A year after clinching their first Central League pennant in 26 years, the Hiroshima Carp on Monday made it two straight for the first time in 37 years.

The pennant is the eighth for a franchise, whose current strength and stability belie its humble origins as an underfunded CL doormat in 1950.

Although the Carp are known most for their speed, what has set them apart the past two seasons has been their offense.

"The area where they excel is in their ability to score runs," Hanshin Tigers manager Tomoaki Kanemoto said. "There is a huge difference in the number of home runs they hit, and their speed is different from other teams. If you don't have the strong pitching needed to shut them down, you aren't going to beat them."

And it's not hard to see why he feels so.

With a handful of games remaining to be played, the Carp hitters lead both leagues by far in runs, despite having to finish the season without their biggest producer, Most Valuable Player candidate Seiya Suzuki. The right fielder was leading the CL in RBIs when he suffered a leg fracture in his right tibia on Aug. 23.

By having three of the league's top on-base men starting with Kosuke Tanaka and his .397 on-base percentage in the leadoff spot, a .399 from No. 3 hitter Yoshihiro Maru and a .389 from Suzuki, the Carp's .347 team on-base percentage is the best in either league by a large margin.

Even without Suzuki, the heart of the order, with outfielders Maru and Ryuhei Matsuyama, and first basemen Brad Eldred and Takahiro Arai, has hit for average (.300), for power (80 doubles and 70 home runs) and drawn walks (197). As such, they are not just driving in the guys ahead of them, but getting on base ahead of those lower down in the order like the remarkable Tomohiro Abe and his .300-plus batting average.

One of the team's highlights this year has been the extreme success of manager Koichi Ogata's pinch hitters. In 281 plate appearances through Friday, Carp pinch hitters were batting .261 with 14 doubles, nine home runs, 26 walks and 50 RBIs -- Nippon Professional Baseball's best figures in those categories.

Because of the steady run support -- the Carp have been held under three runs an NPB-low 29 times this year -- and the club's traditionally solid defense, Hiroshima's pitchers don't have to be too fancy to be successful.

Although they walk their share of hitters and don't get lots of strikeouts, the Carp staff entered Monday's game against the Tigers having allowed 81 home runs over 1,219 innings, one more than the Tigers NPB low of 80 in 56 fewer innings. And the Tigers play in a very tough park for home runs.

So despite losing veteran Hiroki Kuroda and not having 2016 Sawamura Award winning lefty Kris Johnson available for much of the season, the Carp pitching staff entered play on Monday with a 3.38 ERA, third in the league behind the Yomiuri Giants (3.30) and Hanshin Tigers (3.34). Instead of one big addition, the Carp have benefited from across-the-board improvements from right-handers Daichi Osera, Kazuki Yabuta and Allen Kuri.

As usual, the Carp are the CL's best base-stealing team in the Central League. They entered this week with stolen 107 bases in 146 attempts.

The team speed on the bases and in the field has been the club's trademark since 1975, when the organization triggered a cultural revolution by hiring American Joe Lutz as manager. Although the fiery Lutz quit the team that April, the speedy, combative, heads-up play he espoused became the Carp brand as his successor, Takeshi Koba, led the club to their first pennant.

It was a huge turning point for a team that used to place a donation barrel at the stadium entrance so fans could contribute to keeping the club afloat. The Carp won the league again in 1979, 1980, 1984 and 1991.

The introduction of the current free agent system in 1993, however, saw the penny-pinching Carp unable to retain their biggest stars, and from 1998 to 2012 they finished fourth or worse in the six-team CL.

The move to Mazda Stadium in 2009, however, has allowed the club to exploit its strong brand and licensing acumen. In the past, foreign players would typically come to Japan and produce for the Carp before leaving to star with other NPB teams because Hiroshima couldn't afford to keep them.

But since 2007 no Japanese stars have left, while the parade of foreign stars leaving the Carp for more profitable deals elsewhere in Japan appears to be a thing of the past.