2011 Pacific League Climax Series

The 2011 Pacific League Climax Series (PLCS) consisted of two consecutive series, Stage 1 being a best-of-three series and Stage 2 being a best-of-six with the top seed being awarded a one-win advantage. The winner of the series advanced to the 2011 Japan Series, where they competed against the 2011 Central League Climax Series winner. The top three regular-season finishers played in the two series. The PLCS began with the first game of Stage 1 on October 29 and ended with the final game of Stage 2 on November 5.

2011 Pacific League Climax Series
First stage
Team (Wins) Manager Season Saitama Seibu Lions (2) Hisanobu Watanabe 68–67–9 (.504), 20½ GB Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (0) Masataka Nashida 72–65–7 (.526), 17½ GB
Dates	October 29–30
Final stage
Team (Wins) Manager Season Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (4) Koji Akiyama 88–46–10 (.657), 17½ GA Saitama Seibu Lions (0) Hisanobu Watanabe 68–67–9 (.504), 20½ GB
Dates	November 3–5
MVP	Seiichi Uchikawa (SoftBank)
← 2010 Climax Series 2012 → 2011 CLCS               2011 Japan Series

First stage

Summary

Saitama Seibu Lions won the series, 2–0.

Game	Date	Score	Location	Time	Attendance
1	October 29	Saitama Seibu Lions – 5, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 2 (11)	Sapporo Dome	3:55	42,063[1]
2	October 30	Saitama Seibu Lions – 8, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 1	Sapporo Dome	3:15	41,926[2]

Game 1

Saturday, October 29, 2011 at Sapporo Dome in Sapporo, Hokkaido

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	R	H	E
Seibu	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	3	5	9	1
Nippon-Ham	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	2	6	1
WP: Kazuhisa Makita (1–0)   LP: Ryo Sakakibara (0–1)

Game 2

Sunday, October 30, 2011 at Sapporo Dome in Sapporo, Hokkaido

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Seibu	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	6	8	13	1
Nippon-Ham	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	7	1
WP: Fumiya Nishiguchi (1–0)   LP: Yuya Ishii (0–1) Home runs: SEI: Takeya Nakamura (1) NIP: Micah Hoffpauir (1)

Final stage

Summary

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks won the series, 4–0*.

Game	Date	Score	Location	Time	Attendance
1	November 3	Saitama Seibu Lions – 2, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 4	Yahoo Dome	2:57	37,025[3]
2	November 4	Saitama Seibu Lions – 2, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 7	Yahoo Dome	3:10	35,021[4]
3	November 5	Saitama Seibu Lions – 1, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks – 2 (12)	Yahoo Dome	4:00	37,025[5]

* The Pacific League regular season champion is given a one-game advantage in the Final Stage.

Game 1

Thursday, November 3, 2011 at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Seibu	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	2	6	0
SoftBank	0	0	2	0	0	2	0	0	X	4	7	0
WP: Tsuyoshi Wada (1–0)   LP: Kazuyuki Hoashi (0–1)   Sv: Takahiro Mahara (1) Home runs: SEI: Takeya Nakamura (1) SOF: None

Game 2

Friday, November 4, 2011 at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Seibu	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	6	0
SoftBank	1	0	0	0	0	2	0	4	X	7	9	0
WP: Tadashi Settsu (1–0)   LP: Takayuki Kishi (0–1) Home runs: SEI: None SOF: Nobuhiro Matsuda (1), Nobuhiko Matsunaka (1)

Game 3

Saturday, November, 2011 at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	R	H	E
Seibu	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	7	0
SoftBank	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1X	2	10	0
WP: Takahiro Mahara (1–0)   LP: Kazuhisa Makita (0–1)

Having won the previous two games and along with the one-game advantage, the Hawks needed a win or a tie to advance to the Japan Series. After the Lions' did not score in the top half of the 12th inning, the Hawks secured a tie game, which ensured that they would advance, however the bottom half of the inning was played anyway. When this situation occurred again in the First Stage of the 2014 Central League Climax Series, the decision was made to not play the bottom half of the last inning.^[6]

References

1. "Saturday, October 29, 2011". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
2. "Sunday, October 30, 2011". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
3. "Thursday, November 3, 2011". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
4. "Friday, November 4, 2011". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
5. "Saturday, November 5, 2011". Nippon Professional Baseball. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
6. Graczyk, Wayne (November 1, 2014). "NPB's quirky playoff rules recipe for confusion". The Japan Times. Retrieved October 18, 2020.