| 2013 NPB season | |
| League: | Nippon Professional Baseball |
| Sport: | Baseball |
| Duration: | March 29 - November 3 |
| Season2: | Central League Pennant |
| League Champs2: | Yomiuri Giants |
| Second Place2: | Hanshin Tigers |
| Mvp2: | Wladimir Balentien (Yakult) |
| Mvp Link2: | Nippon Professional Baseball Most Valuable Player Award |
| Season3: | Pacific League Pennant |
| League Champs3: | Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles |
| Second Place3: | Saitama Seibu Lions |
| Mvp3: | Masahiro Tanaka (Rakuten) |
| Mvp Link3: | Nippon Professional Baseball Most Valuable Player Award |
| Playoffs: | Climax Series |
| Conf1: | CL |
| Conf1 Link: | 2013 Central League Climax Series |
| Conf1 Champ: | Yomiuri Giants |
| Conf1 Runner-Up: | Hiroshima Toyo Carp |
| Conf2: | PL |
| Conf2 Link: | 2013 Pacific League Climax Series |
| Conf2 Champ: | Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles |
| Conf2 Runner-Up: | Chiba Lotte Marines |
| Finals: | Japan Series |
| Finals Link: | 2013 Japan Series |
| Finals Champ: | Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles |
| Finals Runner-Up: | Yomiuri Giants |
| Finals Mvp: | Manabu Mima (Rakuten) |
| Finals Mvp Link: | Japan Series Most Valuable Player Award |
| Seasonslist: | List of Nippon Professional Baseball seasons |
| Seasonslistnames: | NPB |
| Prevseason Link: | 2012 Nippon Professional Baseball season |
| Prevseason Year: | 2012 |
| Nextseason Link: | 2014 Nippon Professional Baseball season |
| Nextseason Year: | 2014 |
The 2013 Nippon Professional Baseball season is the 64th season since the NPB was reorganized in 1950.
At the beginning of the 2013 NPB season, a new livelier ball was introduced in secret. This juiced up baseball allowed more home runs to be scored, leading to Tokyo Yakult Swallows outfielder Wladimir Balentien to break the 55 single season home run record set by Sadaharu Oh and later tied by Tuffy Rhodes and Alex Cabrera.[1] This caused three-term NPB commissioner Ryozo Kato resigning, though he claimed that he did not know about these juiced baseballs.[2]
| G | W | L | T | GB | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yomiuri Giants | 144 | 84 | 53 | 7 | .613 | — | |
| Hanshin Tigers | 144 | 73 | 67 | 4 | .521 | 12.5 | |
| Hiroshima Toyo Carp | 144 | 69 | 72 | 3 | .489 | 17.0 | |
| Chunichi Dragons | 144 | 64 | 77 | 3 | .454 | 22.0 | |
| Yokohama DeNA BayStars | 144 | 64 | 79 | 1 | .448 | 23.0 | |
| Tokyo Yakult Swallows | 144 | 57 | 83 | 4 | .407 | 28.5 |
| G | W | L | T | GB | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles | 144 | 82 | 59 | 3 | .582 | — | |
| Saitama Seibu Lions | 144 | 74 | 66 | 4 | .529 | 7.5 | |
| Chiba Lotte Marines | 144 | 74 | 68 | 2 | .521 | 8.5 | |
| Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | 144 | 73 | 69 | 2 | .514 | 9.5 | |
| Orix Buffaloes | 144 | 66 | 73 | 5 | .475 | 15.0 | |
| Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters | 144 | 64 | 78 | 2 | .451 | 18.5 |
See main article: 2013 Central League Climax Series and 2013 Pacific League Climax Series. Note: All of the games that are played in the first two rounds of the Climax Series are held at the higher seed's home stadium. The team with the higher regular-season standing also advances if the round ends in a tie.
The regular season league champions, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles (PL) and the Yomiuri Giants (CL), received byes to the championship round.
The regular season league champions, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles (PL) and the Yomiuri Giants (CL), received a one-game advantage.
* Postponed from October 20 due to rain[3]
See main article: 2013 Japan Series.
| Player | Team | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batting average | .333 | |||
| Home runs | 60 | |||
| Runs batted in | Tony Blanco | Yokohama DeNA BayStars | 136 | |
| Runs | Wladimir Balentien | Tokyo Yakult Swallows | 94 | |
| Hits | 178 | |||
| Stolen bases | 29 |
| Player | Team | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins | 16 | |||
| Losses | Yokohama DeNA BayStars Tokyo Yakult Swallows | 13 | ||
| Earned run average | 2.10 | |||
| Strikeouts | 183 | |||
| Innings pitched | Randy Messenger | Hanshin Tigers | 196 | |
| Saves | 42 |
| Player | Team | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batting average | .341 | |||
| Home runs | 31 | |||
| Runs batted in | 110 | |||
| Runs | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters | 93 | ||
| Hits | Yuya Hasegawa | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | 198 | |
| Stolen bases | Dai-Kang Yang | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters | 47 |
| Player | Team | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins | 24 | |||
| Losses | 15 | |||
| Earned run average | Masahiro Tanaka | Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles | 1.27 | |
| Strikeouts | 200 | |||
| Innings pitched | Chihiro Kaneko | Orix Buffaloes | 223 | |
| Saves | 33 |
| Team | Games | Total attendance | Attendance Per Game | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41 | 1,666,044 | 40,635 | ||
| Hanshin | 43 | 1,654,301 | 38,472 | |
| SoftBank | 41 | 1,350,604 | 32,942 | |
| Chunichi | 40 | 1,111,064 | 27,777 | |
| Nippon-Ham | 42 | 1,095,307 | 26,079 | |
| Seibu | 41 | 881,118 | 21,491 | |
| Hiroshima | 43 | 853,646 | 19,852 | |
| 42 | 821,848 | 19,568 | ||
| 39 | 731,778 | 18,764 | ||
| Yokohama | 43 | 781,426 | 18,173 | |
| Rakuten | 40 | 675,880 | 16,897 | |
| Lotte | 41 | 684,911 | 16,705 | |
| 538 | 12,307,927 | 297,355 |