2010 Japan Series  The 2010 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 2010 season. It was the 61st Japan Series and featured the Pacific League champions, the Chiba Lotte Marines, against the Central League champions, the Chunichi Dragons. In what was a roller coaster of a year for seemingly the entire Pacific League, the Chiba Lotte Marines finished third in the league behind the second-place Saitama Seibu Lions and the first-place Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. In the first round, Lotte earned the nickname "Miracle Marines" after pulling off two extra-inning wins, the first of which came thanks to a four-run 9th inning comeback against Seibu. Lotte continued their comeback trend after rallying from a 3-games-to-1 deficit against the Hawks to win the Pacific League title, their first since 2005. The team was led by a rookie manager, former player Norifumi Nishimura. Many of the team's components from the 2005 championship year were still in place, as Tsuyoshi Nishioka, Toshiaki Imae, Saburo Ohmura, and Kazuya Fukuura were all still in the lineup and contributing. New faces littered the pitching staff and the lineup, as Yoshihisa Naruse won 13 games and was the ace of the staff, but the Marines' true pitching strength came from the back end of the bullpen, with one-time Major Leaguer Yasuhiko Yabuta, Takuya Furuya and Tatsuya Uchi, all potent middle relievers, setting up for starter-turned-closer Hiroyuki Kobayashi. The Dragons had been perennial contenders in the Central League, but had been ousted in the Climax Series by the Giants each of the last two years. Chunichi took first place in the CL and defeated their rivals to reach the Japan Series, needing just four games to do so. Chunichi owned the lowest team ERA in the league at just 3.29, but were next to last in stolen bases and in team batting average. Despite using 13 different starters during the season, the Dragons still had a potent pitching staff. Taiwanese lefty Wei-Yin Chen led the team with 13 wins, while Kazuki Yoshimi had 12. Like the Marines, the Dragons' strength was the back of their bullpen. Takuya Asao and Akifumi Takahashi made for a potent two-headed relief monster, as they combined for 78 holds.