Sunday saw Seibu and SoftBank, who between them have won five of the last six Pacific League pennants continue their Fukuoka brawl with Hawks ace Kodai Senga going against Dietrich Enns, while last year’s champs, the Orix Buffaloes looked for a sweep in Chiba after starting the day trailing second-place Seibu on winning percentage.

Each month this time, John E. Gibson and I go over players who we think are either deserving of winning one of their league’s two monthly awards, for top pitcher and top batter, or whom we guess will be picked.

To that end I don’t recall a batter dominating a month quite like Munetaka Murakami did. He led the CL in runs 30, hits 33, HRs 12, total bases 74, RBI 25, walks 25, batting average .440, OBP 588 and slug .987.