August 3rd, 2012
Tokyo Swallows 9
Chunichi Dragons 2
Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: LLLWW
(Meiji Jingu Stadium)
After Good Roman made an appearance for the Birds last night, Good Akagawa reemerged tonight. While not being quite as dominant as Roman, Akagawa did manage to give the bullpen an extra day of rest. The consecutive wins were a first for the club in about a month.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dragons | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| Swallows | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 9 | 10 | 1 |
| W: Akagawa (6-5) L: Nelson (0-1) | ||||||||||||
Dragons | Swallows |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yohei Oshima (CF) | 1 | Lastings Milledge (LF) |
| 2 | Masahiro Araki (2B) | 2 | Hiroyasu Tanaka (2B) |
| 3 | Kazuhiro Wada (LF) | 3 | Shingo Kawabata (SS) |
| 4 | Masahiko Morino (3B) | 4 | Kazuhiro Hatakeyama (1B) |
| 5 | Hirokazu Ibata (SS) | 5 | Jun Matsui (RF) |
| 6 | Yusuke Matsui (RF) | 6 | Ryosuke Morioka (3B) |
| 7 | Shigeo Yanagida (1B) | 7 | Kazuki Fukuichi (CF) |
| 8 | Kohei Ono (C) | 8 | Ryoji Aikawa (C) |
| 9 | Maximo Nelson (P) | 9 | Katsuki Akagawa (P) |
Things didn’t start smoothly for Akagawa as he plunked the leadoff batter, and let him get to third on a bad pickoff attempt one out later. Even though Akagawa managed to get Wada to fly to shallow left, he wasn’t able to stop Morino from getting a RBI single. 1-0 Dragons
The Swallows got the run back in the bottom of the second when Morioka opened the inning with a single, and Fukuchi followed with an RBI double 1-1 All
Things really broke open in the bottom of the fourth. After Matsui started the inning with a strikeout, Morioka and Fukuchi got another pair of back-to-back hits on just 3 pitches. Before Nelson or the crowd get comfortable again, Aikawa belted a no-doubter into the left field stands. 4-1 Swallows After seeing 3 of his last 4 pitches go for hits, Nelson started to avoid the strike zone. Nelson walked Akagawa, and while he got ahead of Milledge 0-2 he ended up giving up a double to the Thrilledge, to put men in scoring position with 1 out for Tanaka. Tanaka drew a easy walk to load the bases, and Kawabata could only manage a weak fly to shallow right. But Post-All Star Hatakeyama came to the plate and laced a double up the third base line to score 2 extra runs. 6-1 Swallows The action ended there, as the inning ended the same way as it started via a Matsui out.
The Dragons changed pitchers in the next inning, but the Swallows kept scoring. Okuma was in for the Dragons, but like Nelson before him he had a hard time locating the strike zone. In fact, Okuma walked the first 3 batters to load the bases. Akagawa lined out for the first out of the inning, but Okuma went back to throwing balls and walked Milledge to push in a run. 7-1 Swallows Tanaka fell behind early and struck out, and it was beginning to look like the Swallows wouldn’t take further advantage of the bases loaded situation. But Kawabata proved everyone wrong by smoking a double to score 2 extra runs. 9-1 Swallows
The Dragons managed to get a run back in the seventh off back-to-back hits, but Akagawa closed out the game smoothly and looked to be in control. 9-2 Swallows FINAL
Notes
- Akagawa’s win was his first since June 22. He went 9 innings, in 122 pitches, giving up 2 ERs, 6 hits, 1 BB and a hit batsman.
- The Swallows are now 1 game under .500 with a 40-41-7 record, and trail Hiroshima by 0.5 games for third in the CL.
- Tomorrow, 2008 2nd round draft pick, Ryosuke Yagi will make his first team debut against fellow 2008 draftee Shinji Iwata.
Akagawa pitches his 2nd complete game of the season.
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