The 2019 NPB Schedule was released earlier this week. For the Lions, their Opening Day on March 29, will be on the road in Fukuoka against the two-time defending champion Softbank Hawks.
Here is a links to the full schedule (Home teams listed on the left as it goes from Monday-Sunday:
March 2019
April 2019
May 2019
June 2019
July 2019
August 2019
September 2019
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Here are also some other quirks that stand out in the Lions 2019 schedule:
-The Home opener will be on 4/2 against the Chiba Lotte Marines.
-Tokyo Dome will be occupied for a total of four Lions road games, including three in early April against the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. They will also see the Hawks on 7/8.
-In addition to seeing the Hawks in Tokyo Dome, they will also play the Hawks in a road game in Kyocera Dome on 8/19. These are both corporate parties for the Hawks as everyone wearing their special uniform is a Softbank employee. They have two Tokyo Dome games scheduled and the Lions will see the Kansai employees in Osaka in August.
-Omiya will host its usual three Lions home games in 2019, where they host the Eagles on 4/9, Marines on 5/9 and Eagles again on 8/8.
-For the fourth straight year, the Lions will be hosting another game in Maebashi, Gunma on 5/8. It will be against the Marines.
-On 5/14, the Lions are scheduled to play a road game against the Softbank Hawks in Kitakyushu. Barring no rain, this will be the third straight year playing a game there.
-For the second time in three years, the Lions will host the two annual NPB games in Naha, Okinawa. They will be playing the Softbank Hawks on 5/21 and 5/22. In 2017, only one game was played due to the rain.
-The Lions are scheduled to be the road team for two games against the Eagles on 5/28 and 5/29. On 5/28, they will be in Morioka, Iwate, which is the same prefecture Yusei Kikuchi is from. It is also the prefecture where Fuji University is located. For 5/29, the Lions will be playing in Hirosaki, Aomori, which is the home prefecture of Shuta Tonosaki. His family also runs an apple farm directly in Hirosaki.
-Interleague play begins on June 4 against the Hiroshima Carp. It will end on 6/23 against the Hanshin Tigers in Koshien Stadium barring no rain. The Lions will also visit Nagoya Dome and Yokohama while hosting the Yomiuri Giants and Yakult Swallows.
-From 8/27-8/29, the Lions are scheduled for three special road games against the Fighters. On 8/27 and 8/28, the Lions will be playing in Kushiro (4.5 hour drive away from Sapporo), which is on the eastern side of Hokkaido. They will play in Obihiro on 8/29, which is about 2+ hours east of Sapporo.
-From 9/3-9/5, the Lions will be playing their only three games in Kobe against the Orix Buffaloes. These will be the last scheduled games in Kansai for the 2019 season.
-The Final scheduled game is on 9/24 in Chiba against the Marines. This indicates there is more cramming into this coming year with 143 games being played in less time. With the Lions being a team under a roof, their regular season could end before October.
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