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9/15/10 – Yomiuri (Home)

September 15, 2010 by 3 Comments

September 15th, 2010


Yomiuri Giants 5

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2

Streak: Lost 3   Last 9: WWLLL

(Jingu Stadium)

Tokyo lost their third straight game as they came up short against Yomiuri for the second night running.

Tonight saw Ogawa shuffle his starting order for the first time in quite some time after they had struggled to generate much in the way of offence the night before:

  1. Aoki (CF)
  2. Miyamoto (3B)
  3. Hatakeyama (LF)
  4. Whitesell (1B)
  5. Ihara (RF)
  6. Aikawa (C)
  7. Kawabata (SS)
  8. Tanaka (2B)
  9. Yoshinori (P)

The first half of this one was dominated by Yoshinori and his opposite number, Utsumi.  Despite walking the first two men he faced on eight pitches, Yoshinori gave up just two hits as he kept Yomiuri locked down over the first five innings. In four out of five of those innings, the Swallows got the lead off man on base against Utsumi, but they couldn’t do anything with it as the game remained scoreless.

However it was in the 6th that the game was ultimately lost. Two singles and a pig-boy Abe double made it 1-0 Yomiuri. A walk for Takahashi then loaded the bases with one out before Edgar hit one off the wall in leftfield for a 3RBI double and it was 4-0 in the blink of an eye.

Tokyo halved the deficit in the bottom of the same inning, as a Miyamoto double and a Hatake homer to left (13 for the year) made it 4-2.

Throughout the remainder of the game Tokyo managed just two more hits against the Yomiuri bullpen while a Yano solo homer off Matsuoka (2.61) in the 9th capped the scoring for a 5-2 Yomiuri Final.

Yoshinori took the loss (6.2IP/8H/4K/5BB/4ER) and his record is now at 10-9/3.90.

Hatakeyama was the only bright spot with the bat for the Swallows, going 2 for 4 with that 2 run shot, and he’s now batting .304. Aoki went 1 for 4, the 1 being hit number 186 for the season.

Tokyo were outhit 9 to 8, and apart from the 6th, never managed to get more than one man on base at any one time or get a runner past second base.

The two teams will meet again tomorrow evening weather permitting for the final game of the series.

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About David Watkins

David is a baseball bothering Brummie who spends a fair portion of his life fretting over the Tokyo Swallows and the WORLD'S GREATEST FOOTBALL TEAM, Aston Villa. He completes the trifecta of abusive sporting relationships by being a die hard New York Knicks fan. You can find him on twitter: @yakulto

  • zunlin

    The dream is over, the last chance has gone, sigh

  • http://marinerds.blogspot.com Deanna

    It’s funny, on Tuesday I said that I thought I’d come back Thursday because I didn’t want to deal with another Yoshinori loss. But now who knows if this rain will stop by tonight.

    On another note, during Tuesday’s game, I went to the pinbadge machine and got one pinbadge just for the hell of it. Guess who I got? Hatakeyama! I really don’t like Hatakeyama so I came back and bestowed the pin on Kozo and Mac, and Mac immediately affixed it to his hat in the hopes it would help Hatake’s good luck… I suppose what really had to help Hatake is for me to NOT be at Jingu watching him (since he always sucks when I’m there).

  • Anonymous

    Yep, was there last night too. Thought it was make-or-break and unfortunately it seems we broke….

    Well, a final .500+ win record would be nice. Still lots to play for, should never give up etc. It’s been a great 3 or so months and if the boys can finish the season strongly and go into next season with confidence high, who knows…