood was reciprocated by the younger players when they were around him, the manager also noted.

So what loosened the atmosphere?

"Tsutsugo himself made efforts to communicate more with the young players," Miura said. "And by doing that there was this atmosphere in the team where age doesn't matter, whether it's on the field or in the clubhouse. And that's the factor which led to this feeling of unity that we are playing as one team."

RELATED:

• BayStars Overwhelm Hawks to Capture Their 1st Japan Series Title in 26 Years
• BayStars Move to Brink of Japan Series Title with 3rd Consecutive Road Win

Author: Ed Odeven

Find Ed on JAPAN Forward's dedicated website, SportsLook. Follow his [Japan Sports Notebook] on Sundays, [Odds and Evens] during the week, and X (formerly Twitter) ＠ed_odeven.