6/28/09 – Yomiuri (Away)

June 28th, 2009

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1

Yomiuri Giants 7

Streak: Lost 1   Last 5: WWLWL

(Tokyo Dome)

Just like Tateyama but to a greater extent, Masanori Ishikawa was coming into the Giants series in not the best of form. He had pitched four times so far in June, with a 1 and 1 record with two no-decisons, and a rather alarming ERA of 6.12 for the month. He would need to improve drastically if he was to escape Tokyo Dome unscathed.

But he couldn’t and he didn’t, as the Yomiuri bats teed off on him as they eased to victory on Sunday afternoon. Ishikawa gave up six runs off ten hits in his six inning of work. He struck out three and walked one as he was tagged with the loss to take his record for the year to 7 and 3 with his ERA rising to 4.253.

And he didn’t get any run support whatsoever as Giants starter Utsumi pitched a complete game, giving up just one run off a mere four hits as he struck out ten to dominate the Tokyo bats.

After the Giants had taken a two-run lead in the 1st, the Swallows did have a couple of chances to score in the 4th and 5th innings (with three of their four hits coming in those innings), but they couldn’t manage to bring anyone home. The Giants then made sure of things with four runs in the 6th, three coming off a homer from the red-hot Seung-Yeop Lee, who hit dingers in all three games of the series.

Yakult’s sole run came from an Aikawa solo homer (his fourth of the year) in the top of the 8th inning.

Other points of note on a day when Yomiuri went three games clear at the top of the CL, was the return of Oshimoto in relief. He pitched the 7th and gave up the seventh Giants run off two hits.

The Swallows now get a day off before travelling to Matsumoto to play the cellar-dwelling BayStars on Tuesday. Yokohama currently have a 4 and 1 record against Tokyo this year, the only team against which they have a winning record. This needs to change if Yakult are to maintain their push for an A-Class finish (or better.)