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The story
On October 11, 2026, the Yomiuri Giants went 0-2 in the Central League Climax Series First Stage at their home ballpark, Tokyo Dome, losing both games to DeNA and getting eliminated. According to Sports Nippon, boos rang out from the stands after the game when interim manager Hashigami and the players went over to greet fans along the first-base side. With the Giants having finished the regular season in 2nd place only to suffer this shocking sweep, reactions on 5ch were split — some said they couldn’t even tell if it was booing or cheering, others mocked the team’s weak lineup, and still others questioned the fairness of a Climax Series format that favors the 2nd- and 3rd-place teams.
October 11, 2026, 17:16 — Baseball
Sports Nippon Annex News Team
[Central League Climax Series First Stage, Game 1: Giants 1–4 DeNA (October 11, 2026, Tokyo Dome)] The Giants, who finished the regular season in 2nd place, suffered a shocking sweep and were eliminated in the First Stage. After the game ended, when interim manager Hashigami, the coaching staff, and players went to greet fans along the first-base side, boos rang out from the stadium.
Source: sponichi.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
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Did you seriously expect something from them?
Quit picking on the weak
They should just make the whole stadium orange like MLB does
For a team that failed to win the pennant, reaching the Japan Series would've been nothing but a disgrace
Fortunately, the Giants have managed to avoid any embarrassing underdog upsets since the CS format was introduced
Starting tomorrow they can focus entirely on next season without worrying about the postseason
This is how it should be
The Giants have been on the losing end of underdog upsets plenty of times
If that was supposed to be a joke, at least make it funny
He's not a homegrown player, but he was with the team for a good stretch too
If "homegrown, Giants-only career" were the requirement to manage the Giants, the candidate pool would be really limited lol
Even Hideki Matsui would be disqualified by that standard
Everyone else is basically a nobody
You'd know Miyata and Tazaki too then, if you know those two
That's got nothing to do with it — it's chronic lack of hitting power. They just lost because they couldn't hit, which is just about their real ability.
With this format I don't think it matters whether you finish 2nd or 3rd
It's only fair that the 1st-place team advances to the Japan Series anyway — 2nd and 3rd place are both just losers in the end
Getting the gate revenue alone is plenty of a perk for 2nd place
There's gate revenue, you know (DeNA had to cover all their own costs out of pocket)
They get to host up to 3 sellout games — business-wise it's a night-and-day difference
It would actually be a problem if interim manager Hashigami won the whole thing
This 2-game CS losing streak gives them an excuse to cut him loose
1 win and 2 losses would've been the best outcome
Maybe the team's gutless performance down the stretch was also because winning would've complicated the question of whether he stays
Honestly, they did well considering how many guys were out injured
Not tomorrow, but isn't game one Murakami vs. Taira?
MLB plays more regular season games than NPB and they're already further along in their postseason
If they cut it short with "no meaningless games!", the money coming in would shrink, wouldn't it?
Because rained-out games get pushed to the end of the schedule
Makes me nostalgic for the days they'd stockpile cleanup hitters through free agency
Nowadays everyone just goes to the majors
I've heard that back in the day you could watch Pacific League games for free, so isn't the Pacific League actually more popular now than it used to be?
No idea about the Central League though
If you're going to copy MLB, the playoffs actually need to decide the champion
That's the whole point of a playoff system in the first place
Background and talking points
The current Climax Series format was introduced in 2007; the First Stage pits the league’s 2nd- and 3rd-place finishers against each other in a series where whoever wins two games first advances. There’s no built-in game advantage for the 2nd-place team in the matchup itself — their only edge is hosting every game and keeping the gate revenue. The thread’s question of “what’s really the difference between 2nd and 3rd place” was a jab at this system design, with posters contrasting it against the fact that DeNA had to cover all its own costs for every game it played. Meanwhile, on the postgame boos, even some fans who were actually at the ballpark said they couldn’t tell if it was booing or cheering — meaning the “boos” reported as fact by the media may really have only reflected part of the crowd’s reaction. The Giants finished 2nd for the season, but their sluggish offense was largely a product of a string of key players being sidelined, and some pushed back on tying that directly to interim manager Hashigami’s future with the club.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Yomiuri] Giants booed by fans after First Stage elimination — swept at home in Tokyo Dome by DeNA to end the season,” available here.
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