August 11th, 2012
Tokyo Swallows 1
Yomiuri Giants 9
Streak: Lost 2 Last 5: LWWLL
(Tokyo Dome)
Tateyama lasted just four innings, and Takahashi’s grand slam pretty much sums up Tokyo’s afternoon a few stations further down the Chuo Sobu train line.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0 |
| Yomiuri | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 9 | 11 | 1 |
| W: Houlton (9-6; 2.74 ERA) L: Tateyama (6-8; 2.89 ERA) | ||||||||||||
Another day, another shuffle of the lineup.
Tokyo | Order | Yomiuri |
|---|---|---|
| Yamada (SS) | 1 | Chono (RF) |
| Ueda (CF) | 2 | Matsumoto (CF) |
| Milledge (LF) | 3 | Sakamoto (SS) |
| Hatakeyama (1B) | 4 | Abe (C) |
| Kawabata (3B) | 5 | Murata (3B) |
| Tanaka (2B) | 6 | Takahashi (LF) |
| Miyade (RF) | 7 | Furuki (1B) |
| Aikawa (C) | 8 | Fujimura (2B) |
| Tateyama (P) | 9 | Houlton (P) |
Things were rocky from the outset for the Tateyama and the Swallows as he recorded the first two outs of the game but then ended up giving up three runs before having a chance to sit down.
Abe cashed-in on Sakamoto’s walk with a two-run homer to right to start the bleeding.
Assuming the position.
Tateyama then loaded the bases before Fujimura scored another run on a single to left.
3-0 Yomiuri.
And in perhaps the most humiliating part of the game, even more humiliating than the grand slam that Abe would surrender in the bottom of the fifth, Yomiuri’s Houlton led off the second with a solo homer to left.
4-0 Yomiuri.
And that was basically the game right there.
The birds didn’t put a run on the board until they were already down by eight runs. In the top of the sixth, Ueda’s leadoff double was followed by a two-out Kawabata single which brought him around to score.
8-1 Yomiuri.
And the Giants added one final run in the bottom of the ninth thanks to a pair of hits and an Ishii sac fly off of reliever Hidaka.
9-1 Final.
Tateyama suffered his eighth loss of the season and gave up two homers for the first time this year. He hasn’t won a start since July 5th, and he’s been tagged with the loss in three of his last four games.
On offense, Kawabata and Tanaka both had two-hit games while Ueda reached twice via a walk and a sixth-inning double.
The Swallows have one more chance to win a game from the CL-leading Giants tomorrow afternoon. The game is slated to start at 2PM.
About Christopher Pellegrini
