June 12th, 2008
Tokyo Yakult Swallows 7 
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 3
Streak: Won 2
(Away Game: Kleenex Stadium)
A 7th inning Norichika Aoki grand-slam home run was the highlight for Yakult on a good evening in Sendai for the Tokyo team.
Tokyo starter Tateyama worked a strong seven innings, giving up just one run off six hits for his sixth win of the season. Rakuten had taken the lead in the first inning but the Swallows came back in the third with Fukuchi and Hatakeyama bringing home three runs between them to put the Swallows ahead 3-1.
But the real damage was done when Aoki hit the first pitch of the night from Rakuten reliever Arime just over the rightfield fence with the bases loaded to make it 7-1.
Matsui then pitched a scoreless 8th before Igarashi gave up two runs in the bottom of the 9th to make it 7-3. But it wasn’t enough for the Eagles as Yakult swept the mini-series in Sendai to earn revenge for Rakuten’s two wins in Jingu last month.
From Sendai it’s on to Sapporo for the Swallows for two games against the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters this weekend.
Any word on who’s pitching for the FIGHTERS-not-Ham-Fighters? Is it Darvish?
What’s the deal with the posting system anyway? When can the Angels get him?
Darvish started this last Wednesday against the Giants so it won’t be him. It should be Brian Sweeny on Saturday followed by (ex-Yakult pitcher) Shugo Fujii the day after.
As for the posting system in Japan, the player can either wait to declare free agency after 9 years in the NPB (this is Darvish’s 4th) or they can ask to be posted,but it’s up to the team if they consent to this or not.
You can read more about it here
As for Darvish’s likelyhood of being posted, there’s a good discussion of the matter over at JBB.com
[...] – bookmarked by 6 members originally found by showmanROT on 2008-11-16 6/12/08: Rakuten (Away) http://tokyoyakultswallows.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/61208-rakuten-away/ – bookmarked by 5 members [...]