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9/30/08 – Hiroshima (Home)

September 30, 2008 By Leave a Comment

September 30th, 2008

Hiroshima Carp logo Tokyo Yakult Swallows cap

Hiroshima Toyo Carp 0

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 8

Streak: Won 1 Last 5: WLLLW

(Jingu Stadium)

Tokyo scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to bust up a decent pitching duel between Hiroshima starter, Shinoda, and Tokyo’s Ishikawa.

A couple of miscues in the field for Hiroshima helped fuel this lopsided Tokyo victory, but came up with the hits when they needed them. Aoki, Kawashima and Fukuchi all had two-hit games, and Tanaka belted his fifth home run of the season in the bottom of the eigth (two runs scored).

Ishikawa pitched a complete game shutout and gave up only seven hits (three of them in the ninth). His record improved to 11-10 (2.72 ERA) with eight strikeouts and one walk.

Tokyo is still six games behind third place Chunichi, but play the remainder of their games at Jingu. The Swallows host the Carp again tomorrow night at Jingu stadium with the first pitch scheduled for 6:20 PM.

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About Christopher Pellegrini

Christopher is a budding sabermetrician and long-time supporter of Tokyo's more lovable team, the Swallows. He has publicly volunteered, several times, that he plans to buy the team at some point in the future. When he finally runs the joint, it is likely that he will fine any player who swings at the first pitch or sac bunts (unless it's a pitcher, of course). Follow him on Twitter: @chrispellegrini

  • Rob

    Fun game! The Swallows could have mailed it in – and some of the Carp fans were half-jokingly yelling for them to just roll over – but they stayed focused and made it worth it to sit through the sprinkles.
    So much for no more tinkering with the batting order. Are they batting Aoki first just to give him more AB?

  • http://www.transpacificradio.com/ Christopher Pellegrini

    That could very well be the reason. Those at-bats are definitely a factor in off-season contract negotiations.

    But my guess is that the real reason why he was moved to the leadoff slot is that Aoki becomes his own worst enemy when there are runners in scoring position.

    Not that the whole “leadoff hitter” really means anything (case in point: Aoki led off two innings this evening, but so did Iihara and Kawamoto), but Aoki’s robust .359 batting average shrinks to .286 when he’s got buddies on base. That’s not a very flattering, or helpful, statistic.

    Therefore, it makes a a little bit of sense to have him batting ahead of Fukuchi, Hatakeyama and Iihara. To be fair, Hatake has slipped a bit as of late, but Iihara leads the team with a .357 average with runners in scoring position. Given Aoki’s league-leading OBP of .422, it makes sense to have him hit ahead of guys who have more success when guys are in scoring position.

    That’s my take on the situation anyway.

    Hope you had a poncho and normal-sized umbrella!

  • http://www.japaneconomynews.com/ Ken

    Aoki becomes his own worst enemy when there are runners in scoring position

    You mean the team’s worst enemy. There’s no “I” in baseball!

  • http://www.transpacificradio.com/ Garrett DeOrio

    But there’s an “i” in beisubooru.

    But unfortunately, it’s ??????.

    Damn. There’s an “i” in “Aoki”.

  • http://www.japaneconomynews.com Ken

    ??????