March 19th, 2009
Saitama Seibu Lions 7
Tokyo Yakult Swallows 8
Streak: Won 3 Last 5: LDWWW
(Jingu Stadium)
Jamie D’Antona made a very powerful argument for why he deserves the cleanup slot in the batting order today. His first two at-bats of the game resulted in home runs, the first to right and the second to left.
By the end of the third inning, D’Antona had all four of the team’s rbi’s.
He also ripped one past the shortstop in his third at-bat to start the game three-for-three. He struck out in his fourth at bat in the seventh to finish the game 3-4.
Yoshinori started this one for Tokyo and was hittable yet fine early on, but he got destroyed in the sixth inning, which was his last of the game.
The highlight for Yoshinori was definitely the third inning when he fanned all three batters he faced. But the sixth was not very pretty as he supplemented three walks with three hits including G. G. Satou’s two-run dinger and an rbi single. The Lions scored three runs in that inning.
Takai came in to pitch the seventh for Tokyo, and he basically repeated what Yoshinori did in the sixth. He got all three outs by way of the magic ‘K’, but the other six guys were able to reach base. He walked two guys and allowed four consecutive hits including Okawari-kun’s (Nakamura) three-run bomb to center field. Saitama scored another three runs in that inning.
And by this time they had gone from down 1-4 at the end of the fifth to up 7-5 at the end of the seventh.
Barrett pitched a scoreless eighth, and in the bottom of that inning, the offense came alive again. The Swallows scored three runs off of five hits and retook the lead: 8-7.
Along with D’Antona, Guiel reached base three times by way of a single, a walk and another beaning, and Kajimoto went 3-3 while tallying an rbi with his triple in the eigth. Meanwhile, Fukuchi, K. Kawashima, and Morioka all reached base twice.
Also, Takeuchi had two rbi’s in this game.
In total the Swallows had 16 hits on the afternoon.
Oshimoto earned the save by retiring all three guys that he faced (the first two were by strikeout). Barrett picked up the win in relief.
The Swallows are home again tomorrow afternoon.
Game starts at 1 pm.
About Christopher Pellegrini
