5/25/12 – Saitama (Away)

May 25th, 2012

Tokyo Swallows 0

Saitama Seibu Lions 10

Streak: Lost 6   Last 5: LLLLL

(Seibu Dome)

The  hits just keep on coming. Unfortunately, they are all against the Swallows.

There are so many frustrating things about this game but the worst thing is that I felt wierd watching this game. Almost like I had seen this before. Guess what folks, I had. Here is the write up from a game these same two teams played almost a year ago exactly:
http://tokyoswallows.com/2011/05/29/52911-saitama-away/

As was said then, can be repeated today. The Birds are not playing well. Even Hatakeyama admitted that the Swallows bats seem to have a problem before tonights game. In any event, here is the lineup.

Never good to see this in the first half of the game.

Unfortunately, there is nothing positive I can say about the Swallows performance. They were outplayed in every aspect of the game last night. I normally go  into great detail about the game but please forgive me for not doing so today.

Here is a quick recap by inning, though.

2nd inning

out, hit, out, walk, hit -> one run scored, hit  -> one run scored, out 2 – 0 Saitama

5th inning

error, bunt (out), walk, hit, hit  -> two runs scored, out, out 4 – 0 Saitama

7th inning

out, hit, hit, hit  -> one run scored, out 5 – 0 Saitama

And if there was any doubt about the result of this game, we move to the

8th inning

hit, hit (double), hit  -> two runs scored, walk, hit  -> one run scored, hit  -> one run scored, out, hit -> one run scored, out, out 10 – 0 Saitama

Game over.

Totally lost.

I think the Birds will get back on track tomorrow. That doesn’t necessarily mean they will win. It just means they will actually score some runs. If we look at the last 6 games, the Birds just have not gotten hits when they needed them. I believe in those 6 games, they have had the bases loaded at least 7 times with one out or less, and have not been able to produce a single run from that situation. The Birds batters are trying too hard for the long ball. If I was the hitting coach, (and he needs to be VERY concerned about his job right now) I would make all of the batters work on hitting singles. That is what will turn around this team slump. Hopefully sometime soon.

Tomorrow will see Ishikawa against Nishiguchi. First pitch is at 2pm.