Laying an egg.

Key Points:

• How correct were our predictions from TS Podcast number seven?
• What grade would you give Tokyo’s performance thus far?
• General baseball-related stupidity
• Hand transplants

Enjoy!

Oh, and please let us know what you think about how the birds have done so far. What’s your grade?

Orix Buffaloes 4

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1 

Streak: Lost 2 Last 5: LWLLL

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

The run production woes continue.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Orix	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	4	4	1
Tokyo	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	0
W: Hirano (3-1, 2.52 ERA) L: Tateyama (3-3, 2.36 ERA)

What do you need to know? After Wednesday’s blowout victory over 2011 Japan Series champion Fukuoka, the birds are a bit constipated run-wise.

Not fun.

Tokyo	Order	Orix
Fukuchi (LF)	1	Moriyama (CF)
Tanaka (2B)	2	Nonaka (LF)
Milledge (CF)	3	Ohbiki (SS)
Balentien (RF)	4	Lee (1B)
Hatakeyama (1B)	5	Gotoh (2B)
Miyamoto (3B)	6	Baldiris (3B)
Aikawa (C)	7	Kawabata (RF)
Morioka (SS)	8	Suzuki (C)
Tateyama (P)	9	Nishi (P)

Tokyo got off on the wrong foot in the top of the second when a 1-2 Tateyama offering (maybe a forkball?) headed straight down the middle and Baldiris clubbed it into the stands in left for the first run of the game.

Tanaka then led off with a single in the bottom of the fourth, and was pushed over to third thanks to two beanballs (Balentien and Miyamoto receiving). Aikawa came through with a clutch walk that forced Tanaka home, but Morioka was once again unable to do anything productive at the plate with the bases loaded.

1-1.

And that was basically

Tateyama was decent, but he got zero run support.

it on offense for the birds.

Orix scored again in the top of the fifth. It was only one run, but it was more than enough.

1-2 Orix.

Tokyo loaded the bases once again in the sixth, but Fujimoto took Morioka’s place as the goat this time.

Orix put the game out of reach in the top of the ninth with Oshimoto on the mound. A leadoff walk was followed by Lee’s second home run in as many games.

1-4 Final.

Pitching

Tateyama took the loss on seven innings (98 NP), three hits (1 HR), three strikeouts, one walk (2 HBP), and two runs allowed (both earned). His record is now 3-3 with a 2.36 ERA.

Hidaka pitched a scoreless eighth, but Oshimoto allowed two more runs in the ninth to put the game out of reach. Hidaka now sports a 0.60 ERA through 18 appearances, and Oshimoto is now up to 2.12 on the ERA meter in as many appearances.

Hitting

Hatakeyama and Aikawa had two-hit games. Other than that, there wasn’t anything to write home about. Balentien earns two hat tips for an HBP and BB.

Baldiris takes one for: a) being the first to follow two hit Tokyo batsmen, and b) hitting a homer in his first at-bat.

Notes

Tsubamegun, meet Offensive Slump. Offensive Slump, Tsubamegun.

Morioka, as great as he is both as a player and a teammate, is 0-3 in bases-loaded situations over the last two days.

Fujimoto pinch hit for Morioka on both Saturday and Sunday in important situations. We can only imagine what that is doing to Morioka’s head. Not good, no matter how you look at it.

Tokyo outhit Orix 6-4, but your birds weren’t able to hit when it mattered. Same story three games in a row.

Milledge was back in center field tonight. He had an easy night as only one of Orix’s four hits came near him.

How we lost this game is beyond me.

Now that Tanaka is no longer on bunt duty, the Tsubamegun faithful are strenuously looking forward to the days, weeks, and months when he’s a consistent threat at the plate (in addition to his thus far gold glove performance in the field).

Strenuously.

Your Tokyo Swallows will be in Chiba on Tuesday and Wednesday for a two-game set against the Pacific League’s leading team. Both games start at 6:15PM.

]]> http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/20/52012-orix-home/feed/ 1 http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/19/51912-orix-home/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=51912-orix-home http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/19/51912-orix-home/#comments Sat, 19 May 2012 13:17:28 +0000 Scott http://tokyoswallows.com/?p=12663 May 19th, 2012

Orix Buffaloes 6

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3 

Streak: Lost 2 Last 5: DLWLL

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

After a busy week of two polar opposite games against the iPhone Hawks, Tokyo played host to the B’s.

Tonight started out well for both starting pitchers, with Roman getting the edge over Kisanuki in the second.

Roman pitching lights out in tonights game.

After a quiet first inning, the Swallows made their presence felt in the bottom of the second inning. Hatakeyama lead off the inning with a single. However, he was quickly forced out at second when Miyamoto hit a grounder to second. Miyamoto was safe at first on the play. Yuhei followed that with a hit to left field. Up walked Aikawa. With Roman in the on deck circle, Kisanuki was looking to get Aikawa out and then face his counterpart to end the inning. Well, he succeeded at the first task by getting Aikawa to fly out to shallow center. However, Roman made him pay. He hit a nice line drive to left center to easily score Miyamoto from second. Tanaka would hit yet another ball out of the infield to load the bases for the Swallows. But the inning and the early threat would end when Morioka went down on strikes. 1 – 0 Tokyo

The next 5 inning went rather quietly as both starting pitchers settled down. Roman was helped out by a couple of double plays in the 3rd and 4th innings. While Kisanuki was helped out by some poor swinging choices by the Swallows.

In the top of the 8th, the B’s finally crossed home plate. Gotoh was the first batter to face Roman. He started the inning off with a double to left to excite the fans in the left field bleachers. He was bunted over to 3rd by Kawabata. In what turned out to be a smart call, Kitagawa came to bat in place of Suzuki. Kitagawa was able to knock the ball to center to easily score Gotoh from third. Akada was up next but the best he could do was ground out to Miyamoto to end the inning. 1 – 1 

Roman was obviously upset as he walked back to the dugout. However, this is a team game and his teammates bailed him out in the bottom half of the 8th. Milledge started off the inning with a single to left. Balentien hit a ball up the middle that bounced off the pitchers glove and was picked up by the second baseman, Gotoh. Gotoh was able to get “Coco” out at first for the first out of the inning. “Boo” was up next. In a swing reminiscent of 2011, “Boo” hit a long fly ball off the left field wall. This easily scored Milledge and “Boo” made it to 2nd base with ease. That would be as far as “Boo” would go as he was replaced on the bases with Noguchi. In the end it didn’t matter as the next two batters were easy outs for Gotoh. 2 – 1 Tokyo

With the fans bouncing around the stadium, Barnette came in to pitch for the first time in a week. After disposing of  T-Okada, Nakano snuck a single off of Barnette. Ohbiki then went down on strikes for the second out of the inning. Up walked the Korean giant, Lee D. H. After battling to a full count, Lee placed the ball in pretty much the same place that three Hawks did on Thursday evening, 12 rows past the left field fence. Yamasaki followed that with a fly out to Tanaka. 3 -2 Orix

But fear not my faithful readers. In a show of unity (team slogan), Barnette would be saved from his blown save.

Aikawa started off the bottom of the ninth with a sharp liner down the first base line. He was replaced on the bases by Hiyane. With Miwa batting in the pitchers spot, he bunted Hiyane over to 2nd. Tanaka would then strike out for the second out of the inning. After seeing enough of Morioka at the plate, Ogawa replaced him with Fujimoto. In what turned out to be a fortuitous decision, Fujimoto spanked the ball down the third base line for a stand-up, RBI double. Milledge would then draw a walk to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Up walked Coco. If this was May 2011, the game would normally have ended at this point. But the season has not gone according to plan for Coco. After battling Kishida for a few pitches, Coco eventually flew out to right-center to end the inning.

3 -3 

Guess what folks? That meant free baseball!!

Oshimoto took the mound for the Birds to start the 10th. After giving up a hit to Gotoh, Kawabata then laid down a bunt. Gotoh advanced to 2nd and Kawabata was thrown out at first. After a Saitoh flu-out, Nakamura hit a soft liner to right. Coco the sent a laser to first nearly throwing Nakamura out at first and ending the threat. However, both runners were safe on the corners. Arakane ended the inning by grounding out.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Birds went down in order.

That meant we move to the 11th and final inning of the game.

Hidaka took the hill for the final inning of the game. He induced the first two batters to fly out to Miwa in right. Then he threw the Balentien special, the unintentional intentional walk to Lee. That was the end of the night for Hidaka. In trotted “snoochi boochie” Masubuchi. Yamasaki hit a soft grounder to short but beat the throw from Araki. Up next was Gotoh. He was walked to load the bases. (Sidebar: WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY? You should be challenging the f-in hitters not gifting them a free pass.)

Kawabata was 2 for 4 at that point. Who cares if he is a rookie. He was swinging the bat well and you wanted to face him with the bases loaded. Not good. And of course we then experienced Murphy’s Law as Kawabata hits a bases clearing double. Then Saitoh goes down on strikes.

6 – 3 Rental car Buffaloes

In came Ming-chen to close out the game for the R.C.B. With all of the big bats out of the line-up, the Birds did not stand much of a chance. They did get a runner on base but that was not much of a scare.

6 – 3 Orix (Final)

That is not how we want to see our relief pitchers walking back to the dugout. Tough loss for the Swallows and Masubuchi. Still, it was only one game.

Notes

• This is the second game in a row that the Swallows had the bases loaded on numerous occasions and got nothing to show for it. On Thursday, it happened 3 times. Tonight, twice. That my friends is why we lost. Let’s all thank Morioka for striking out twice with the bases loaded tonight.
• Roman pitched 8 strong innings tonight, but still got a no decision for his efforts.
• Barnette gave up his first two runs of the season.
• We need to be more aggressive on the base paths.
• Coco needs to stop trying to hit golf shots when he is batting. It worked for a bit in the past but not anymore
• Same two teams go at it tomorrow night; first pitch is scheduled for 6 pm
• The Buffaloes will send out Nishi; while the Swallows will have Tateyama on the hill
• With another loss this evening, the Swallows are only a game in front of their Tokyo rivals.

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 9

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1

Streak: Lost 1   Last 5: WDLWL

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Hawks	0	0	3	0	0	2	2	0	2	9	16	1
Swallows	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	8	0
W: Otonari (4-2); L: Akagawa (3-2)

Payback’s a bitch! After last night’s unreal drubbing of the Hawks, the boys from Fukuoka reciprocated in game 2.

	Hawks		Swallows
1	Akashi (2B)	1	Tanaka (2B)
2	Imamiya (SS)	2	Morioka (SS)
3	Uchikawa (CF)	3	Milledge (LF)
4	Pena (LF)	4	Balentien (RF)
5	Matsuda (3B)	5	Hatakeyama (1B)
6	Kokubo (1B)	6	Miyamoto (3B)
7	Tamura (RF)	7	Yuhei (CF)
8	Yamazaki (C)	8	Nakamura (C)
9	Otonari (P)	9	Akagawa (P)

Nakamura gets the start in place of Aikawa tonight. I’m guessing that Nakamura will be Akagawa’s personal catcher to give the young backstop some regular starts.

As for the more salient details of the game, I’ll present them as quick bullet points to spare you all the pain.

• Top of the 3rd: Matsuda hits a 2 out 3 run homer off Akagawa. 3-0 Hawks
• Top of the 6th: Tamura hits a 1 out 2 run homer off Akagawa. 5-0 Hawks
• Top of the 7th: Pena hits a 2 out 2 run homer off Hirai. 7-0 Hawks
• Top of the 9th: Kidokoro hits an 1 out RBI single off Abe. 8-0 Hawks
• Top of the 9th: Yamazaki hits an 1 out RBI single off Abe. 9-0 Hawks
• Bottom of the 9th: Milledge hits a no out solo homer just right of the left field foul pole. 9-1 Hawks

Otonari was walking Swallows like crazy tonight, racking up 7 BBs in 6 innings of work. But unlike many pitchers that try to force strikes by throwing meatballs when they have trouble throwing strikes, it seemed as if Otonari would just give up on at bats where he fell behind and walk the batter to get to the next guy. Despite getting into jams in the first, second, and the fifth, Otonari still walked guys to load the bases and managed to get the out when he needed it most. The Swallows ultimately left a season-high 15 men on base.

Akagawa did not have the greatest night always falling behind in the count. Of the 27 batters Akagawa faced he only managed to throw a first pitch strike 10 times, and very rarely was he pitching ahead in the count. The bullpen wasn’t much better. Hirai, Kyuko, and Abe all allowed multiple baserunners, although Kyuko managed to keep them from scoring.

Let’s just call the last 2 games outliers, and not focus too much them. The Swallows have a day off tomorrow, before they play Orix (who dropped both their games against the Giants) for a 2 game set over the weekend.

Milledge pops out to the infield with the bases loaded in the second.

While the goal is always going to be finishing with a better record than the 11 other teams and winning Interleague, being the top Central League team would be a fine consolation if we can’t top the table. Since every game ahead of a Central League rival is a game that the other team will have to make up in the Central League. In a 6 team league these games can come in handy late in the season when teams will be hitting each other and making advances up the table can be harder.

Last year the Swallows finished 6th overall with a 10-12-2 record, which was 3 games behind the Dragons who finished fourth overall with a 14-10 record. The Hawks won Interleague outright with a 18-4-2 record.

For those of you, who like me, are so Swallows-centric and don’t follow the Pacific League here’s s short blurb about the teams the Swallows will face and players to watch. This preview will cover the first 3 teams the Swallows will face. I’ll cover the next 3 teams next week.

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks: The defending champions have been chugging along despite losing key plays like Toshiya Sugiuchi, Tsuyoshi Wada, D.J. Houlten, and Munenori Kawasaki. Despite pre-season predictions of decline the Hawks are still in the thick of the PL race with a 19-17-2 record, which is good for 3rd in the league. The Hawks’ continued success is largely related to their ability to hit the ball. Former major leaguer Wily Mo Peña leads the PL with 8 homers, with a healthy .288/.345/.545 slash line. Nobuhiro Matsuda and Seiichi Uchikawa also bring quality hitting to the line up. In terms of pitching, the only big name left in the Haws’ rotation is Tadashi Settsu who is having a good season, with a 5-0 record with a 1.51 ERA in 7 starts. The last storyline worth tracking is Hiroki Kokubo gunning for 2000 career hits. With only 4 more hits left to reach the milestone, it’s possible that Kokubo will reach the milestone at Jingu.

Orix Buffaloes: The Buffaloes were the trendy pick to do well this season, but so far things have been pretty glum for the Buffaloes. The addition of Korean slugger Dae-Ho Lee has been a plus, but injuries to key players like T-Okada and Chihiro Kaneko have kept the Buffaloes from fielding their optimal lineup. The result has been a fight for the PL cellar with the Seibu Lions (more on that next week). Things may be looking up for the Buffaloes as Kaneko has looked good in his 2 starts this season, and Okada has recently rejoined the team. 10 year vet and former Giant Hiroshi Kisanuki has gotten off to a fairly hot start for the Buffaloes with a 1.87 ERA over 6 starts, including 2 complete games. Last year’s PL Interleague MVP, Tomotaka Sakaguchi has been showing his age with a .225/.250/.252 slash.

Chiba Lotte Marines: The Marines have rebounded nicely from the 2011 PL cellar, and currently top the PL. The Marines’ resurgence can be attributed in part to a strong rotation bolstered by the addition of the glad-to-leave-the Giants Seth Greisinger and rookie phenom Takahiro Fujioka to the duo of Yoshihisa Naruse and Yuki Karakawa. While Fujioka has gotten most of the rookie attention, Naoki Masuda has also contributed big time in his first season stabilizing the Marine’s bullpen. Another glad-to-leave-the Giants is Saburo who leads the team in OBP. Tadahito Iguchi is also putting up his usual solid early season numbers (.304/.367/.448). But otherwise, the Marines lineup lacks pop, and is overshadowed by their pitching.

The Swallows go into Interleague on a somewhat down note having lost 3 of their last 3 games, and seeing even more of their starters (Kawabata and Muranaka) be sent down to the farm. However, the lax Interleague scheduling will allow the team to give their pitchers plenty of rest and will hopefully give some players the chance to come back.

Yomiuri Giants  1

Tokyo Swallows 1

Streak: 1 tie  Last 5: LLLWD

(Akita Komachi Stadium)

Tonight saw Tokyo’s two teams travel North to Akita for the first of a two-game set. This would be the last weekend either team faced a Central League opponent for over a month as inter-league play commences this week. As such, the Birds wanted to continue on the winning track and keep up with the Dragons in the win column.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
Giants	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	8	1
Swallows	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	7	0

Tonight, in the great wet North, the Birds drew with their Tokyo rival. Roman kept the over-priced bats in check for 6 innings, while Utsumi did the same for 5 innings.

	Swallows		Giants
1	Tanaka (2B)	1	Chono (CF)
2	Morioka (SS)	2	Fujimura (2B)
3	Milledge (CF)	3	Sakamoto (SS)
4	Balentien (RF)	4	Murata (3B)
5	Iihara (LF)	5	Abe (C)
6	Miyamoto (3B)	6	Takahashi (RF)
7	Hatakeyama (1B)	7	Bowker (1B)
8	Nakamura (C)	8	Inzen (LF)
9	Roman (P)	9	Utsumi (P)

Tonight started off slow for both sides. Giants made a little noise in the 1st and 3rd inning but could not get a runner past second base. The Birds could only muster one runner through the first three innings and a “I’m scared to pitch to him” unintentional intentional walk of Balentien in the 4th inning.

We jump to the bottom of the 6th inning. Roman started things off with a hit to right field. Tanaka followed his lead by hitting another single to right. The sac bunt responsibilities then fell to Morioka. Morioka, running with a piano on his back, was able to advance the runners to 2nd and 3rd. After that, Milledge hit an infield single to third. Now, with the bases loaded, Coco stepped to the plate. He obviously had aspirations of clearing the bases because he did nothing but swing for the fences. He went down on three pitches for the second out of the inning. Iihara ended the threat with a soft liner to Sakamoto.

In the top of the 7th Chono hit a liner over the outstretched glove of Milledge in center. He stopped at 2nd base for an easy stand-up double. He was promptly bunted over to third by Fujimura. This brought a meeting of the minds at the mound as Sakamoto was  up to bat. The sleazy bastard decided to bunt down the first base line. This easily scored Chono from third and “the tool at short” (Sakamoto) was thrown out by Roman at 1st. Roman then walked Murata on four pitches and his evening was over. Hidaka came in and induced Abe to fly-out to the warning track in left and end the inning. 0 – 1 Giants

"the tool at short" knocks in the lone Giant run.

After the Swallows fans put their umbrellas to use during the 7th inning stretch, the Birds looked to answer right back. Miyamoto started things off with a sharp single to left. Hatekayama grounded to “the tool at short” but the best the Giants could do was force out Miyamoto at 2nd. The hard hitting Nakamura was up next and promptly hit a sharp liner past “the tool at short”. With runners on 1st and 2nd and only one out, the pitcher was due up. Ogawa decided to bring in Aikawa to hit. He fouled out to Bowker near first base. This meant the top of the order was up. Tanaka strolled to the plate and was looking for the hero prize. After a few cuts and a few more waggles, Tanaka watched Utsumi throw two balls in the dirt while working the count full. After fouling off a pitch, Tanaka then walked to load the bases. This time Morioka couldn’t bunt. Instead, he swung away and nearly took Utsumi’s head off with a liner up the middle. This scored Noguchi (running for “Boo”) from third to tie the game. Everyone was safe and the bases were still loaded for Milledge. After nearly clearing the bases with a liner down the first base line that was ruled foul, Milledge grounded to Murata who quickly stepped on third for the force out. 1 -1

Kyuko was on the mound for the 8th. He got the first two batters out and was replaced by Oshimoto. Oshimoto made quick work of Kajimae to end the inning.

The Birds went down in order in the bottom half of the 8th.

Oshimoto came out for the ninth inning and struck out Kamei and Chono. He ended the inning by getting Fujimura to fly out to center.

The Giants brought in Mathieson to pitch the bottom of the ninth. All he did was strike out the side.

And that meant it was time for extra inning baseball. However, the rain was kicking about again and this made for a wet finish.

“the tool at short” was the first batter that Barnette had to deal with. Unfortunately, ”the tool at short” won out and hit a single to left. Up next was the cleanup hitter, Murata. As he is on such a great streak at the moment, Hara decided to have Murata bunt over ”the tool at short”. However, Murata was unable to do that simple task and ended up striking out. One out. Next up was the  catcher, Abe. At this point, he was 3 for 4 on the night. He would reach base again on a very questionable ball four. This called for a meeting of the minds at the mound. After confirming dinner plans, the players returned to their respective positions. As the rain picked up, the waste of a uniform Takahashi eked his way to the batters box. After questioning the conditions and visibility, Takahashi flew out to left. Two down and one to go. After getting a new resin bag, Barnette struck out Bowker for the final out of the inning. And because they performed so well tonight, Bowker slammed his bat and helmet to the ground. After getting that out of his system, he calmly picked them up and went back to the dugout.

Yamaguchi was the new pitcher for the Giants in the bottom of the 10th.

Tanaka reached base when ”the tool at short” couldn’t handle the grounder. Miwa then replaced Tanaka at first. Up came Morioka. Guess what he tried to do? That’s right folks. He TRIED to bunt but only succeeded at striking out. Up walked Milledge. After the second strike from Yamaguchi, Miwa stole second. Lastings eventually grounded out to “the tool at short” for the second out. As the clock struck 9:30, up walked Coco. That meant we were looking at the final batter(s). After a long at bat, Coco eventually walked. This put runners at 1st and 3rd and two out. This brought the end to Yamaguchi’s evening and the Giants played musical chairs in the outfield. Nishimura was the new pitcher for the Giants. His opponent for the evening was Fukuichi, who was batting in place of Iihara. Fukuichi didn’t put up much of a fight as he grounded out to second to end the game.

1 – 1 Final

Random thoughts (Notes):

• I hate listening to the dumba** announcers on the Fuji network. I thought they were suppose to be the Swallows broadcasters and thus somewhat knowledgeable?
• After tonight’s tie, the Birds are a half game behind the nagging Nagoya Dragons.
• Hara still looks stupid, even though he attempts to look smart(er) by putting on glasses.
  

  The intelligent looking Hara.

• Coco is awesome but he needs to be smarter at the plate.
• Sakamoto or Utsumi: Who is a bigger tool? If you can’t tell, my vote is for Sakamoto.
• Remember, tomorrow is Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there!!
• And the pitching duel for Mother’s Day will be Tateyama for the Birds and Sawamura for the Giants. Should be a good one. Let’s hope the weather stays dry.

Tokyo Swallows 3

Chunichi Dragons 1

Streak: Won 1 Last 5: WLLLW

(Nagoya Dome)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Swallows	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	3	5	0
Dragons	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	9	0
W: Akagawa (3-1); L: Yudai (1-2); S: Barnette (12)

The Swallows’ bats finally come alive in the eighth to snap the team’s losing streak.

	Swallows		Dragons
1	Tanaka (2B)	1	Oshima (CF)
2	Morioka (SS)	2	Araki (2B)
3	Milledge (LF)	3	Ibata (SS)
4	Balentien (RF)	4	Wada (LF)
5	Iihara (CF)	5	Blanco (1B)
6	Miyamoto (3B)	6	Fukuda (3B)
7	Hatakeyama (1B)	7	Hirata (RF)
8	Fukukawa (C)	8	Tanishige (C)
9	Akagawa (P)	9	Yudai (P)

The lineup got a bit of a tweak after Kawbata’s hip injury, and his subsequent removal from the active roster earlier today left a hole at short. Morioka took Kawabata’s place at short and batted second. With Morioka playing the speedy contact hitter role in the order, the Swallows chose to play Iihara at center to give themselves more punch. Finally, Fukukawa got a start as a reward for his home run in yesterday’s game, his first homer in 4 years.

All that lineup tweaking seemed fairly moot however, as the Dragons’ stater Yudai absolutely owned the Swallows through 7 innings. Yudai gave up just 1 single to the Swallows through 7 innings. Giving up no walks or errors, the lefty kept most of the Swallows’ balls in the infield to be easily fielded.

Akagawa was also pitched quite well but wasn’t quite as dominant. The young lefty kept the game scoreless until the sixth innings. After getting 2 outs Akagawa gave up an infield single to Oshima who quickly stole second and came home on an Araki single to left. 1-0 Dragons Despite being down only 1 run, there was a feeling that the Swallows were staring at their 4th straight loss.

Luckily the Swallows were finally able to get to Yudai in the eighth. Iihara started the inning my lining out to short for out number 1. Miyamoto got the rally by hitting a 3-2 pitch into right for a single. Hiyane took Miyamoto’s place in on the basepaths for Hatakeyama’s at bat. Yudai fell behind 1-0 to Hatake, Hiyane ran on the next pitch and the big man child smacked the ball deep into right for a double to men on second and third with 1 out. It was at this point the Dragons decided to end Yudai’s night and hand the ball to 2011 MVP, Asao. 2011 Asao might have been unhittable, but 2012 Asao has looked a bit more mortal. Asao started off by loading the bases with a 4 pitch walk to a pinch hitting Fujimoto to load the bases. Fukuchi came in to pinch hit for Akagawa, and watched Asao pitch his 5th straight ball before taking strike number 1 deep off the right field wall to score 2. 2-1 Swallows Tanaka couldn’t keep the rally going and gave up the second out of the inning with a liner to first. But the Swallows were able to get an insurance run when Morioka legged out a slow grounder to second for a infield single, letting Fujimoto score from third. 3-1 Swallows

Oshimoto pitched a 1 hit scoreless eighth, and Barnette pitched a 2 hit scoreless ninth to preserve the win. The win puts the Swallows a half game back of the Dragons for the CL lead.

Notes

• Akagawa got the win by pitching 7 innings on 98 pitches, allowing 1 ER, 6 H, and 1 BB.
• His Dragons’ counterpart, Yudai, got tagged with the loss for his 7.1 innings of 3 hit ball, with 2 ER to his name.
• The Swallows will have tomorrow off before playing a 2 game series against the Giants in Akita.
  

  Fukuchi hits a game flipping double.

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/2012/05/05/5512-hiroshima-home/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5512-hiroshima-home http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/05/5512-hiroshima-home/#comments Sat, 05 May 2012 13:50:21 +0000 Kozo http://tokyoswallows.com/?p=12548 May 5th, 2012

Hiroshima Carp  1

Tokyo Swallows  4

Streak: Won 2  Last 5: WWLWW

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Carp	0	0	3	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	5	1
Swallows	0	0	1	0	1	1	1	0	X	4	10	0
W: Roman (2-4); L: Nomura (2-2); S: Barnette (11)

After struggling against the Carp’s rookie pitcher Nomura over 2 starts, the Swallows finally got to him and gave Roman the offensive support necessary to get the win.

	Carp		Swallows
1	Soyogi (SS)	1	Tanaka (2B)
2	Kokubo (2B)	2	Fukuchi (CF)
3	Maru (CF)	3	Milledge (LF)
4	Nick (LF)	4	Balentien (RF)
5	Hirose (RF)	5	Kawabata (SS)
6	Matsuyama (1B)	6	Miyamoto (3B)
7	Dobayashi (3B)	7	Hatakeyama (1B)
8	Shirahama (C)	8	Nakamura (C)
9	Nomura (P)	9	Roman (P)

Fukuchi got the start at center, after Ueda’s collision against the wall in yesterday’s game.

Tanaka started things off for the Swallows with a hit off Nomura. While the next 3 batters all grounded out, it was a refreshing change from being held to 1 hit over 8 innings by Nomura in his last outing.

Roman quietly had a solid game getting the defense to field balls and keep his pitch count low. An overeager Carp line up helped by swinging early in the count, in fact 16 of 31 at bats against Roman tonight ended in 2 pitches or less.

The Swallows got the scoring started in the third. Tanaka patiently fouled off Nomura’s pitches low pitches, and finally took a high outside pitch (9th in the AB) and put on the ground to right field for a hit. Fukuchi flied out to center for the first out, and Milledge skyed a pitch to shallow left field that looked to be going foul. Nick may have resigned himself to a similar conclusion, but instead the ball bounced in fair and by the time the ball came back into the infield, Tanaka was on third and Milledge was standing on second for a wonky double. Balentien followed with a grounder to first, and while Matsuyama looked to throw to home, Tanaka got a good enough jump at third to score and Matsuyama had to settle with the out at first. 1-0 Swallows Kawabata couldn’t get Milledge home from third, but first blood had been drawn.

Two innings later, Milledge managed a more traditional looking double down the left field line with 1 out. With first base open, the Carp decided to pitch around Balentien granting him a 4 pitch walk. Kawabata made the Carp pay by lining a single into left, which allowed Milledge to score from second. 2-0 Swallows Again, the Swallows failed to bust the game open and the scoring stopped at 1 run.

Run Lastings Run!

After being held to 1 hit through 5 innings, the Carp finally showed some life in the sixth. After giving up 2 fly outs to center in only 3 pitches, the Carp scored 1 run with a Nick double and Hirose single in only 4 pitches. 2-1 Swallows But Roman only needed 2 pitches to get Matsuyama to fly out to end the inning.

The Swallows got the run back right away after Nakamura got to second after Dobayashi allowed his league leading 7th error letting the ball go right by him. Roman executed a pretty bunt, forcing Dobayashi to make a good throw to first to put a man on third with 1 out. Tanaka drew a 4 pitch walk to put men on the corners. Fukuchi managed to get a ball deep enough to center to score Nakamura on a sacrifice. 3-1 Swallows

With May 5th being Children’s Day in Japan, the 5th inning fan shout out segment consisted of 4 pint sized fans. The last child asked Balentien to “Homer in his next at bat… please”. Balentien, who’d never let down down his fans, obliged with a solo shot to right center to open the bottom of the seventh. 4-1 Swallows

Roman ended up pitching 8 innings in only 95 pitches, giving up 5 hits and 3 walks (1 intentional), to go with 3 strikeouts. With the save situation in order, Barnette came in and got the Carp to go down 1-2-3 with 2 Ks to preserve the win.

Notes

• The win was Roman’s second of the season. Both of Roman’s wins have come at Jingu.
• The Swallows’ win, and a 12-1 thrashing of the Dragons by the BayStars means the Swallows are back at the top of the CL standings.
• After the logjam that was the Miyamoto milestone game, the crowd for the Saturday nighter was announced at 33,089.
• The Swallows will go for the sweep tomorrow night at 18:00. Both teams will be throwing their aces on the table. The Carp will send out Maeda, while the Swallows will go with Tateyama
  

  Roman benefitted from an overeager Hiroshima offense.

  .

Hiroshima Carp  4

Tokyo Swallows  8

Streak: Won 1       Last 5: LWWLW

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

Miyamoto got his two-thousandth hit, which got the Swallows more TV coverage than they’ve had in an age, but that was hardly the most exciting part of this afternoon’s slug fest.

The rain-soaked early innings were kind to Tokyo. The foul weather didn’t deter a capacity crowd from gathering for a holiday afternoon game at which the Swallows’ senpai of senpai stood almost certain of reaching the 2,000-hit milestone.

Akagawa gave up two walks (vs. one K) in the first, but pitched a 1-2-3 second, which brought up Balentien to start a bonanza for the Birds. On a 2-1 count, Coco knocked one just left of the Kirin ad in center to, as Nakamura’s entrance tune puts it, “just knock one out, even if I’ve got to do it solo.”

Kawabata walked, then Miyamoto batted a low and away fastball (Fukui’s control was  not to be envied) to center for hit number two-thousand. Pause for hullabaloo.

Hatakeyama then singled to drive in Kawabata. Fukui then walked Nakamura to load the bases and made everyone wait in the rain while he blamed it on the mound. The runners went into the dugout, the grounds crew came out, the spectators soaked up the rain, then play resumed.

Akagawa popped out, but Tanaka drove in a run on a sac fly (a stat a bit too oft-rewarded, methinks). Ueda followed that with a double to drive in Hatake. All the mound’s fault, mind you. Milledge grounded out to end the inning. 4-0 Tokyo.

In the top of the third, the Carp got some revenge. Fukui hit (good thing, given that he couldn’t pitch today), as did Hirose. Nick then homered them in. 4-3 Tokyo.

What to do, feathered friends? Start the bottom of the third with Balentien again. Wham! (But, like, with two George Michaels. And Lemmy.) Homer to left.

Kawabata doubled. Miyamoto walked. Nakamura hit an RBI single. 6-3 Tokyo.

Dobayashi led off the the fourth for the Carp and hit one to deep center. Ueda went back, back, back. . . and crashed into the wall so hard it hurt Aoki in San Francisco. Dobayashi made it to third, and Ueda stayed in the game after a chat with the trainers. He was replaced by Fukuchi when Tokyo went on offense, though. The greater Tsubamegun, obviously, hopes our center-fielder is all right.

The Carp made the obvious choice and pulled Fukui in favor of the pinch-hitting Maru, who hit an RBI single. 6-4 Tokyo.

In the bottom of the fourth, Fukuchi and Milledge singled. Kawabata grounded out, but drove in a run. 7-4 Tokyo.

Masubuchi took over on the mound in the fifth and did very well indeed.

On offense, Hatake doubled and Nakamura singled him to third. Tanaka hit a big RBI single when he came up. 8-4 Tokyo, Final.

Hirai, Oshimoto, and Barnette all pitched decent innings for the home side. (Barnette again wound up his work on a low count – a mere eight pitches.)

As always, the Hiroshimans proved to be our favorite guests. We like it when they lose, but we must admit that we pull for them against any other CL team except, maybe Yokohama.

No, scratch that. We feel bad for Yokohama’s long-suffering fans, but Carp fans are better. We want to end Hiroshima’s season in game three (aka “four”) of Stage Two at Jingu in the Fall. They’re good folks. Another game against them tomorrow evening.

As tomorrow’s another holiday, why not have a burger? Try topping it with blue cheese, browned onions, and bacon. Call it the “Jingu Burger”.