An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
September 30th, 2009 Hanshin Tigers 7 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1 Streak: Lost 2 Last 5: WWWLL (Jingu Stadium) The birds outhit the Tigers 12-10 but still got annihilated. Yuki pitched six rather solid innings but got roughed up a little in the seventh. Takada factored a bit in this one as well.
The current key series with the ever-lovable (cough) Hanshin Tigers is proving to be a costly one, even if Tokyo do manage to take tonight’s game to win the series.
September 29th, 2009 Hanshin Tigers 8 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2 Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: WWWWL (Jingu Stadium) Well, no blisters were involved, but that still sucked.
September 28th, 2009 Hanshin Tigers 1 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 7 Streak: Won 6 Last 5: WWWWW (Jingu Stadium) Tokyo starter, Takagi, had another solid outing as Tokyo won a very important contest versus the Hanshin Tigers.
September 27th, 2009 Yokohama BayStars 1 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3 Streak: Won 5 Last 5: WWWWW The Tokyo Swallows maintained their slim half-game lead over the Hanshin Tigers with another complete game victory by the team’s starter, Masanori Ishikawa. The Tigers absolutely embarrassed Chunichi’s Yamamoto on their way to winning that series two to one. [...]
September 26th, 2009 Yokohama BayStars 4 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Streak: Won 4 Last 5: LWWWW (Jingu Stadium) A crazy thing happened today. The Tokyo Swallows reclaimed third place in the Central League.
September 25th, 2009 Yokohama BayStars 2 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Streak: Won 3 Last 5: LLWWW (Jingu Stadium) For the third time in as many games a Tokyo starter lasted all nine innings, and the birds were able to continue their mini-revival (third win in a row) versus the 6th-place BayStars.
So here we are: half a game out of third place (one game ahead of fifth), and 15 games remaining in the 2009 regular season. The tears-inducing freefall of the last eight weeks notwithstanding, the birds are still in the playoff picture due to the blanket of mediocrity covering every team in the Central League, [...]
Pitchers Kyouhei Muranaka (no. 15) and Mikinori Katoh (no. 16), the alleged future of the pitching staff, were brought up to the top team on the 18th of September. Muranaka, a fourth year lefty from Kanagawa, has been one of 2009′s bigger letdowns as far as the rotation is concerned. He resurfaces on the parent [...]
September 23rd, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4 Hiroshima Toyo Carp 1 Streak: Won 2 Last : LLLWW (Mazda Stadium) The day after Takagi threw a complete game shutout, Yuki went the distance himself as Tokyo won only their second series in the last month and a half. The same two pitchers were at [...]
