March 10th, 2009
SoftBank Hawks 10
Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3
Streak: Lost 3 Last 5: LWLLL
(Meiji Jingu Stadium)
The bats were a bit anemic again today. Tokyo managed only six hits, two better than the game yesterday versus Hanshin.
The birds got waxed early and often. Tokyo newbie pitcher (read: straight out of high school), Katsuki Akagawa, gave up nine earned runs in one and two-thirds innings. He issued seven walks (no K’s), and allowed six hits (two of which left the park). Isn’t preseason just the perfect chance to ruin a 19 year-old’s confidence?
Oshimoto then came in to finish up the inning and pitch another three. He allowed one run off of three hits.
Hagiwara, Barrett and Takai also made appearances. Barrett had a balk, but other than that, nothing really exciting happened.
On offense, only Takeuchi had more than one hit, and former Softbank bit-player, Ryou Yoshimoto (IF) was responsible for all three of Tokyo’s runs. He hit a three-run dinger in the seventh.
Akagawa took the loss for Tokyo in the team’s first home game of the preseason schedule.
About Christopher Pellegrini
