June 13th, 2011
Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 5
Streak: Won 1 Last 5: WWLLW
(Kleenex Stadium Miyagi)
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 18 | 1 |
| Tohoku | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 1 |
| W: Hirai (2-0-1, 4.05); L: Rasner (0-1-6, 5.06); S: Barnette (1-1-14, 2.63) | ||||||||||||
Nice hitting, Swallows.
The Birds traveled up to Sendai to face the fearsome Ma-kun and packed in more hits than a Burt Bacharach box set: 13 off Tanaka, and five more off Rasner. All of which was topped off in dramatic fashion (like a big reprise of “I Say A Little Prayer For You”, perhaps).
Tokyo | Tohoku |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Milledge (CF) | 1 | Hijirisawa (CF) |
| 2 | Morioka (2B) | 2 | Ginji (2B) |
| 3 | Kawabata (SS) | 3 | Nakamura (LF) |
| 4 | Hatakeyama (1B) | 4 | Fernandez (1B) |
| 5 | Balentien (RF) | 5 | Garcia (DH) |
| 6 | Miyamoto (3B) | 6 | Iwamura (3B) |
| 7 | Fujimoto (DH) | 7 | Makida (RF) |
| 8 | Aikawa (C) | 8 | Masuda (SS) |
| 9 | Matsui (LF) | 9 | Ishimine (C) |
| P | Masubuchi | P | Tanaka |
| RP | Shoda, Yamamoto, Hirai, Barnette | RP | Rasner, Hauser, Koyama |
At first, it looked like this would be another letdown for Tokyo. One out into the bottom of the second, Masubuchi walked Makida, then gave up a hit to Masuda. After Ishimine grounded out, Hijirisawa hit a two-RBI triple. Ginji then singled to bring Hijirisawa in. 3-0 Tohoku.
The Swallows answered in the fourth, when Hatake singled, Balentien was walked (Tanaka was determined to catch the low outside corner of the plate), and Miyamoto singled Hatake in. 3-1 Tohoku.
In the fifth, hits by Nakamura (replaced by former PL batting champion Teppei as a pinch-runner) and Fernandez, followed by an Iwamura ground-rule double and a Makida sac-fly brought in two more. 5-1 Tohoku.
The top of the seventh saw a Matsui solo homer, his second of the season. 5-2 Tohoku.
In the top of the eighth, Miyamoto hit and back-up second-baseman Uchimura fumbled an Aikawa grounder, which allowed Miyamoto to score from second. 5-3 Tohoku.
The stage was set for big ball.
In the ninth, Kawabata singled, Hatake doubled and was replaced by Noguchi, then Coco amassed a full count and two fouls before he cranked a three-run homer into the left field stands. Barnette then sat three batters down with eight pitches. 6-5 Tokyo, Final.
Toasts and cheers all around from four of the Tsubamegun five, who happened to be dining together and remind you, dear readers, that a rack of ribs is large. Order another beer to make sure you don’t get dehydrated or choke trying to get through it.
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