April 3rd, 2009
Tokyo Swallows 2
Hanshin Tigers 5
Streak: Lost 1 Last 1: L
(Kyocera Dome)
First of all, the home plate umpire was crap. The strike zone changed every inning. Pitchers from both teams were confused to the brink of tears by some of the calls.
Second, there are some pretty shocking TV commercials shown on cable.
Alright, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get on to the game report.
Ishikawa was not able to locate his pitches in this one, and he paid for it. He lasted only four innings (71 pitches), gave up five runs off of six hits and had three K’s against two walks.
The bulk of the damage was done in the second when Sekimoto cranked a three-run homer to left on one of many Ishikawa-issued meatballs.
Down 5-0, the Swallows got one back in the fifth off a monster home run to right care of Aaron Guiel.
Hanshin 5-1 Tokyo.
Tokyo’s only other run came in the seventh on an Aikawa single in which Tanaka crossed home plate. 5-2, Hanshin on top.
And that’s how it ended. Ishikawa (0-1) took the loss and has a 11.25 ERA to work on from here on out.
Ando (1-0) was good enough to allow only two runs despite throwing a ton of balls in the dirt.
Tanaka was the highlight for the Swallows from the plate. He went 3-4 with three doubles and one run. Aikawa also did better than his preseason numbers would lead one to expect by tallying two hits (the first one was a bit lucky). He actually reached base three times (the third time was on an error at third).
In his first official game for the Swallows, new import, Jamie D’Antona, went 1-4 with a double.
The top third of the order didn’t reach base once in this game.
Satou, Oshimoto and Maruyama combined to shut the Tigers out during the final four innings of the game.
Here’s Tokyo’s opening day lineup:
1. Fukuchi (LF)
2. K. Kawashima (SS)
3. Aoki (CF)
4. Guiel (RF)
5. D’Antona (1B)
6. Miyamoto (3B)
7. Tanaka (2B)
8. Aikawa (C)
9. Ishikawa (P)
Game two of the series is tomorrow at two o’clock.
About Christopher Pellegrini
