# 2009 Chunichi Dragons season

The 2009 Chunichi Dragons season resulted in an 81-62-1 record and qualification for the 2009 Central League Climax Series. The team was eliminated in the 2nd stage of the playoffs by the Yomiuri Giants. The season started poorly due to the departure of longtime star pitcher Kenshin Kawakami; as the season progressed, the Dragons' pitching improved, led by Taiwanese pitcher Chen Wei-Yin, Kazuki Yoshimi, Kenta Asakura, and left-handed Yudai Kawai, who won eleven games as starting pitcher, including a streak of eight games in a row, before taking his first loss of the season on August 6. Chen had the lowest Earned Run Average of any pitcher in four decades in Japan (1.54) despite having a relatively poor 8-4 starting record.
Offensively, the Dragons had only two batters with over 500 plate appearances hit over .300 for the season, but Dominican slugger Tony Blanco was a surprising success. Despite striking out far and away the most times of anybody on the team (157 K), he hit 39 home runs and made 110 runs while batting .275. Batters Masahiko Morino and Kazuhiro Wada, hit respectively 23 and 29 home runs.
Chunichi finished second in the Central League in the regular season with an 82-61-1 record, and qualified for the 2009 Central League Climax Series. In the first round of the playoffs, they closely defeated the Yakult Swallows 2-1 but were eliminated in the second stage by eventual 2009 Japan Series champions the Yomiuri Giants.

## Regular season
### Standings

2009 Central League regular season standings :
| Teamvte | Pld | W | L | T | PCT | GB |
| Yomiuri Giants | 144 | 89 | 46 | 9 | .649 | — |
| Chunichi Dragons | 144 | 81 | 62 | 1 | .566 | 12 |
| Tokyo Yakult Swallows | 144 | 71 | 72 | 1 | .497 | 22 |
| Hanshin Tigers | 144 | 67 | 73 | 4 | .479 | 24.5 |
| Hiroshima Carp | 144 | 65 | 75 | 4 | .465 | 26.5 |
| Yokohama BayStars | 144 | 51 | 93 | 0 | .354 | 42.5 |

### Game log

2009 Game Log :
April
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecord
1April 3BayStars4 - 1Asao (1-0)Miura (0-1)Iwase (1)37,6781-0-0
2April 4BayStars6 - 0Yoshimi (1-0)Glynn (0-1)36,5282-0-0
3April 5BayStars6 - 0Chen (1-0)Kobayashi (0-1)33,4963-0-0
4April 7@Swallows3 - 4Takahashi (1-0)Oshimoto (0-1)Iwase (2)17,5384-0-0
5April 8@Swallows8 - 4Kida (1-0)Nakata (0-1)15,0894-1-0
6April 9@Swallows10 - 7Ishikawa (1-1)Asao (1-1)Lim (2)14,5264-2-0
7April 10@Carp3 - 11Yoshimi (2-0)Lewis (1-1)Nelson (1)30,6185-2-0
8April 11@Carp2 - 0Maeda (2-0)Shimizu (0-1)30,2685-3-0
9April 12@Carp10 - 0Shinoda (1-0)Yamamoto (0-1)30,1395-4-0
—April 14@TigersPostponed (rained out)
10April 15@Tigers2 - 9Asakura (1-0)Shimoyanagi (1-1)40,4766-4-0
11April 16@Tigers4 - 3Atchison (1-0)Asao (1-2)Fujikawa (2)40,1956-5-0
12April 17Giants3 - 5Tono (2-0)Yoshimi (2-1)Kroon (3)35,6696-6-0
13April 18Giants2 - 3Yamaguchi (1-0)Chen (1-1)Kroon (4)37,8836-7-0
14April 19Giants5 - 6Nishimura (1-0)Nelson (0-1)Kroon (5)37,8156-8-0
15April 21Tigers2 - 1Asakura (2-0)Shimoyanagi (1-2)Iwase (3)30,4347-8-0
16April 22Tigers6 - 2Asao (2-2)Kubota (0-1)Iwase (4)31,6508-8-0
17April 23Tigers1 - 4 (12)Fujikawa (1-0)Nelson (0-2)30,8508-9-0
18April 24@Giants2 - 3 (10)Kobayashi (1-0)Ochi (2-1)Iwase (5)42,2629-9-0
19April 25@Giants5 - 4Toyoda (1-0)Iwase (0-1)43,7079-10-0
20April 26@Giants0 - 8Kawai (1-0)Greisinger (3-2)43,02010-10-0
21April 28Swallows2 - 4Kida (2-2)Asakura (2-1)Lim (5)12,11510-11-0
22April 29Swallows1 - 7Tateyama (2-0)Asao (2-3)33,31810-12-0
23April 30Swallows0 - 3Ishikawa (3-1)Yoshimi (2-2)Lim (6)29,18410-13-0 :
May
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecord
24May 2@BayStars6 - 1Miura (3-2)Yamai (0-1)21,08010-14-0
25May 3@BayStars0 - 2Chen (2-1)Glynn (1-4)23,92011-14-0
26May 4@BayStars2 - 4Saito (1-0)Ishii (0-3)Hirai (1)22,52912-14-0
27May 5Carp0 - 2Otake (2-1)Asakura (2-2)Nagakawa (9)37,49412-15-0
28May 6Carp4 - 2Asao (3-3)Saito (2-2)Iwase (6)36,15913-15-0
29May 7Carp4 - 3Saito (2-0)Umetsu (2-1)26,97814-15-0
30May 8@Giants10 - 4Greisinger (4-2)Yamai (0-2)42,92714-16-0
31May 9@Giants3 - 1Gonzalez (2-0)Chen (2-2)Ochi (3)42,04714-17-0
32May 10@Giants8 - 7Nakamura (1-1)Saito (2-1)Ochi (4)43,18514-18-0
33May 12Swallows6 - 3Asakura (3-2)Ichiba (1-3)Iwase (7)9,05915-18-0
34May 13Swallows1 - 7Ishikawa (5-1)Asao (3-4)26,25815-19-0
35May 14Swallows5 - 8Matsuoka (1-0)Ogasawara (0-1)Lim (11)25,01015-20-0
36May 15BayStars1 - 0 (10)Yoshimi (3-2)Ishii (0-4)27,71116-20-0
37May 16BayStars2 - 1 (10)Iwase (1-1)Yamaguchi (3-2)32,86917-20-0
38May 17BayStars4 - 1Kawai (2-0)Kobayashi (1-3)Iwase (8)33,93518-20-0
39May 19@Lions5 - 7Asakura (4-2)Onuma (1-3)Iwase (9)18,11019-20-0
40May 20@Lions2 - 1 (10)Nogami (1-2)Asao (3-5)19,20319-21-0
41May 22@Marines1 - 4Yoshimi (4-2)Omine (2-2)Iwase (10)14,66020-21-0
42May 23@Marines2 - 1Sikorski (3-2)Hirai (0-1)28,11720-22-0
43May 24Fighters1 - 0Kawai (3-0)Takeda (2-3)Iwase (11)31,71121-22-0
44May 25Fighters10 - 4Asakura (5-2)Itokazu (0-1)29,05122-22-0
45May 27Eagles2 - 3Tanaka (7-0)Takahashi (1-1)Aoyama (2)32,20822-23-0
46May 28Eagles2 - 1 (10)Nagamine (1-0)Aoyama (0-2)28,26223-23-0
47May 30@Hawks9 - 5Satō (1-0)Nagamine (1-1)30,38723-24-0
48May 31@Hawks5 - 4Falkenborg (3-0)Takahashi (1-2)33,23123-25-0 :
June
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecord
49June 2@Buffaloes
50June 3@Buffaloes
51June 5Marines
52June 6Marines
53June 7Lions
54June 8Lions
55June 10@Eagles
56June 11@Eagles
57June 13@Fighters
58June 14@Fighters
59June 16Hawks
60June 17Hawks
61June 20Buffaloes
62June 21Buffaloes
63June 26@Carp
64June 27@Carp
65June 28@Carp
66June 30Tigers :
July
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecord
67July 1Tigers
68July 2Tigers
69July 3Giants
70July 4Giants
71July 5Giants
72July 7@Swallows
73July 8@Swallows
74July 9@Swallows
75July 10Carp
76July 11Carp
77July 12Carp
78July 14@Tigers
79July 15@Tigers
80July 16@Tigers
81July 17@BayStars
82July 18@BayStars
83July 19@BayStars
84July 20Carp
85July 21Carp
86July 22Carp
87July 28@Giants
88July 29@Giants
89July 30@Giants
90July 31@Swallows :
August
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecord
91August 1@Swallows
92August 2@Swallows
93August 4Tigers
94August 5Tigers
95August 6Tigers
96August 7@BayStars
97August 8@BayStars
98August 9@BayStars
99August 11@Tigers
100August 12@Tigers
101August 13@Tigers
102August 14Swallows
103August 15Swallows
104August 16Swallows
105August 18@Carp
106August 19@Carp
107August 20@Carp
108August 21BayStars
109August 22BayStars
110August 23BayStars
111August 25Giants
112August 26Giants
113August 27Giants
114August 28@Swallows
115August 29@Swallows
116August 30@Swallows :
September
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecord
117September 1Carp
118September 2Carp
119September 3Carp
120September 5@BayStars
121September 6@BayStars
122September 8@Tigers
123September 9@Tigers
124September 10@Tigers
125September 11Swallows
126September 12Swallows
127September 13Swallows
128September 15@Carp
129September 16@Carp
130September 17@Carp
131September 18BayStars
132September 19BayStars
133September 20BayStars
134September 21@Giants
135September 22@Giants
136September 23@Giants
137September 25Tigers
138September 26Tigers
139September 27Tigers
140September 28Giants
141September 29Giants
142September 30Giants :

## Player stats
### Batting

| Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI | SB |

### Pitching

| Player | G | GS | IP | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |