May 4th, 2010
Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1
Yomiuri Giants 5
Streak: Lost 3 Last 5: LWLLL
(Tokyo Dome)
This is getting tiring.
Starting lineup:
1. Fukuchi LF
2. Miyamoto 3B
3. Aoki CF
4. D’Antona 1B
5. Iihara RF
6. Tanaka 2B
7. Fujimoto SS
8. Aikawa C
9. Ishikawa P
Ishikawa got himself into a whole lot of trouble early on in this one. He gave up three earned runs on four hits (plus a sac fly) before he could even record the second out of the first inning. That was basically the game right there. 3-0 Yomiuri.
He also gave up a pair of doubles and one earned run in the second to create a 4-0 Yomiuri lead.
D’Antona plated Aoki in the fourth when the birds were finally able to string a few hits together, but that was about the extent on the offensive output for the afternoon. 4-1 Yomiuri.
Ramirez gave the home team one more RBI in the eighth off of reliever Hashimoto to seal the win over his former team. 5-1 Yomiuri.
Ishikawa took the loss, his league-leading sixth, for his nearly seven innings of work. He now sports a 4.77 ERA.
On offense, both Aoki and Iihara had two-hit games.
This means that the Tokyo Swallows have now lost eight series (three game) in a row.
Random notes:
The birds hit into three double plays in this game. Aoki grounded into one in the first, and D’Antona grounded into DP’s in both the sixth and ninth innings.
Only four guys who start regularly have OBP’s over .350 at the moment: Aoki (.422); Iihara (.400); Tanaka (.384); and Guiel (.354).
Eight guys on the team have a batting average of .200 or below with runners in scoring position: Fukuchi (.200); Tanaka (.185); Aikawa and Fujimoto (.176); Iihara (.167); Miyamoto (.161); Guiel (.152); Takeuchi (.111).
After those first two innings, Ishikawa settled down and was nearly perfect through the next four.
About Christopher Pellegrini
