September 6th, 2012
Tokyo Swallows 3
Yokohama BayStars 1
Streak: Won 2 Last 5: WWLWW
(Yokohama Stadium)
Balentien finally gets going after returning from injury, and Yagi shows that he can at least handle BayStar bats as the Swallows win in a rain-shortened game at Yokohama.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swallows | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0x | 3 | 9 | 1 | |
| BayStars | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | ||
| W: Hidaka (2-2); L: Takasaki (5-10) | ||||||||||||
Swallows | BayStars |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yuhei (Takai) (CF) | 1 | Kensuke Uchimura (2B) |
| 2 | Ryosuke Morioka (2B) | 2 | Sho Aranami (CF) |
| 3 | Wladimir Balentien (RF) | 3 | Norihiro Nakamura (1B) |
| 4 | Lastings Millege (LF) | 4 | Alex Ramirez (LF) |
| 5 | Shingo Kawabata (SS) | 5 | Taketoshi Goto (RF) |
| 6 | Shinya Miyamoto (3B) | 6 | Naoto Watanabe (SS) |
| 7 | Atsushi Fujimoto (1B) | 7 | Yoshitomo Tsutsugo (SS) |
| 8 | Yuhei Nakamura (C) | 8 | Kazunari Tsuruoka (C) |
| 9 | Ryosuke Yagi (P) | 9 | Kentaro Takasaki (P) |
The rain came down progressively harder over the night, and for the first 5 innings the offenses couldn’t come together. Although the Swallows offense was looking better, as Balentien and Yuhei were able to get some extra base hits off of Takasaki. Yagi kept the Baystars hitless over the first 5 inning, although he gave up 3 walks and a hit a batter over that span.
Things finally picked up in the sixth inning. Balentien leadoff the inning with a single, his third hit in as many at bats. After Milledge fouled out, Kawabata drew a walk to put 2 men on with 1 out. Miyamoto grounded into the pitcher, but did get the runners to advance to scoring position. Fujimoto managed to get Balentien home with an infield single to the pitcher to open the scoring. 1-0 Swallows
The BayStars responded in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff single by Aranami. Nakamura grounded to the first baseman, but Fujimoto screwed up the double play attempt and the BayStars had men on the corners with no outs. The Swallows pulled Yagi, and put in Matsui to face Ramirez. Rami-chan did his job by with a single to tie the game. 1-1 All But the BayStars couldn’t do much more and the game went into the seventh with a tie.
Takeuchi, who had come in on a double switch in the previous inning, lead off the inning with a double. Yuhei bunted him over to third for the first out. Morioka struck out for the second out to set the stage for Balentien. Takasaki was obviously avoiding Balentien’s strike zone, but with the rain coming down hard Takasaki left a 2-0 pitch straight down the middle. Balentien did his thing and LITERALLY hit the ball out of the park. 3-1 Swallows
They played the bottom of the inning, but couldn’t get the eighth inning started and the game was called. 3-1 Swallows
The Carp also lost tonight, putting the Swallows into a virtual tie for third place in the Central League. The Swallows will now play the Giants in a 3 game “home” series, although only tomorrow’s game will be played at Jingu. The Saturday and Sunday games will be played in Niigata. Akagawa will face a Sugiuchi returning after a 3 week absence in tomorrow’s game.
Balentien had a monster night, going 4-for-4 with 2 doubles and a homer.
About Kozo
