The Saitama Seibu Lions, who were at one point as far as nine back of the Chiba Lotte Marines this year in the Pacific League standings, have clawed their way back into the playoff picture.
In fact, the Lions are not just visible to the camera, they're photo-bombing the PL after a charge up the standings and into second place by a half-game going into Friday's action, a run that seemed unlikely a month ago.
"A lot of people probably didn't think this was possible, but here we are again," Seibu right-hander Zach Neal told The Japan News on Thursday by phone.
"There's something about the guys on this team that there is that no-quit attitude. We had bad stretches during the season, we had good stretches, but I always felt that sense of calm, just kind of knowing that things would turn around for us."
The Lions, who won the PL pennant the past two seasons, have a roster full of veterans who haven't flinched under the pressure of a late-season playoff push after the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks already clinched the PL pennant on Oct. 27.
"It's in the DNA. It's just something about us. We try to keep it steady," said Neal, who won a club-record 13 consecutive decisions over a stretch that started last season and continued into this year.
A novel coronavirus-impacted season like this one has added a number of hurdles to the average Nippon Professional Baseball year, including the length of the season.
"I've never played winter ball, but I'm playing it right now," Neal quipped. "My body doesn't really know what's going on, I think. We've been doing this since Feb. 1 and even during the break [between the spring games and the start of the regular season] we were still practicing three days a week."
The stop-and-start nature of a season amid a pandemic has been like a pitch in the dirt for all 12 NPB teams.
And the effects are still being felt, especially when Neal -- who turns 32 on Monday -- has seen his ERA go from 2.87 last year to 5.22 this season.
"I have had some struggles this year that I'm not used to, I will say. Mechanically, physically -- I haven't felt the way I expect to feel on the mound," said Neal, who added he has had to self-evaluate.
"I've kind of had to go back to the drawing board and say, 'What makes me me? What makes me who I am and the success that I've had here already?' [That includes] taking a deep dive into my mechanics, looking at my analytics. So I've started to do that later in the year."
The Lions go head-on against the only other team with a shot to grab second place when they travel to Chiba to face the Lotte Marines on Sunday in what figure to be a showdown for a spot in the PL Climax Series.
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