October Schedule

The "予備" means that they're scheduled just in case. In other words, if there's a game between the two teams that needs to be made up. Games marked with "preliminary" (the above Kanji) are still up in the air.

In past years, there have been some teams (Yokohama being one) who were playing all the way to the last couple of days before the Nippon Series.

- ...can I be fairly sure that the Swallows will be playing at home on the 9th and the Carp will be playing at home on the 14th?

Yes, you can. Those are now officially part of the schedule.

- And why would the Dragons have make-up games scheduled at home if they play in a dome?

One of two reasons:

1. The Dragons were rained out at a third-party field where they were hosting.
2. Nagoya Dome was closed for customer safty reasons when a typhoon came through.

In the first case, games tend to be made up at the team's primary home, which is unfortunate for the people out in the rural areas who get Pro Yakyu coming to their town just once (or twice) a year. The Dragons and Carp were rained out at Hamamatsu on August 8, so I think that this is what the make up game on October 6 is for.

I don't see any canceled games at Nagoya Dome this year, but there have been both there and at Tokyo Dome in the past.

Michael, do you see any makeup games September 26 through October 4?

Thank you.

Schedules taken from official NPB site (in Japanese): September CL, October CL.

9/28 (Thu)
6:20 Giants vs. Swallows (Jingu)
6:00 BayStars vs. Dragons (Nagoya Dome)
6:00 Carp vs. Tigers (Koshien)

9/29 (Fri)
6:00 Swallows vs. BayStars (Yokohama)
6:00 Dragons vs. Tigers (Koshien)

9/30 (Sat)
6:00 Carp vs. Giants (Tokyo Dome)
2:00 Swallows vs. BayStars (Yokohama)
2:00 Dragons vs. Tigers (Koshien)

10/1 (Sun)
6:00 Carp vs. Giants (Tokyo Dome)
1:00 Swallows vs. BayStars (Yokohama)
2:00 Dragons vs. Tigers (Koshien)

10/2 (Mon)

10/3 (Tue)
6:00 BayStars vs. Giants (Tokyo Dome)
6:20 Tigers vs. Swallows (Jingu)
6:00 Carp vs. Dragons (Nagoya Dome)

10/4 (Wed)
6:00 BayStars vs. Giants (Tokyo Dome)
6:20 Tigers vs. Swallows (Jingu)
6:00 Carp vs. Dragons (Nagoya Dome)

Beautiful! Arigato, Westbay-san! You've allowed me to add Friday's Yokohama game to my schedule.