Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1

Chiba Lotte Marines 5

Streak: Lost 4   Last 5: WLLLL

(QVC Marine Field)

Whatever shortcomings our own Messrs. Watkins and Pellegrini may find in its charms (listen to the podcast), the PL continues to demonstrate it’s aplomb in one area of particular interest, viz. baseball.

Despite staying close to the Marines in terms of hits, the Swallows’ run production continued to be AWOL. Let us hope it merely stopped at Disneyland and will soon run out of money, forcing it to return to work. Moving Milledge to center didn’t appear to make much difference.

Former Swallow (and Giant, but we’ll leave that out) Seth Greisinger pitched seven scoreless innings, giving up only four hits, but stuck to his pitch count and left the game having tossed 104 pebbles at our guys.

Meanwhile, young Akagawa owned the Seagulls from Afar for four innings, giving up only one hit and one walk. In the fifth, a Tanaka error at second let Kakunaka on. A walk of Satozaki put a second man on, and a hit by Imae drovein the first run of the game. 1-0 Chiba.

The sixth inning was worse. Akagawa started by giving up a double to Nemoto. This was followed by an Iguchi single, putting men on the corners. Then Kakunaka tripled to center, the jerk. Two runs in.

Masubuchi took over pitching duties. A Kiyota groundder back tot he mound was enough to bring Kakunaka home. 4-0 Chiba.

Yamamoto hurled in the seventh for the Birds. An Imae hit was followed by a Nemoto RBI triple. Another RBI triple. 5-0 Chiba.

In the top of the eighth, Rosa took over for Chiba and gave up a double to Aikawa. Tanaka walked and a Fukuchi pop up to right moved Aikawa to third, whence he was driven home by a Milledge single. 5-1 Chiba, Final.

Onodera notched one K and gave up a double while getting Tokyo safely through the bottom of the eighth.

Uchi struck out Hatakeyama, then struck out Miyamoto on three pitches, then got Yuichi to pop out to end the game.

The rain make up and shot a revenge (and at preserving some dignity) is tomorrow.

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/2012/05/20/52012-orix-home/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=52012-orix-home http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/20/52012-orix-home/#comments Sun, 20 May 2012 14:47:30 +0000 Christopher Pellegrini http://tokyoswallows.com/?p=12686 May 20th, 2012

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/2012/05/18/51712-fukuoka-home/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=51712-fukuoka-home http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/18/51712-fukuoka-home/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 15:14:23 +0000 Kozo http://tokyoswallows.com/?p=12647 May 17th, 2012

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.

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 3

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 14

Streak: Won 1   Last 5: LWDLW

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

The Birds started off the 2012 Interleague campaign, when we get five more teams to support, by hosting the reigning Hawks.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Fukuoka	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	3	10	2
Tokyo	2	2	1	0	1	2	2	4	X	14	15	0
W: Ishikawa (3-4); L: Yamada (4-3)

One would have to go all the way back to 2008, and the dawn of the Tsubamegun site, to find a time when Tokyo even drew even with Fukuoka (2-2). Over the past three years, the Swallows have been bested by their more predatorial avian counterparts a combined 3-8-1. How did Fukuoka’s hemorrhage of talent in the off-season match up against a Tokyo squad looking stronger than it had in quite a while?

	Fukuoka		Tokyo
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 (3B)	6	Miyamoto (3B)
7	Tamura (RF)	7	Yuhei (CF)
8	Yamazaki (C)	8	Aikawa (C)
9	Yamada (P)	9	Ishikawa (P)

The scoring started early, with Akashi hitting the second pitch he saw and Imamiya sac-bunting him over to second on the first pitch he saw. After Uchikawa grounded out, Pena hit an RBI double and Matsuda followed that with an RBI pop out. 2-0 Fukuoka.

Tokyo struck back quickly, when Morioka drew a walk on five pitches and Milledge put the first pitch he saw, an outside slider, over the centerfield fence for a two-run round-tripper, his third of the season. 2-2.

The Swallows added to their lead in the second when Miyamoto walked, then got nabbed on his way to second after a Yuhei grounder back to the mound. Yuhei stole second and made it home on an Aikawa single. Ishikawa bunted Aikawa to second. Tanaka was then walked on four straight pitches, and Morioka drove Yuhei home. 4-2 Tokyo.

A bit more padding was added in the third. Balentien doubled, made it to third on a Hatakeyama ground-out, and scored on a Miyamoto single. 5-2 Tokyo.

An Uchikawa solo homer two outs into the top of the fifth narrowed the gap. 5-3 Tokyo.

But hits by Balentien, Miyamoto, and Yuhei in the bottom half of the inning set that right. 6-3 Tokyo.

Yoshikawa pitched the fourth and fifth for the visitors and was the most successful of their hurlers tonight.

Masubuchi took over for Ishikawa in the sixth and went 1-2-3 with a K. Kanazawa did the honors on the other side.

In the sixth, a Balentien walk, followed by a Hatake double added a run. After that, Miyamoto drove Hatake home for another one. 8-3 Tokyo.

Hidaka went 1-2-3 for the home team in the seventh. Hirai gave up one hit in he eighth. Abe finished the game 1-2-3. Nice pitching all around.

That was not the game, though. Oh no, young Tsubamegunin. The Birds tried to make up for years past tonight.

In the seventh, young Kayama took the mound for Fukuoka. He would throw 21 pitches to five batters, which takes about the same amount of time as it does to write his name in Japanese. In the course of that, he walked Tanaka with two outs, then gave up a hit to Morioka, Both runners advanced on a passed ball soon after.

Milledge hit one into center, driving in two runs, but getting nabbed on his way to second. 10-3 Tokyo.

Special offer, fans. You want more? You got it.

In the eighth, Kayama walked Balentien, who was replaced on the bases by Miwa (because the Swallows really needed a run – I won’t bitch about plays being decided sans regard for the game situation during a rout, though). Hatake was also walked. Miyamoto singled to right and was replaced by Araki. Bases loaded, no outs yet.

Imamiya fumbled a Yuhei grounder to make the Hawks’ night a little longer and allow Miwa to score, leaving the bases loaded. Aikawa singled, driving in two more runs and was replaced by Nakamura. Noguchi pinch hit and popped out, but moved Yuhei to third. Tanaka then hit a sac-fly to right for one more run and a score of 14-3 Tokyo, Final.

Akagawa (3-1, 2.00) takes on Otonari (3-2, 1.50) tomorrow evening.

Yomiuri Giants  5

Tokyo Swallows 1

Streak: L1 Last 5: LLWDL

(Akita Komachi Stadium)

Sometimes you lose in spirit by tying and sometimes you just actually lose. This one was fairly close until the end, which adds excitement and agony.

The first spate of runs came in the second, when Murata and Abe hit, Tateyama walked Takahashi, then Tani and Bowker hit back-to-back RBIs before Tateyama got it together to manage three outs in a row. 2-0 Yomiuri.

The Swallows didn’t answer until the eighth, when Mathieson took over pitching duties for the Giants. Milledge doubled, Balentien singled and was replaced on the basepaths by Hiyane, bringing up Hatake with men on the corners. Hatake hit into a double play, but Milledge made it home. 2-1 Yomiuri.

In the top of the ninth, Hirai took the mound for Tokyo and promptly gave up a hit to Tani, who was replaced by Suzuki, whom Bowker then sac-bunted to second, and that was it for Hirai. Kyuko took over.

Kyuko continued the trend, giving up a hit to Kamei, then an RBI to Chono. Then things got ugly. Fujimura hit one back to the mound, at which point an Aikawa error left the Birds down one more run and facing runners on first and second.

Exeunt, Kyuko. Enter, Abe, off of whom Terauchi hit an RBI double. 5-1 Yomiuri, Final.

Tokyo now gets a merciful couple of days off, to return fresh and ready to thump SoftBank on Wednesday.

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 3

Chunichi Dragons 8

Streak: Lost 3 Last 5: WWLLL

(Gifu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	3	7	0
Chunichi	3	0	2	2	0	0	0	1	X	8	17	0
W: Nakata (3-1); L: Muranaka (3-2)

Chunichi widened their lead over Tokyo in the standings with a convincing win. Not a fun game for the Swallows, to say the least.

	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	Morioka (3B)	6	Fukuda (3B)
7	Hatakeyama (1B)	7	Hirata (RF)
8	Nakamura (C)	8	Tanishige (C)
9	Muranaka (P)	9	Nakata (P)

Muranaka’s first three batters singled, sac-bunted, and singled again. After a weak Wada grounder moved the runners to scoring position, Muranaka fed Blanco two fastballs right down the middle, the second of which Blanco cranked into the stands. Muranaka followed that with a hit to Fukuda, a walk of Murata, and another hit to Tanishige, on which play, mercifully, Fukuda got caught for out three. 3-0 Chunichi.

In the top of the second, Kawabata was pulled in favor of Araki  just before his first at-bat. Despite a couple of hits, the Swallows failed to score any runs.

After pitching just about as god-awful a first inning as possible, Muranaka found his feet and struck out two in the second. He also gave up a double and let Oshima reach third, but managed to avoid disaster.

The Birds finally scored in the top of the third, when Fukuchi doubled to left and was driven in by a Balentien broken-bat single. 3-1 Chunichi.

Then the bottom of the third, and Muranaka’s trade to the Dragons was apparently complete but for the uniform. Wada, hit. Blanco, hit. Fukuda, ground out to put runners in scoring position. Hirata, walk to load the bases. Tanishige, two-RBI double. Then, finally, Nakata struck out in an act of huminatarian compassion for a fellow pitcher. 5-1 Chunichi.

In the bottom of the fourth, Muranaka finally sat down. Hirai took over and did only marginally better, giving up a two-run home run to Wada with Araki on base. 7-1 Chunichi.

Abe, Masubuchi, and Kyuko then each pitched an inning for Tokyo, giving up hits, but not runs. In the bottom of the eighth, though, the Swallows pushed their luck by leaving Kyuko on the mound and Blanco hit his second round-tripper of the night. 8-3 Chunichi, Final.

Wait. How did the Birds score?

In the top of the seventh, Hatakeyama started the inning with a single and was driven in by Masakazu Fukukawa, who hit a two-run homer for his first hit of the season (and raised his batting average from .000 to .500). At one point, it was 7-3 Chunichi.

Tokyo and Chunichi travel to Nagoya tomorrow, where the Swallows will try to avoid the sweep and close the standings gap.

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/2012/05/06/5612-hiroshima-home/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5612-hiroshima-home http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/06/5612-hiroshima-home/#comments Sun, 06 May 2012 14:36:21 +0000 Christopher Pellegrini http://tokyoswallows.com/?p=12554 May 6th, 2012

Hiroshima Carp  6

Tokyo Swallows  0

Streak: Lost 1  Last 5: WLWWL

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

This is the same pitching duel that we saw early last week in the rain in Hiroshima, Tokyo’s Shohei Tateyama taking on Hiroshima’s Kenta Maeda.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Hiroshima	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	3	6	14	1
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1
W: Maeda (4-2, 1.44 ERA) L: Tateyama (3-1, 2.29 ERA)

It was Maeda’s first game of 2012 pitching at Jingu Stadium, and if his bad luck from 2011 had continued at Jingu, then that would’ve been good news for the Swallows. In his two starts last season, he pitched a total of 14.2 innings and lost both decisions while surrendering five earned runs. 2010 was the opposite for Maeda as he earned two wins from his two starts in the stadium that Tsubakuro built, giving up just one earned run over 17 exceptional innings.

One week ago, however, the birds wore him down and made him swallow an uncharacteristic four earned runs through just six innings of work. Before today’s game, Tateyama was 3-0 with a 1.85 ERA, and Maeda was 3-2 with a 1.67 ERA.

But with just a half-game lead on Chunichi in the standings, the Swallows would need to sustain and build on the momentum and positive energy that they’ve created so far.

That didn’t happen because, as one might expect, this game basically came down to pitching.

Tokyo	Order	Hiroshima
Tanaka (2B)	1	Kimura (SS)
Fukuchi (CF)	2	Higashide (2B)
Milledge (LF)	3	Maru (CF)
Balentien (RF)	4	Stavinoha (LF)
Kawabata (SS)	5	Matsuyama (1B)
Miyamoto (3B)	6	Amaya (RF)
Hatakeyama (1B)	7	Dohbayashi (3B)
Nakamura (C)	8	Kura (C)
Tateyama (P)	9	Maeda (P)

To summarize the proceedings, Hiroshima’s pitching was excellent. Tokyo’s? Not so much.

In other words, Tokyo got to see the 2010 version of Kenta Maeda.

Tateyama had a wobbly day on the mound and allowed droves of base-runners throughout the evening. He allowed three base runners in the second, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, and was perhaps fortunate to only give up three earned runs.

Hiroshima’s starter, Maeda, got things started in the fifth inning with a single, and then a sac bunt and a double later, and the Carp had opened the scoring for the first time in this series at Jingu.

Tateyama was hooked after he allowed a double to Maeda which scored two.

The sixth was when the real damage was done though. Amaya singled and then Dohbayashi walked to start things off. Out number one came thanks to a sac bunt which moved the two runners over and brought Maeda to the plate again. He ended up smacking a 2-2 forkball down the left field line for a double which cleared the bases and put the game even further out of reach.

3-0 Hiroshima.

And that’s when Tateyama finally got the hook. Hidaka came in and took care of the next five batters without incident.

Unfortunately, Maeda was just as effective on the mound as he was at the plate. He scattered just three hits through seven innings of work while mixing in seven strikeouts, a walk, and a beanball. The only time that the Swallows threatened to score was in the seventh when they loaded the bases with two outs, but pinch-hitter, Fujimoto, grounded out to short to end Tokyo’s best chance.

Down by three, the Swallows inserted Koki Watanabe for his third appearance of the year in the ninth (Abe pitched a perfect eighth). And it was one  to forget as he saw a total of eight batters and gave up four hits (one homer), a walk, a wild pitch, and three earned runs on his way to helping Hiroshima double its lead.

Enjoy your time in Toda, Mr. Watanabe.

6-0 Final.

Pitching:
Tateyama took the loss for the good guys. He pitched 5.1 innings (96 NP), and gave up ten hits and three earned runs. He also issued three walks, struck out three, and beaned one batter. His record is now 3-1, and his ERA jumped to 2.29 through six starts this season.

Hidaka (13 appearances) and Abe (four appearances) are still sporting perfect ERAs.

Thrilledge gunned Matsuyama down at home plate in the fourth to preserve the 0-0 tie.

Hitting:
Just three hits. Nobody was able to get anything going against Maeda today.

Notes:
15,885 tickets were allegedly sold to this game. It was a major departure from the crowds of the two previous days.  It rained quite a bit during the afternoon, but the skies were crystal clear once the game started.

Miyamoto reached the 2,000 hit milestone on Friday, but he 0-8 (one walk) since that historic moment.

The Swallows are still in first place because the Dragons lost to Yokohama once again.

The Swallows are on the road for the rest of this week. They will bounce around to a few different stadiums while playing the Dragons, and then they host an abbreviated series in Akita against Yomiuri on Saturday and Sunday.

The next Swallows home games will be on May 16th (Wed) and 17th (Thurs) when the Fukuoka Hawks are in town to help kick off the five week interleague schedule.

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