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Pick a club to highlight its line and dim the others. Press it again to reset.
Games over .500
Balance = wins minus losses. The horizontal zero line is the .500 mark. The ▼ marks along the top of the plot show the days the lead changed hands, colored for the new leader.
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Lead changes in the Central League this season: 17. Standings over time
Win-loss calendar
A tall dark cell is a win, a short light cell a loss, and a thin line a tie - the heights keep the chart readable even without color. Doubleheaders split the day's cell vertically.
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Season highlights
Days in first place are counted per day with games played.
The estimated figures are worked out by this site and are not official announcements.
What 'games over .500' means
The balance is wins minus losses: a club '10 games over' has ten more wins than losses, while a negative balance is nicknamed 'debt' (shakkin) in Japanese baseball. Each win adds one and each loss subtracts one, which makes momentum swings easier to follow than winning percentage.
Ties count as neither result and leave the balance untouched. But NPB standings are decided by winning percentage with ties excluded from the denominator, so the number of ties still affects the order - which is why the balance order and the standings order can differ.
How to read the charts
Each league chart draws six lines in club colors, with the abbreviation and current balance attached directly to the end of each line. The horizontal zero line marks .500, and the lightly shaded span is the interleague period. Badges on the chart mark the season-high balance and a recent lead change. The small ▼ marks along the top edge record every day the lead changed hands, in the color of the new leader.
More balance but lower in the table
Because NPB standings run on winning percentage, a club can hold a bigger balance yet sit lower in the table: a team with more ties has fewer decisions in the denominator, so the same balance yields a higher percentage. Down the stretch, the tie count can matter as much as the balance itself.
Frequently asked questions
What do 'savings' and 'debt' mean in Japanese baseball?
They are Japanese baseball idioms for the win-loss balance: 'savings' (chokin) is a positive balance and 'debt' (shakkin) a negative one. Ten games of savings means ten more wins than losses.
How do ties affect the balance?
They do not move it - a tie counts as neither a win nor a loss. But in the winning percentage that decides the standings, ties drop out of the denominator, so a club with more ties posts a higher percentage at the same balance.
Why can the balance order differ from the standings?
Because standings use winning percentage (wins over decisions). A club with more ties has a smaller denominator and posts a higher percentage at the same balance, so a club with a smaller balance can still rank higher.