May 13th, 2011
Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6
Yokohama BayStars 4
Streak: Won 1 Last 5: WLLDW
(Yokohama)
Baystars
1. Ishikawa 
2. Watanabe
3. Sledge
4. Murata
5. Harper
6. Kinjoh
7. Yoshimura
8. Hosoyamada
9. Suda
Tokyo
1. Aoki
2. Tanaka
3. Whitesell
4. Hatakeyama
5. Balentien
6. Miyamoto
7. Aikawa
8. Kawabata
9. Yoshinori
In a new trend that is not making myself and other Tokyo fans happy, Swallows fell behind early again. In the bottom of the first, Ishikawa lead off the inning with a single to center. After being sac-bunted to second by Watanabe, Ishikawa scored on Sledge’s single to left. 1 – 0 Yokahama
Yoshinori settled down and the remaining two outs.
The man of the night, Balentien, started the second inning with a bang. On the first pitch he saw from Suda, Balentien tied the game with a shot into the left field seats. 1-1
After Balenteins HR, Tokyo did not do anymore damage in the second.
Yokohama stranded two runners in the bottom of the second to give Tokyo a little bit of a scare. Harper started the inning with a walk. Kinjoh then had a single to the left-side of the infield. Yoshimura then sac-bunted the runners to second and third. With one out and runners dancing around at second and third, Yoshinori dialed up 2 strikeouts to end the threat.
In the third inning, Tokyo took the upper-hand. First, Aoki walked and was sac-bunted to second by Tanaka. Whitesell then hit a sharp single to right-field. Hatakeyama tried to follow Balentien’s lead with his own homer, but could only muster a sac-fly to left scoring Aoki from third. 2 – 1 Tokyo
Now with two outs and a runner on, Balentien was looking to add to his RBI total. Not only did he do that, he added to his league leading HR tally. Hitting another shot to left-field, Balentien broke the game open. 4 – 1 Tokyo
Miyamoto then grounded out to end the inning.
Not much happened until the bottom of the 6th inning. The heart of the Baystars line-up was coming up and they were looking to get back into the game. Sledge started the inning off with a single to center. Murata followed that with a double to left. Harper then hit a sac-fly to left scoring Sledge from third. 4 – 2 Tokyo
Kinjoh struck out swinging for the second out of the inning. With two men down and standing on second, Murata was going to be running with any hit ball. On a 2-0 count, he took off from second the moment Yoshimura smacked a liner to left. Murata scored on the play. 4 – 3 Tokyo
Hosoyamada struck out swinging to end the inning.
After an exciting but, none the less, unproductive 7th, there were some fans from Yokohama thinking their team still had a chance. Tokyo, of course, was looking to put the game out of reach. First up was Hatakeyama. After walking, he was replaced by a pitch-runner, Miwa. Of course, it did not matter. Balentien again took it upon himself to remind Yokohama that they are in 6th place for a reason. Balentien hit his third HR of the night to help Tokyo take a 3-run lead. 6 – 3 Tokyo
Tokyo then went down in order to end their half of the 8th inning.
Barnette came in to pitch in the bottom half of the 8th. After a recent story on the Asahi English site, (http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105070177.html) was looking to improve on his ridiculously low era. Harper, though, made it a rough start. He singled to right. Kinjoh followed that with another single to right. Barnette then hit Yoshimura to load the bases and nobody out. Naitoh came into bat and quickly proceeded to strike out swinging. Fujita was up next in place of the pitcher. He hit a grounder to first and Takeuchi, rushing to start a double-play, threw the ball wide of second. All runners were safe, with Harper scoring from third. 6 – 4 Tokyo
On a softly hit ball from Ishikawa, Barnette threw out Kinjoh at home. Still not out of the clear with the bases still loaded, Barnette needed to get one more out.
The Baystars sent the former Nippon Ham outfielder Morimoto to the plate. There is no better way to silence the opposing crowd then striking out a hitter with the bases loaded. Barnette was probably hoping for this as Morimoto stepped in to the box. Of course, I wouldn’t of mentioned this unless Barnette was able to strike Morimoto out. Guess what? Morimoto went down swinging to end the threat.
Lim came in to wrap up another save in the ninth inning.
With the Carp loosing at home, Tokyo took sole possession of first in the CL.
Notes:
- Although the Russian judged abstained from voting, Balentien was unanimously chosen as the man of the match.
- 9946 paying customers witnessed this game
- Barnette, although his own doing this game, continue to shows mettle in tough situations
- Tomorrow it will be Ishikawa on the hill for Tokyo going for his 100th career win
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