9/07/12 Yomiuri (Home)

September 7th, 2012

Yomiuri Giants 8

Tokyo Swallows 2

Streak: Lost 1   Last 5: WLWWL

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

Tonight’s game started at 6 pm. By 6:12 pm it was over.

Stop me if you heard this one before . Akagawa starts a game and quickly falls behind. Oh wait, that just happened last week.

This is not a good sign to see. Akagawa’s evening was over after 5.

As you can see from the lead of this story, the game was over before the Swallows had a chance to bat in the bottom of the first. The league-leading newspaper bums nearly batted around the order in the first inning. Chono lead-off the game with a double. He moved to third on a wild pitch. Fujimura then hit a single to left to score Chono. 1 – 0 Yomiuri

Sakamoto followed with another single, putting runners on 1st and 2nd and nobody out. Abe hit the third single in a row, scoring Fujimura.  2 – 0 Yomiuri

Murata would strike out and Yano would pop out for the first two outs. Ota would then hit a double to left scoring Sakamoto and Abe stopping at third. 3 – 0 Yomiuri

To make things even more interesting, Nakai would draw a walk to load the bases. Thankfully the CL has not embraced the DH and Suguichi was up next. He would strike out to end the early threat.

After the slap across the face from the giants, the Birds went down in order in the bottom half of the inning. The league-leading newspaper bums would add to their lead in the 2nd inning. After striking out Chono, Akagawa would walk Fujimura. Sakamoto would reach base on a Yamada error. Abe would then drive in his second RBI in as many innings when he hit a single to center. 4 – 0 Yomiuri

Murata would end this threat by grounding into an inning-ending double-play.

No more need for this equipment. Hara has seen enough of me. Time to hit the keg-erator boys!

The Birds would get one run back when Miyamoto shocked all in attendance and hit a HR to center.  4 – 1 Yomiuri

Things settled down until the bottom of the 4th. Yuhei lead off the inning with a single to center. Coco would then reach first on an error. Milledge would then walk to load the bases. Kawabata would hit a grounder to Fujimura and he would force out Milledge at second but Yuhei would score on the play.  4 – 2 Yomiuri

Miyamoto would end the threat by grounding into an inning-ending double-play.

Akagawa’s evening came to an end when he was pinch-hit for in the bottom of the fifth.

The league-leading newspaper bums would add yet another run in the top of the 6th. Matsui was now on the mound for the Birds. Unfortunately, he wasn’t performing any better than Akagawa. As the great bronx bomber Yogi Berra once (or maybe countless times) said, “It’s deja vu all over again“. Chono hit a double to lead-off the 6th. Thankfully, Fujimura flew out for the first out of the inning. However, Sakamoto followed Chono’s effort with a double to left and knocked in Chono.  5 – 2 Yomiuri

Ogawa had seen enough of Matsui an brought in Shoda. Afte he hit Abe, Shoda induced an inning-ending double-play.

Although the Birds would get runners to 2nd and 3rd in the bottom of the 6th and only one out, they couldn’t drive in a run.

For all intensive purposes, that was the last real threat from the Birds. The giants would score one more in the 7th and two more in the 8th to put the game well out of reach.

Your final score for this pathetic evening, 8 – 2 Yomiuri.

Notes:

• Miyamoto hit his 3rd homer of the year. His previous homer was also against the giants.
• With tonight’s loss, Akagawa dropped below .500 (6-7) on the year. He has only gotten 13 decisions in 23 starts. Not good.
• On the other side, Suguichi earned the win. He is now 11-2 on the year.
• The giants doubled up the hit total (16-8), while the Birds doubled-up on errors (2-1). Not good stats people. Not good at all. 
• Tomorrow sees these two foes travel to Niigata for the next two days.
• The schedule starters are Muranaka for the Birds and Houlten for the giants