July 19th, 2009
Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3
Hiroshima Toyo Carp 1
Streak: Won 1 Last 5: LWWLW
The day after the Tokyo bullpen had been given a bloody nose in a late come from behind beating from Hiroshima, Masanori Ishikawa went deep into the game to give those tired arms a rest.
Despite a shaky start, Ishikawa pitched an excellent 8 innings, giving up just one run off six hits, striking out three and walking none. The wee-one took the victory to put his record at 8 and 5 with his ERA shrinking to 3.85.
Ishikawa gave up the lead in the bottom of the 1st, a solo homer from Phillips with two outs on the board making it 1-0 Hiroshima. He then gave up back to back singles to put men on the corners as it looked like it may become one of those nights for the little man. But he got catcher Aizawa to ground out and the inning was over with the Carp lead at just one.
Tokyo got right back in the mix in the 3rd against Carp starter Komatsu. Ishikawa hit a one-out single to second that second-baseman Higashide couldn’t quite come up with, putting the pitcher on at first. Aoki then hit a line-drive to centre and there were two men on. Next man up Hiroyasu Tanaka then hit one to left that would end up a double, Ishikawa scored easily from second, but Aoki made the turn at third ignoring the stop sign from third-base coach Dobashi. He was just beaten to the plate by the ball and despite a tough collision with Aizawa, the catcher held on for out number two. It was 1-1 but the potential go-ahead run was sitting in the dugout and there was an extra red light on the board.
But Fukuchi then saved Aoki’s ass by knocking a single to right that scored Tanaka and put Tokyo ahead 2-1.
Ishikawa gave up two one-out singles in the bottom of the 3rd, but Kurihara and McLain couldn’t bring anyone home and the Carp chance was gone.
That would be pretty much their final chance of the game as Ishikawa then took over as he gave up just one hit between the 4th and 8th innings.
Yakult’s third run came in the top of the 6th, a two-out double from Guiel was followed by a timely Miyamoto single and it was 3-1 Tokyo.
As Ishikawa went so deep into the game, Takada was able to bypass the struggling Matsuoka and Igarashi and go straight to Lim (0.24) for the 9th. And despite giving up a leadoff single to Kurihara, a McLain flyout and a double play from Aizawa meant it was game over at 3-1 Final. Lim also had himself his 21st save of the year.
So Tokyo took the series, and with Chunichi continuing to roll on and the Giants losing their series against the Tigers it was an important series win.
The man of the last two games, Jamie D’Antona (.282) had a 0 for 3 game with a walk. Aoki (.253) had one of his sporadic wake-up games going 3 for 5.
From the shiny new Mazda Zoom-Zoom stadium the Swallows (and I) head to the not so new and shiny Koshien for three games against the Tigers starting tomorrow evening (though I will be only at Tuesday’s game).
About David Watkins
