Tokyo Yakult Swallows  

Chiba Lotte Marines 

Streak: Lost 3  Last 5: LWLLL

(QVC Marine Field)

This evening’s game fell victim to a day of rain, and will be rescheduled for Thursday 24th at 6:15pm.

]]> http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/22/52212-chiba-away-game-cancelled/feed/ 0 http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/08/5812-chunichi-away/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5812-chunichi-away http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/08/5812-chunichi-away/#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 13:21:29 +0000 David Watkins http://tokyoswallows.com/?p=12569 May 8th, 2012

Tokyo Swallows 0

Chunichi Dragons 1

Streak: Lost 2  Last 5: LWWLL

(Toyohashi Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1
Chunichi	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	0
W: Yamai (1-3; 1.69 ERA) L: Ishikawa (2-4; 2.91) S: Asao (1S; 1.59)

Chunichi leapfrogged Tokyo back up to the top of the CL as they edged an ultra-tight affair in Aichi.

	Tokyo		Chunichi
1	Tanaka 2B	1	Oshima CF
2	Fukuchi CF	2	Araki 2B
3	Milledge LF	3	Ibata SS
4	Balentien RF	4	Wada LF
5	Kawabata SS	5	Blanco 1B
6	Miyamoto 3B	6	Tanishige C
7	Hatakeyama 1B	7	Hirata RF
8	Nakamura C	8	N.Donoue 3B
9	Ishikawa P	9	Yamai P

Yamai proved too much for Tokyo to handle

Dragons’ starter Yamai was attempting his third start of the season against the Swallows, after racking up two losses and an ERA of 6.00 in his prior two efforts. Ishikawa faired much better in his only previous start against the Dragons this year, giving up just the one run over seven innings in what would end up as a tie.  In tonight’s game however one pitcher would maintain that prior form, while the other would not.

Yes it was Yamai, who I previously described as distinctly average (yeah, sorry about that) who would break the mould and pitch a gem, pitching eight shutout innings, giving up just the three hits while fanning seven (three of those seven being Balentien) with no walks. The Swallows bats could find no solution to his stuff, and only managing to get a man past first in the 8th, when Miyamoto, who had reached via his second single of the game, found himself at third with two outs on the board, only for the pinch-hitting Fujimoto to line-out to second.

After that the Swallows got another man to third in the 9th with Asao on the mound (Miwa, pinch-running for Tanaka who had led off the inning with a walk), but Balentien struck out swinging to end the game.

Ishikawa was okay, giving up just the one run (unearned) in his seven innings off six hits with two Ks and a walk. That solitary run came in the 3rd: Yamai doubled his annoyance factor by singling to left to start the inning before he was bunted to second by Oshima for out number one. An uber-rare Miyamoto error allowed Araki’s grounder to escape into the outfield to put men on the corners for Ibata. He hit a grounder to Miyamoto, who threw to home whereupon Nakamura easily ran down Yamai who was hopelessly stuck in no-man’s land between third and home (he is a pitcher after all) which left men on first and second with two outs for Wada. And the veteran outfielder hit a grounder that just evaded the dive of Kawabata and Araki was home from second to make it 1-0 Chunichi.

Things could have got much worse as Blanco drew a walk to load the bases for Tanishige, but Ishikawa struck him out to keep the deficit at one.

Chunichi only really threatened again with Oshimoto on the mound in relief of Ishikawa in the 8th. A flyout-walk-walk-strikeout-walk combo loaded the bases for Donoue, but after battling seven pitches, he flew out to left to prevent a trademark sweaty-cap meltdown from Oshimoto.

Notes:

• Milledge was ejected from the game in the 7th, after arguing a called third strike with the home plate umpire. He thought the pitch was high/outside, and communicated this matter to the ump, and Lastings appeared to be okay until he shouted something along the lines of, if my memory and lip-reading skills serve me well, “That’s a fucking joke”, as he headed back to the bench. And we all know that that any variant of fuck is the “magic word” in Japan that will see you ejected from the game regardless (as a non-Japanese), and so it proved to be as he was given his marching orders. Cue Lastings getting in the face of  the ump (see above) and getting in a few more choice “magic words” before Balentien pulled him back and sent him on his way back to the bench. Ogawa then argued Lastings’ case for a minute or so, to of course no avail.
• And before we get any of the “That’s Lastings finally showing his true colours” schtick, I remember being present to witness Aaron Guiel getting ejected in the exact same way at Koshien a few years back, so no biggie in showing a bit of passion for the cause, no matter how futile it may ultimately be. And lets also not forget this is Lastings first mis-step in what has been a pretty impeccable start to his Japanese career.
• It was around that inning that Yamai appeared to start smirking after every out, tripling his annoyance rating for the evening.
• Ishikawa was the only non-Meikyukai member to hit, with a one-out single in the 6th. He would be stranded at first.
• Chunichi are extremely annoying.
• Thankfully Morino (back trouble) and his inflatable face weren’t involved in this game which would have increased the Chunichi annoyance factor immeasurably.
• 10154 folks spent 2 hours 34 minutes watching the annoyance that is the Chunichi Dragons baseball team.
• The CD logo on the Dragon’s cap shouldn’t be red. I can only conclude that it was designed by a colour blind person.
• I’m struggling to find much else to write about this game.
• Can you tell?
• Oh, hold on……
• Tokyo still lead the season series against Chunichi 4-2 with 1 tie.
• The two teams will travel to Gifu for game two of this series, with Muranaka taking on Nakata on the mound.

Now to leave you with some positive news. Earlier today, it should surprise no one to learn that Coco Balentien was named the CL MVP for March/April, making it a Tokyo double, with Shohei Tateyama also taking the pitching honour. Congratulations gentlemen!

MVP!!

And another!!

]]> http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/08/5812-chunichi-away/feed/ 4 http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/04/24/042412-chunichi-home/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=042412-chunichi-home http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/04/24/042412-chunichi-home/#comments Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:05:47 +0000 David Watkins http://tokyoswallows.com/?p=12388 April 24th, 2012

Chunichi Dragons 1

Tokyo Swallows 4

Streak: Won 4  Last 5: LWWWW

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Chunichi	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	1
Tokyo	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	X	4	7	0
W: Tateyama (2-0, 2.00ERA) L: Yamai (0-3, 3.18) S: Barnette (1-0, 8S, 0.00)

After the confidence boosting and oh so pleasurable home sweep this last weekend against Yomiuri, Tokyo kept the momentum rolling with a relatively straightforward victory against the reigning CL chuamps.

	Chunichi		Tokyo
1	Oshima (CF)	1	Tanaka (2B)
2	Araki (2B)	2	Ueda (CF)
3	Morino (3B)	3	Milledge (LF)
4	Yamasaki (1B)	4	Balentien (RF)
5	Wada (LF)	5	Miyamoto (3B)
6	Ibata (SS)	6	Morioka (SS)
7	Hirata (RF)	7	Hatakeyama (1B)
8	Tanishige (C)	8	Nakamura (C)
9	Yamai (P)	9	Tateyama (P)

After Tateyama made light work of the first three batters of the evening, Tokyo’s bats got things up and running against the distinctly average Yamai who was on the mound for the Dragons.

Back-to-back singles for Tanaka and Ueda put men on first and second for Milledge, with a wild pitch during Lastings’ at-bat allowing both runners to reach scoring positions. That wild pitch turned out to be oh so fortunate as it meant just the one out instead of the two, as Milledge hit a ground-out to short which scored Tanaka for 1-0 Tokyo, with Ueda now at third. Balentien hit a shallow fly for out number two before Miyamoto came to the plate. He hit a grounder to first, but the 63 year old veteran Yamasaki couldn’t come up with it as Miyamoto reached first on the error, and Ueda made it home for 2-0 Tokyo.

Morioka, in tonight’s line-up to give Kawabata a rest (he has some lower back issues I believe) hit a dribbler up the middle that somehow evaded the Chunichi middle infield and Tokyo had men on the corners to threaten once more, but Hatake flew out to to right to end the inning with the lead at two.

But that lead would be halved in the top of the 2nd, as it became apparent that Tateyama is still not 100% early in this new season. Two singles and a two-out run scoring wild pitch got Chunichi back in the game at 2-1.

And the game would be see the last of it’s scoring in the bottom of the 3rd, as a Milledge double to the fence in right, and a Balentien homer over the same fence made it a much more comfortable 4-1 Tokyo. It was Balentien’s CL-leading 5th dinger of the year.

Tateyama would battle his way to the end of the 6th without allowing any further runs, aided by some very solid defence behind him, and so it was on to the bullpen. Masubuchi was up first in the 7th, followed by Oshimoto in the 8th, both allowing a solitary hit apiece which meant it was Tony-time come the top of the 9th. And as is becoming customary, he made light work of it, sitting down the 71 year old Yamasaki, 53 year old Wada and the positively spritely 42 year old Ibata in order to wrap things up nice and dandily for a 4-1 Tokyo Final.

Notes

• A “not at his best” Tateyama was still good enough to earn his second straight win after his 6I / 102P / 4H / 1K / 2BB / 1ER evening.
• The bullpen duo of Oshimoto and Barnette are still yet to give up an earned run this year, while Masabuchi’s ERA now sits at 3.86.
• Miyamoto went 1 for 3 (plus a dead ball for good measure), the hit coming via a 5th inning single, which means he is now just the 8 hits away from tears all round.
• After the two-run 3rd, Tokyo got a hit in each of the 4th and 5th innings before being shut down by the Dragons’ bullpen over the final three.
• Hatakeyama was the only non-pitching member of the starting line-up without a hit for the evening. He’s now batting .174.
• 12941 folks were at a soggy Jingu to witness the Swallows’ extend their streak to four, and end Chunichi’s at five.
• In tonight’s only other game in the CL, Hanshin lost at Koshien in a pitcher’s duel which saw Maeda’s Carp come out on top against Messenger to the tune of 1-0. This means Tokyo and Chunichi are now tied for first place with Hanshin 1.5 games behind in third.
• Tomorrow’s game will see Ishikawa start for the birds with the mythical creatures countering with Nakata. Thursday’s starter for Tokyo will likely be Muranaka.

Tokyo Swallows  0

Hanshin Tigers  4

Streak: Lost 1   Last 5: LLWWL

(Hotto Motto Field Kobe)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	2
Hanshin	0	0	0	2	0	0	2	0	X	4	8	0
W: Messenger (2-0/2.84) L: Roman (0-3/3.64)

After two good wins against the Carp this last weekend, Tokyo returned to the kind of baseball that saw them lose last week’s series against the Baystars. The impotent bat kind.

	Tokyo		Hanshin
1	Ueda (CF)	1	Hirano (2B)
2	Tanaka (2B)	2	Shibata (CF)
3	Milledge (RF)	3	Toritani (SS)
4	Hatakeyama (1B)	4	Arai (3B)
5	Kawabata (SS)	5	Brazell (1B)
6	Miyamoto (3B)	6	Murton (RF)
7	Balentien (RF)	7	Kanemoto (LF)
8	Nakamura (C)	8	Komiyama (C)
9	Roman (P)	9	Messenger (P)

In fairness to those faltering Swallows bats, Hanshin starter Messenger pitched a blinder, throwing a 100 pitch complete game shutout, allowing just the 4 hits while striking out 9.

In contrast, Tokyo starter Roman wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t that great either, allowing 2 runs off 6 hits over his 6 innings of work, issuing 3 walks with just the 1 K. He tended to get behind early in counts as he struggled to find the zone, but he did well to keep the score down considering. Apparently this was the first time in his career he has started a game on just four days rest, and his next start will possibly be on the same rest too.

It should surprise no one that Hanshin took the lead in the 4th off the bat of a certain Craig Brazell. After Arai had led off the inning with a single to left, Brazell slashed at a pitch over the outside of the plate, not making the best of contacts, but given his strength, that contact was enough to sneak the ball over the fence in left (and just out of the reach of a fence jumping Milledge) for 2-0 Hanshin. It was his fourth homer in just the three games against the Swallows this year.

This is becoming far too much of a familiar sight

The remaining two Tigers runs came in the 7th, with Hidaka on the mound in relief for the Swallows. Hirano got his third hit of the evening to get the inning going, before Shibata bunted him along for out number one. Toritani walked to put two men on, and then Arai hit a weak grounder to second. The problem with that was that Tanaka couldn’t come up with the ball, eventually spilling it, which meant an “E” being displayed on the scoreboard and, more importantly, Hanshin had the bases loaded with just the one red light lit.

It was Brazell up to the plate next, and to his credit Hidaka struck him out swinging for out number two. And so it was down to the ginger JESUS CHRIST IS MY KING of the Hanshin foreign contingent to deliver, and WITH THE POWER OF THE SWEET LORD TO MAKE HIM WHOLE he snuck one up the middle WHAT A JOY TO LIVE FOR HIM to bring home two runs. Arai was ran down between second and third to end the inning with the score at 4-0 Hanshin.

Tokyo’s only threats of the evening came in the 2nd: Kawabata with a  one-out double (he would be stranded there), and in the 8th: singles for Balentien and the pinch-hitting Yuhei put two on with one out for Ihara, who hit one back to Messenger for a 1-4-3 inning ending double play.

4-0 Hanshin Final.

Notes

• The Tigers took just over two and a half hours to halt their losing streak at two while stopping a Swallows win streak of the same length. They also lead the season series 2-0 with the 1 tie.
• Aside from Hiroyasu’s in the 7th, the other Tokyo error was charged to Hatakeyama in the 1st, as he failed to come up with Roman’s pick-off throw to first, allowing Hirano to reach second.
• Balentien was responsible for half of Tokyo’s hits as he went 2 for 2 with a walk. His line now reads .333/.480/.513, the first of those numbers being a team high, and the last two CL highs.
• Former Hanshin man Abe pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the 8th.
• If you remove Saturday’s rather freakish 10-1 win over Hiroshima from the equation, Tokyo have mustered just the 1 run in their last 31 innings of baseball.
• The two teams will head to Koshien for tomorrow’s game, with Tateyama due on the mound for the Swallows against the Tigers’ Kubo.

Yokohama Baystars  1

Tokyo Swallows 2

Streak: Won 3    Last 5: LLWWW

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
Yokohama	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	8	0
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1x	2	7	1
W: Oshimoto (3-0/0.00) L: Yamaguchi (0-1/13.50)

After leaving Nagoya with a magnificent hard-fought series win against the Dragons, the Swallows returned to Jingu to take on the perennially struggling Baystars. And while they huffed and puffed, they eventually blew the YOKOHAMA DeNA MOBAGE WHATEVERTHEFOOKTHEY’RECALLEDTHISYEAR BAYSTARS house down in ten innings.

	Yokohama		Tokyo
1	Morimoto (CF)	1	Hiyane (CF)
2	Ishikawa (2B)	2	Tanaka (2B)
3	Kinjo (RF)	3	Milledge (RF)
4	Ramirez (LF)	4	Hatakeyama (1B)
5	Koike (1B)	5	Kawabata (SS)
6	Fujita (3B)	6	Miyamoto (3B)
7	Kajitani (SS)	7	Balentien (RF)
8	Tsuruoka (C)	8	Aikawa (C)
9	Kuniyoshi (P)	9	Tateyama (P)

Tateyama started for Tokyo, looking to register his first win of the new season. Alas he wasn’t at his sharpest as he struggled with his control at times, and he let at least one man on base in each of the eight innings he pitched.

Meanwhile, the Swallows struggled to get to grips with the Baystars’ starter Kuniyoshi. And it took them until the 4th inning to register a hit against the 20 year old, as Lastings Milledge got on base via a bloop infield single that took the Yokohama infield by surprise.

But from that point on they started to threaten a little more. In the 5th a single for Kawabata and a walk apiece for Balentien and Aikawa loaded the bases with one out on the board. Tateyama could only strike out swinging while Hiyane hit one back to the pitcher to strand all three men.

Home run no.2 for Lastings

And so to alleviate the strain on the struggling Tokyo bats, Milledge took matters into his own hands in the bottom of the 6th, as he smacked his second NPB home run in to the leftfield stands to make it 1-0 Tokyo.

But Tateyama couldn’t quite hold onto the lead, as he allowed a run off two hits in the top of the 7th (Morimoto with the RBI) to even-steven things back up at 1-1. And Shohei would work one more scoreless inning as he ended his evening’s work with the scores still tied. He wouldn’t feature in the final decision after his 8I/116P/7H/6K/5BB/1ER outing, and his quest for a win continues as his record remains at 0-0 with his ERA now at 2.08.

After Barnette worked a 1-2-3 top of the 9th to preserve both the tie and his 0.00 ERA, Tokyo finally looked like breaking that tie in the bottom of the 9th. With reliever Kikuchi on the mound, Hatakeyama got things rolling with a single to centre. He was replaced with the substantially more nimble feet of Ueda at first, and those feet were put to use as Kawabata bunted him to second for the first out of the inning. Miyamoto then continued to struggle at the plate he grounded out to third with Ueda remaining at second. Balentien got a free pass to first which brought up Aikawa, who was 1 for 2 with a walk to that point. He hit one up the middle, which was just about fielded by the diving second baystarsbaseman, who flipped the ball to second just in time to get the force-out of Balentien to end the inning and send the game into extra(s).

Oshimoto also maintained his goose-egg ERA in the top of the 10th before Tokyo had three outs to avoid the tie (due to the 3.5 hour rule). With Yokohama’s closer Yamaguchi on the mound, a pinch hitting Takeuchi made a good start toward that target with a grounder to first that neither infielders nor pitcher could come up with to get on board. He was replaced by Yamada at first and then up stepped Hiyane to try to lay down the sacbunt. And it looked bleak as he fouled off two bunt attempts, but he came good with try number three to move Yamada to second.

And so the stage was set for Tanaka, with the lively looking Milledge waiting on deck if needed. But he wasn’t, as Hiroyasu hit one deep to right, out of the reach of any Yokohama arms and Yamada was home to cue the on-field Sayonara celebrations. 2-1 Tokyo Final.

Notes

• 11576 souls were present to witness Tokyo extending their win streak to three.

• Though Tanaka took to the mic for the post-game hero interview, Lastings Milledge was the undoubted stand-out of the evening. Aside from his 2 for 4 night with the bat, he also showed another side to his game, namely his cannon of an arm. In the 5th inning, with one out on the board and Morimoto at first, Shimozono hit a shallow fly ball to left, which was taken on the run by Lastings, who then fired the ball back to first to pick off the scampering runner to end the inning. And in with two outs in the 10th, Aranami hit one up the foul line to left, which was fielded by Milledge in foul territory who again unleashed a pinpoint throw which threw out the runner at second, and effectively ended any chance of a Yokohama win.

• Tokyo’s quest to replace Aoki continues. With Hiyane given his second straight start in centre, he had a rather torrid night, going 0 for 3 with a walk, and with only that final 10th inning sac bunt saving the day for the chipmunk-faced rookie. He also was charged with an error in the field in the 3rd, as a fumble allowed Shimozono to stretch a single into two bases. He was also thrown out attempting to steal second in the 4th after getting on base via that walk. Possibly time to give Ueda another shot.

• Miyamoto was the only other member of the starting lineup to go hitless, aside from Tateyama of course. He still has 17 hit to go to reach the magical world of 2000.

• The two teams will return tomorrow for game two of the series. Rain is forecast for the afternoon and evening, so Ishikawa will likely take the mound in a damp Jingu for the Swallows, while Yokohama will counter with Yamamoto.

Tokyo Swallows 2

Chunichi Dragons 1

Streak: Won 1 Last 5: LLDLW

(Nagoya Dome)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Tokyo	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	5	0
Chunichi	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	7	1
W: Oshimoto (2-0/0.00) L: Yamai (0-1/2.08) S: Barnette (3S/0.00)

If I was to assign a word to each of Tokyo’s opening six games of the 2012 season, I’d likely go with: excellence, spirited, wasteful, meltdown, hill-billy and deja-vu. And so for today’s game we’ll go with……GET IN!!! Oh, that’s two words. Never mind.

	Swallows		Dragons
1	CF Ueda	1	2B Araki
2	1B Tanaka	2	CF Oshima
3	LF Milledge	3	3B Morino
4	1B Hatakeyama	4	1B Yamasaki
5	SS Kawabata	5	LF Wada
6	3B Miyamoto	6	SS Ibata
7	RF Balentien	7	RF Hirata
8	C Aikawa	8	C Tanishige
9	P Muranaka	9	P Kawakami

Ogawa made one change from the lineup used thus far in the season, with the number one and two slots flipping, meaning Ueda was at lead off and Tanaka was back to his more traditional no.2 slot.

In the 1st, after those first two slots in the lineup had each worked a full count out of Chunichi starter Kawakami, to ultimately no avail, Milledge hit the second pitch he saw into the leftfield stands for his first NPB homer, 1-0 Tokyo.

Run number one

And after a comfortable 1-2-3 bottom of the inning for Muranaka, Tokyo were presented with a rare chance to put a  number larger than one up on the Nagoya Dome scoreboard in the 2nd.

Miyamoto led off the inning by hitting one back at Kawakami, the pitcher had to stretch up and to his right to snag the ball, and his throw lacked any kind of power, bouncing just in front of Yamasaki at first, meaning the veteran couldn’t come up with the ball and Miyamoto was safely aboard. It was called an E1, and the reason for the weak throw to first became clear as Kawakami had to leave the game with what appeared to be a tweaked back.

So with their starter out of the game Chunichi brought in rookie Tajima. Next man up Balentien snuck one up the middle to put two on, and then Aikawa layed down a sac bunt for out number one with the runners moving into scoring positions. Muranaka was next up, and he worked a five-pitch walk to load the bases. Up came the newly switched one and two batters, but they could only strikeout (Ueda) and flyout to right (Tanaka) and the lead remained at a vulnerable one run.

And vulnerable it proved as a lead-off double from Yamasaki in the bottom of the 2nd was followed up by another two bases from Wada, and we were back to 1-1. Muranaka later walked another man to put two men on, but he would eventually escape the inning with the scores still tied.

After a fairly comfortable 3rd and 4th innings for the rookie Tajima, the Dragons threatened again in the bottom of the 4th. Another Wada double and an Ibata sacbunt put a man on third with only one out on the board, but a strikeout and shallow flyout to third got Muranaka out of the inning unscathed.

Tajima was replaced by the pinch-hitting Tony Blanco in the 5th (he struck out for the record) and so it was another newcomer, Jorge Sosa making his NPB debut, who took the mound in the 6th. He would give up just a solitary hit in his two inning of work, before Muranaka found himself in another pickle come the bottom of the 7th.

A lead-off single for Ibata and a walk for Hirata was followed up by a Tanishige sacbunt to put two men in scoring positions with just the one out on the board. Again Muranaka would dig deep as he got the pinch-hitting Fuji to ground out to second (Ibata didn’t move from third) and then Araki flew out to centre to end the inning.

Muranaka put in a gutsy 7 innings of work

Yamai came on to pitch the top of the 8th, and he made quick work of Tanaka, Milledge and Hatakeyama as the Swallows again failed to mount any real threat of breaking the deadlock.

The sight of Oshimoto on the mound to start the bottom of the inning signified the end for Muranaka, who had put in a gutsy 7 innings of work (116P/5H/4K /3BB/1ER), but a lack of run support meant that his record would remain at 1-0 with his ERA shrinking to 3.00.

And so it was Oshimoto’s turn to dodge a bullet. Oshima grounded out for out number one before the inflatable-faced Morino got on with a hit to right. Yamasaki flew out to left for out number two. Wada then hit his second double of the game, this time to the corner in right, but the Chunichi third base coach held Morino at third. Luckily for Tokyo, as Balentien’s throw from right was not good, and Morino would have likely scored the go-ahead run if he’d have been given the green light. But he wasn’t. Thankfully.

Ibata was then pitched around to load the bases for Hirata. Oshimoto got himself in a three ball-no strike hole with three sliders that missed low and away. But three consecutive fast balls were good enough to strike out Hirata and strand the three Dragons.

And so to the top of the 9th with Yamai still on the mound. And the bespectacled pitcher would make easy work of Kawabata and Miyamoto to bring up Balentien. And Coco hit an absolute monster over the wall in left to make it 2-1 Tokyo!

Thus in the absence of Lim, it was down to Tony Barnette to again try to bring home a win for Tokyo, and he kept the nerve-jangling theme going by walking Yamasaki to get the inning off and running. He was then helped out by one of the Donoue brothers, who after fouling his first two bunt attempts, ended up hitting a grounder to first for a double play. Which was a blow the Dragons just couldn’t recover from, as Araki struck out to make it 2-1 Tokyo Final.

Run number two

Notes

• 25711 people were there to witness Chunichi’s first loss of the 2012 season.
• Balentien could be seen post-game in the dugout being told that he was due up for the hero interview. He looked less than keen and tried to suggest that Milledge should go up instead. When told that that wasn’t going to happen, he let out a resigned “Fuuuuck…..” before making his way back on the field. His initial comment about thanking god for the opportunity to take the plate in the 9th wasn’t translated at all. If I remember correctly, god ended up as manager and team. Which is probably quite apt.
• Tanaka (.233), Ueda (.154), Kawabata (.333) and Miyamoto (.364) all went hitless today. Ueda in particular seems to be struggling at the plate, though he continues to inspire confidence in the field.
• The two evenly matched teams will take the field again tomorrow afternoon for the rubber game of the series, with Akagawa due to take on Yamamoto on the mound. After that Tokyo get a home series against the struggling Baystars from Tuesday.

Hanshin Tigers 

Tokyo Swallows 

Streak:   Last 5: WWL-

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

This evening’s game has been postponed due to the impending storm due to hit the Tokyo area over the course of the rest of the day.

The two teams will try again at 6pm on Wednesday.

The prize at stake is restoration of Swallows pride and much more importantly, a place in the Japan Series for the first time since 2001.

M will be sending us updates and thoughts from the road over the course of this week, and here’s his first instalment. Hope you enjoy it.

The Journey. Heading to the stadium on some kind of “Dragons train” on the Meijiro Line to Nagoya Dome-mae Yada. Not only is the exterior plastered with Dragons logos but all the advertising space on the sides of the train is taken up with player statistics (such as, I assume, how stupidly long Morino’s legs are along with the record breaking size of HIS ENORMOUS FACE) and pictures of former Dragons “triumphs”. All I can think (hope?) is that it all ends over the next week… Come on boys!!

The walk to the stadium involves traversing the “Dragons Road” – a tunnel of propoganda. I thought the reason we elected governments was to protect free thinking people from this kind of mental abuse. Nauseating.

First glimpse of the scene where we will secure our run to the Japan Series. A horrible place. Maybe fresh air is not something Nagoya-jin like so they thought they would put some protection on top of their baseball stadium. I guess with all the auto-production you don’t move here for the air quality.

A few ticket touts along the bridge to the stadium. Not normally seen. Place is seeing a steady stream of people. Could be a full-house by about 1830.

Pre-match. Pitchers just announced. A HUGE SURPRISE (judging by the ‘heeeeeeeeee’ from our fans) that Masubuchi is starting this one. I guess it was a toss-up between him and Tateyama. Maybe good to give Tats a longer rest given his blood issues.

Tsubakuro is facing the Dragons fans and swinging an imaginary bat at them.
Clearly a thinly veiled insult.

Our fans are in fine voice in the pre-game singalong. A palpable tension here. Better remember to do Balentien’s ‘arch in the sky’ in the other direction now we’re in left field.

Early feedback. Not the best start clearly with two deep hits. Swallows at least showing some hitting at the top of the second. The worry with the walk at the start of the second is that Masubuchi’s confidence will drop and against the top of the Dragons` order that would be disastrous.

Individual fans getting behind Masubuchi but no concerted ‘red shirt’ effort to lift him up against a vocal Chunichi crowd. Given the importance of every inning of these games I was hoping for a little more.

Mid-Game. Masubuchi’s runs hopefully won’t expose our own recent lack of run-support. Now rolling through the bullpen and I almost sense fans and players here have written this one off. Not in a depressed way, more one of resignation.

“Lucky” 7. A rather subdued Lucky 7 from the fans here – still doing their part but not much faith we can pull this off with our remaining six outs, but with that edge of hope lingering on the outskirts of resignation.

Lim has come on – a decision which again has met with some frowns from
Swallows fans with Sunday’s debacle fresh in their minds.

Game over. Crowd got back into it as the boys throw a lifeline. I think many are emotionally spent after Monday. Goes without saying that we absolutely have to win tomorrow. Until then……

Here is what they thought:

Game 1  (11/2): Tateyama

Game 2 (11/3): Ishikawa

Game 3 (11/4): Masubuchi

Game 4 (11/5): Akagawa

Game 5 (11/6): Tateyama

Game 6 (11/7): Ishikawa

Of course this is all guesswork, but one thing seems certain: Tateyama will start Game 1. He was after all ready to take the mound if needed in last night’s decisive First Stage Game 3.

But what the short (one day!) break between the First and Final Stages means, is that Tateyama (and Ishikawa if the above prediction is correct) will be making his first, and if needed, second appearance of the Final Stage on just three days rest. And for a guy who still has blood flow issues with his throwing hand, that is a concern.

What the above list of starters would also mean, is that Muranaka would continue to be used out of the pen, which given his key role in the defeat of Yomiuri, I’d be quite happy with.

Anyway, what are your predictions/hopes for the rotation over the coming week?

Yomiuri Giants 2

Tokyo Swallows  3

Series: Swallows Lead 1-0

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Yomiuri	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	2	8	1
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	X	3	8	0
W: Muranaka L: Takagi S: Lim

Tokyo came from behind to down their beloved neighbours off the back of a Tateyama-Muranaka starter’s relay and, thank the lord of your choice, some timely hitting.

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In a packed and buzzing Jingu it was Tateyama, not Ishikawa as expected, who took the mound to start the key game one of this best of three series. And he was made to work from the off as the pesky (no make that the completely f*cking annoying) Sakamoto battled eleven pitches before Tateyama got him to ground out to third. After striking out Terauchi for out number two, a single for Chono and a walk for Abe followed, but Swallows old-boy turned gurning Giants entertainer Ramirez grounded out to the pitcher to strand the two runners.

Sawamura on the other hand, had far less trouble sitting down Swallows batters early on, and it wasn’t until the third inning before they mustered a hit, via a single for Morioka.

And it was the Giants who got on the board first in the top of the 4th. With one out, Ramirez hit a pacey grounder to first, which the diving Hatake couldn’t quite come up with, meaning everyone’s favourite Venezuelan was safe at first. Ogasawara then singled to right, with Ramirez somehow managing to waddle his way to third, with him then somewhat questionably being called safe. Another single along the rightfield foul line followed for Takahashi, and it was 1-0 Yomiuri. With men again on the corners, Tateyama struck out Furuki to strand another pair of orange runners.

Miyamoto - key man

But Tokyo would tie things up in the bottom of the 5th. Back to back two-out singles for Morioka and Aikawa put two men on, and Jingu got a touch more anxious as Tateyama was sacrificed for Fujimoto. But, just as he did in the regular season closer against Hiroshima, he came up with the goods as he hit one back up the middle for a 1-1 scoreline.

With Tatayama now seated, it was Muranaka who got the call to try to pitch out the game, and he was in a word, immense. After giving up a single to get the 6th inning underway, he then sat down eleven men in order.

And he got himself a lead in the bottom of the 6th. Despite having thrown only 73 pitches, Sawamura was switched for Takagi. Which was good news for the Swallows, as if it was going to come down to a battle of the bullpens, then I’d put good money on ours vs their’s everytime. And my optimism was proved well-founded as Takagi allowed a one out single for Tanaka, and then Aoki got on board courtesy of a comical Ogasawara error at first. Takagi made way for the ultimate fugly, Nishimura, and he continued the theme by walking Hatake to load the bases.

Up stepped Miyamoto, and he hit a sacfly to centre, which was good enough to score Tanaka to give the Swallows a 2-1 lead. But Tokyo weren’t done yet, as with men on the corners Balentien hit a blooper, which just evaded Terauchi at second and made it 3-1 Tokyo.

And with Muranaka dominating on the mound, that lead never really looked threatened. And indeed, Kyohei came within one out of closing out the came, but a rather lucky swing for the pinch hitting Ohmura saw the ball just sneaking over the fence to the left of the scoreboard, and it was 3-2.

In came Lim to get Sakamoto to fly out to second, and that was good enough for a 3-2 Tokyo Final.

So then, a fairly comfortable win in the end for the Swallows, with the pitching of Tatayama (5IP/98P/6H/7K/2BB/1ER), and Muranaka (3.2IP/49P/2H/3K/0BB/1ER) giving the Swallows bats a platform to win. Which they did with some very uncharacteristic (for the month of October at least) timely hitting.

Muranaka and Miyamoto were selected for the post-game hero interviews, but by that point most of the Swallows supporting half of the stadium were likely too sozzled to listen to anything they had to say. Or perhaps it was just me.

Sunday’s game 2 starters are more than likely going to be Ishikawa for the Swallows, vs all around bitch-boy Utsumi for Yomiuri. Let’s hope we can make Utsumi cry like the bitch he is on the bench for the umpteenth time in his career.

Job done