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.