June 20th, 2012
Chiba Lotte Marines 6 
Tokyo Yakult Swallows 0
Last 5: WWLWL Streak: Lost 1
(Jingu Stadium)
The last gasp of an ugly Interleague interlude was, appropriately, twice-delayed. After a typhoon cleared the heavens, Tokyo had no choice but to face their nearby neighbors from that concrete pipe to the East.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chiba | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 2 |
| Tokyo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| W: Watanabe (3-2); L: Tateyama (4-5) | ||||||||||||
Chiba | Tokyo |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Okada (CF) | 1 | Milledge (CF) |
| 2 | Nemoto (SS) | 2 | Morioka (2B) |
| 3 | Imae (3B) | 3 | Kawabata (SS) |
| 4 | Saburo (LF) | 4 | Hatakeyama (1B) |
| 5 | Kakunaka (RF) | 5 | Balentien (RF) |
| 6 | Ohmatsu (1B) | 6 | Miyamoto (3B) |
| 7 | Satozaki (C) | 7 | Matsui (LF) |
| 8 | Suzuki (2B) | 8 | Aikawa (C) |
| 9 | Watanabe (P) | 9 | Tateyama (P) |
The scoring started early and mundanely. With two outs, Tateyama walked Imae, gave up a single to Saburo, then gave up an RBI double to Kakunaka. 1-0 Chiba.
One out into the top of the fifth, Nemoto hit an outside fastball that just made it over the fence left of center, but made it over nonetheless. 2-0 Chiba.
The game got uglier. In the sixth, Kakunaka and Ohmatsu hit safely, then two outs later, Watanabe hit a two-RBI double an RBI while Milledge decided to make a throw after Ohmatsu had stopped at third, botched it, and another run scored. 4-0 Chiba.
Hirai took the mound for Tokyo in the seventh and started off by giving up a deep double to Nemoto. Two outs later (the second one a K), he was pulled in favor of Hidaka, who gave up an RBI single to Kakunaka. 5-0 Chiba.
In the ninth, just to add a final stamp of unpleasantness, Shoda gave up a double to Okada, who was grounded over to third, then scored on an Imae sac fly. 6-0 Chiba, Final.
Good riddance, Interleague. Now, it’s back to the CL, where the Giants are now on top, but the B-class remains perennially B-class, which leaves hope the Swallows’ collective breast.
