An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
September 30th, 2010 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 0 Hiroshima Toyo Carp 1 Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: WLWWL (Mazda Stadium) Tateyama lost a pitcher’s duel to Maeda in this low-scoring affair in Hiroshima. Lineup: 1. Aoki CF 2. Tanaka 2B 3. Hatakeyama LF 4. Whitesell 1B 5. Iihara RF 6. Aikawa C 7. Miyamoto 3B 8. [...]
September 28th, 2010 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4 Yokohama BayStars 0 Streak: Won 2 Last 5: WWLWW (Yokohama Stadium) This one was a rather brief affair, with the Swallows brushing aside the Baystars in just over two hours and a half, thanks primarily to Ishikawa registering his first complete game shutout for two years as he extended [...]
September 26th, 2010 Chunichi Dragons 1 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: LWWLW (Meiji Jingu) In yet another absolute must-win situation, the Tokyo Swallows bested the first place Dragons on the back of a decent start by Yoshinori and a solid first inning on offense. Tonight’s lineup: 1. Aoki CF 2. [...]
September 23rd, 2010 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3 Hiroshima Toyo Carp 0 Streak: Last 5: LWLWW (Mazda Zoooooom Zooooooooooom Stadium Hiroshima) This one was a straight-up pitchers battle between Hiroshima’s finest (not to mention the current CL ERA and wins leader) Kenta Maeda facing off against (in the eyes of this writer anyway) Tokyo’s finest, [...]
September 22nd, 2010 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Hiroshima Toyo Carp 4 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: WLWLW (Mazda Zoooom Zooooooooooooom Stadium Hiroshima) With the Swallows playoff hopes now all but extinguished, and 4th place effectively long since in the bag, the goal of improving on 2009′s one game under .500 finish is all that [...]
September 21st, 2010 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2 Hiroshima Toyo Carp 5 Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: LWLWL (Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium Hiroshima) Ogawa, now confirmed as the manager, not just the interim chief, continued to toy with the line-up and a Matsuoka slip, not quite a meltdown, allowed the Carp to break open a [...]
Prior to the start of today’s game, the Swallows had a 64-63-4 record with 13 games to go. The third place Giants had a 72-60-1 record with 11 games to play, and the second place Tigers had a 71-57-3 record with 13 games left to go. Since NPB allows ties, the standing are calculated by [...]
When Junji Ogawa was first promoted to interim manager, I speculated that he would only hold the job temporarily. However, the Swallows held a press conference today proving me wrong, as they announced that Ogawa will be the full time manager of the Swallows in 2011. Since taking over as manager from Shigeru Takada, the [...]
September 20th, 2010 Chunichi Dragons 3 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: LLWLW (Meiji Jingu) A series win against the first-place team? We’ll take it. This one was fairly close all the way. Not quite tit-for-tat, but close enough. Eight hits each, the scoring close together – you get the idea. [...]
