Tokyo Swallows 1

Chunichi Dragons 2

Series: Chunichi 4-2 Tokyo

(Nagoya Dome)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	5	0
Chunichi	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	X	2	3	0

Well, it falls to yours truly to pen the last game report of the season. While I’d rather not be doing so just yet, of course, I must also say I’m not crushed by the outcome. Tokyo made it closer to the prize than they have since their Japan Series win in 2001 and, despite a late-season bobble, fluff, and slide, managed to hold on to the top spot for much of the season, giving us denizens of the Jingu bleachers the fun of being top-dog for a while – a rare treat.

After years of fretting over underachieving teams and boneheaded decisions, we got a chance to do a little less second-guessing and a little more crowing over a pack of untested whippersnappers, roughed-up vets, and prime rib not yet in the right metaphor that managed to eke out wins and ties while being outscored by their opponents and discounted by just about everyone but us and themselves.

I’d like to say that’s the sappiest thing you’ll ever see me write, but I’ll do battle with Kozo at the end of this post.

Ladies, gentlemen, and loyal members of the Tsubamegun-dan. . . the game:

	Tokyo		Chunichi
1	Ueda (LF)	1	Araki (SS)
2	Tanaka (2B)	2	Ibata (2B)
3	Aoki (CF)	3	Morino (3B)
4	Hatakeyama (1B)	4	Blanco (1B)
5	Balentien (RF)	5	Wada (LF)
6	Miyamoto (3B)	6	Tanishige (C)
7	Aikawa (C)	7	Hirata (RF)
8	Morioka (SS)	8	Ohshima (CF)
9	Tateyama (P)	9	Yoshimi (P)

The game went fast at first. The home plate umpire was prepared to call anything that didn’t actually pass outside the righties’ batter’s box a strike, which created a pitcher’s duel, even though neither Tateyama nor Yoshimi looked as hot as they have on other days. Tateyama only gave up three hits; unfortunately, the third was an Ibata home run to far, shallow left following a walk, which made the score at the end of the sixth inning 2-0 Chunichi.

Tateyama looked dejected as he sat down and Oshimoto took over to get the remaining two outs of the sixth and go 1-2-3 in the seventh. Matsuoka did almost as well in the eigth, giving up a walk, but nothing more dangerous.

In the top of the ninth, Kawamoto doubled, Iihara watched a pitch roll right over the center of the plate to strike out, Tanaka also struck out, and Aoki played hero by driving in Kawamoto with a single. All Hatake had to do was hit, or show off some power. He swung hard. . .

Pop fly foul ball for out three and an end to the 2011 season. 2-1 Chunichi, Final.

We’ll have something to say on the Japan Series.

We’ll also get some end-of-season stuff up to round things out.

For now, I think I can speak for Christopher, David, Kozo, and Scott when I thank all of you who have read this far for sticking with us, commenting, commiserating, and, in this unusually successful year, celebrating with us. We were all ready to take in our first Series games in a decade, but it didn’t happen. This is a situation we know exactly how to handle, though: We’ll get ‘em next year.

Tokyo Swallows 1

Chunichi Dragons 5

Series: Chunichi 3-2 Tokyo

(Nagoya Dome)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	5	2
Chunichi	4	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	X	5	8	1
W: Kawai (1-0) L: Akagawa (1-1)

The Swallows’ thin starting “rotation” was finally exposed tonight as Akagawa was forced to start on 4 days rest. The Dragons countered with lefty Yudai Kawai.

The Swallows elected to continue starting rookie Yamada at shortstop batting leadoff. The rookie has been solid on defense and had been managing to get some solid contact on pitches despite not actually getting a hit. Unfortunately Yamada ended up being the both the goat and lone bright spot for the Swallows in this game.

Things started off badly with an Araki single. The Swallows got their first out via an Ibata bunt to advance Araki to second. Things were starting to look up as Morino grounded a ball to short on the first pitch. Yamada fielded the ball cleanly but double clutched on the throw. He still would have had plenty of time to get the ball to first after the hesitation, but his throw was off and forced Hatake off the bag. The result of the play was 1 out with men on the corners, rather than 2 outs and a man on third. Akagawa faced Blanco and seemed to have some trouble locating his pitches despite getting Blanco to swing through a couple of sub-par fastballs. Despite getting Blanco to a 2-2 count, Akagawa ended up giving up a single to right which scored Araki from third. 1-0 Dragons Next up was Wada, who despite getting ahead 3-0, managed to foul out to third. The inning should have been over, but instead Akagawa had to face Tanishige. Akagawa also started off Tanishige’s at bat with 3 straight balls. Unfortunately, unlike Wada, Tanishige stayed patient and walked 2 pitches later to load the bases. Hirata was up with 2 out and the bases load, Akagawa managed to get ahead 2-1 in the count but a few fouls and a couple of balls brought the count full after 7 pitches. HIarata finally got a pitch he liked and launched it deep into right field to clear the bases and put himself on second. 4-0 Dragons Oshima followed with an infield single, and Akagawa finally got out of the inning with a strike out of the pitcher.

Akagawa did not look good on 4 days rest.

Kawai got Swallows after Swallows to ground out and seemed to be in top form tonight. Meanwhile Akagawa looked shaky despite not giving up any more runs. The Swallows got on the board in the third inning. Morioka got on first on a 1 out misplay by Araki at short, and Akagawa bunted him over to second for the 2nd out of the inning. Yamada got solid contact on a high outside pitch by Kawai and got it into right for a double to score Morioka. 4-1 Dragons

The Swallows lone bright spot?

That was as close as the Swallows got the rest of the night. Akagawa left the mound for a pinch hitter after 4 innings pitched. Tetsuya Yamamoto, the freshest arm in the Swallows’ pen, was the next up for the Swallows. Yamamoto would give up a solo home run to Blanco to start the fifth, and would give up 2 more runners before getting the final out in the fifth. 5-1 Dragons

While the Swallows got some runners in subsequent innings, including back-to-back lead off singles to start the eighth off Asao, it never felt that the Birds had a chance to get back into the game. The Swallows now find themselves 1 loss away from elimination, and must win 2 in a row to advance to the Japan Series. The Swallows’ pitching situation is nebulous, Data Stadium is predicting a Tateyama start, while the Dragons are likely to start Enyelbert Soto.

Tokyo Swallows 2

Chunichi Dragons 1

Series: Chunichi 2-2 Tokyo

(Nagoya Dome)

Tonight the Swallows looked to even the series. Getting the start for the Birds was Mr. long-relief, Muranaka. While the Aichi faithful saw Yamai on the bump for them.

After a 1-2-3 inning for both sides in the first, the Birds were first to cross home in the top of the 2nd. The May and June Bash brothers, “Boo” and “Coco”, got things off to a solid start by hitting back-to-back singles. After a ground out by Miyamoto and a strike out by Aikawa, Morioka was up. In yet another roster change, Morioka made Ogawa look good. He knocked a single back up the middle scoring “Coco” from second. 1 – 0 Tokyo

Muranaka ended the inning by striking out.

We move to the bottom of the 4th. Blanco started off the inning by singling to left. He was bunted over to second by Tanishige. Runners were now on 1st and 2nd after Muranaka walked Wada. To make matters even worse. Muranaka decided he needed to walk Hirata to load the bases. This meant Ogawa was going to the bullpen early.  Barnette was the man that was called in. Unfortunately for the Birds, Barnette couldn’t keep the Dragons off the board. Ohshima hit a soft single to right that scored Blanco from third. 1 – 1

After letting up that hit, Barnette got into a groove and struck out Yamai and got Araki to ground out to end the threat. After the 4th, Barnette pitched another inning and 2/3 to get the win. He got that win after the Swallows regained the lead in the top half of the fifth. Yamada got on board by leading off with a walk. He was bunted over to 2nd by Ueda. Aoki, now batting .455 for this series, hit a smashing double to score Yamada. 2 – 1 Tokyo

That's all I need. Thank you very much.

That was the end of the night for Yamai. Suzuki came in to pitch for the Dragons. He had the tough task of facing “Boo” and “Coco”. However, he was up to the task and sent them both down to end the inning.

That would be the end of the scoring for tonight. However, there was one more tough spot for the Swallows. After getting Tanishige to fly out, Barnette walked Wada. After getting Hirata to strike out, Barnette was replaced by Watanabe. Watanabe promptly walked Oshima and was replaced on the hill by Oshimoto. Oshimoto also walked the first man he saw, Fujii. With the bases loaded, Ogawa must have been considering another move to the pen. However, he let his man settle down and try to get out of the jam.  That is exactly what he did. He induced a ground out by Araki to end the inning.

Although there were a few more hits by the Dragons, they never seriously threatened the rest of the way.

So now the series is all tied up. Tomorrow night will be game 4. Who knows who will be starting for the Birds. Maybe Whitesell will take the mound?

Is he warming up for the starting role tomorrow night?

Tokyo Swallows 3

Chunichi Dragons 1

Series: Chunichi 2-1 Tokyo

(Nagoya Dome)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	3	7	0
Chunichi	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	2	0
W: Ishikawa (1-0) L: Chen (0-1) S: Tateyama (1)

With the team already down 2-0 in the series, it goes without saying that tonight’s game was a must win for the Swallows. Amidst much speculation, the Swallows started Ishikawa on 3 days rest against the Dragons’ Chen. But that call wasn’t the only roster move made by Ogawa.

	Tokyo		Chunichi
1	(SS) Yamada	1	(SS) Araki
2	(LF) Ueda	2	(2B) Ibata
3	(3B) MIyamoto	3	(3B) Morino
4	(CF) Aoki	4	(1B) Blanco
5	(RF) Balentien	5	(C) Tanishige
6	(1B) Whitesell	6	(LF) Wada
7	(C) Aikawa	7	(RF) Hirata
8	(2B) Tanaka	8	(CF) Oshima
9	(P) Ishikawa	9	(P) Chen

The most surprising decision made by Ogawa was to send down Masubuchi for last year’s 1st round draft pick, Tetsuto Yamada. Not only did Ogawa put Yamada on the roster, but he gave the 19 year old his first ichi-gun start in a must win game batting lead off. Ogawa was also true to his word, benching Hatekeyama after he failed to perform in the Climax Series. It seems that Ogawa has decided to go against conventional wisdom in the playoffs and make roster changes designed solely to motivate his players to rise to the occasion.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the moves backfired as the Swallows offense struggled against Chen’s pitching, as the offense managed only 3 hits in 7 innings. But while the offense struggled, Ishikawa rose to the occasion and held the Dragons to only a single hit in his 7 innings. As the game moved briskly because of the pitchers’ duel, the real action only began in the eighth.

With Chen still looking strong on the mound, the Swallows had the bottom third of their lineup come up in the eighth. While they both made Chen work for the outs, Aikawa and Hiroyasu both eventually fell harmlessly to the Taiwanese southpaw. With the pitcher’s spot in the lineup up, Ogawa decided to send Iihara into the game and ended Ishikawa’s night. Iihara, he of the .126 season average and supreme impatience at the plate, was probably not inspiring the Swallows’ faithful with hope. In fact, I joked to my bar mates that “Iihara would be a hero if he homers here,” a factual statement, but so ridiculous that it could only have be taken as a joke. But life is funny sometimes, Iihara actually took the first 2 pitches from Chen and got ahead of the count 2-0, one of the few Swallows to do so tonight. After taking strike 1, and fouling off another pitch to make the count 2-2, Iihara took a low pitch and floated it to left field. The ball barely made it into the stands, reminicint of Aikawa’s homerun on Monday, and into the hands of a fan to give the Swallows the lead. 1-0 Swallows

Iihara finally delivers a big moment this season.

After Iihara’s improbable homerun, Ogawa surprised Swallows’ fans again in the bottom of the inning by electing to send Tateyama to the mound. While the move certainly sent the message that the Swallows where intent on winning NOW, it certainly begged the question WHO THE FUCK IS PITCHING TOMORROW? But in the here and now the move paid off as Tateyama got the Swallows out of the inning despite walking a batter.

With Chen having been taken out for a pinch runner in the bottom of the eighth, the Swallows had the opportunity to face the lesser Dragons’ pitchers for the first time this series. The first such pitcher was the 10 year veteran Takahashi, making only his third appearance this season. Ueda immediately took advantage by taking the third pitch he saw back up the middle for a single. Miyamoto bunted Ueda over to second for the first out. Aoki took the second pitch he saw from Takahashi and smashed it hard against the hard turf to get an infield single, and put men on the corners with 1 out. The Dragons changed pitchers and sent Kawahara to the mound, while Fujimoto came in for Balentien. Fujimoto got jammed hard on 2 pitches, and the ball got picked up by Ibata who managed to get Ueda in a rundown. Aoki managed to get to third and Fujimoto got to second during the rundown to make it 2 out with men in scoring position for Hatakeyama. The big boy wasted little time and hit one back up the middle to score 2 key insurance runs. 3-0 Swallows

With the Swallows up 3, Tateyama was called to pitch another inning to finish off the game. He managed to get Ibata to foul out after 9 pitches for the first out. But Morino managed to hit a Ogasawara-esque solo home run to right to get back 1 run. 3-1 Swallows But that was it as Tateyama got Blanco and Tanishige out to end the game in the Swallows’ favor.

Ishikawa and Tateyama combined to allow only 2 hits to the Dragons. While the Swallows managed to get 7 hits (4 in the last 2 innings) on the night.

The Tateyama appearance makes the Swallows rotation for the rest of the series very unpredictable. Ogawa’s willingness to use his big starters in the reliever’s role and use starters like Ishikawa on short rest make it hard to tell who will pitch when. I guess we’ll just have to tune in tomorrow to find out how things go…

Tateyama gets the save, but will he start during the series?

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……

Tokyo Swallows 1

Chunichi Dragons 2

Series: Chunichi 2-0 Tokyo

(Nagoya Dome)

So this is what it’s come down to. The Swallows are back in Nagoya Dome trying to make up for everything they lost there during the home stretch of the 2011 Central League pennant race.

The last time that Tokyo won a game at Nagoya Dome was back on September 25th, but that doesn’t even begin to explain how embarrassing things got for the Swallows. From September 22nd until October 13th, the birds played the Dragons eight times in that dismal place, and they only won once.

And just for good measure, they lost one more contest there on the 19th when Chunichi was resting most of its starters. Akagawa started and Lim took the loss in that one.

So with all that embarrassment fresh in their minds, the Tokyo Swallows have once again headed to Nagoya, this time for a best of seven series that is heavily weighted against them.

Time for some revenge?

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	6	0
Chunichi	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	X	2	7	0
W: Yoshimi (1-0; 1.23 ERA) L: Masubuchi (0-1; 7.71 ERA) S: Iwase (1 Save; 0.00 ERA)

Not with Masubuchi starting. Ugh. He’s so much better out of the bullpen.

	Tokyo		Chunichi
1	Aoki CF	1	Araki SS
2	Tanaka 2B	2	Ibata 2B
3	Fukuchi LF	3	Morino 3B
4	Hatakeyama 1B	4	Blanco 1B
5	Miyamoto 3B	5	Tanishige C
6	Balentien RF	6	Wada LF
7	Morioka SS	7	Hirata RF
8	Aikawa C	8	Oshima CF
9	Masubuchi P	9	Yoshimi P

From beginning to end, Masubuchi’s two and one third innings on the mound were eminently hittable. In the bottom of the first, four of the five batters hit hard flies into the outfield. Two of them were caught, but the two hit by Ibata and Morino both landed fair and far from the defense for back-to-back doubles. 1-0 Chunichi.

In the bottom of the second, Chunichi again got a runner in scoring position (Wada on third), but Masubuchi

Masubuchi was throwing meatballs from the very start.

was able to escape by striking out the pitcher.

But the Dragons got him again in the bottom of the next inning. Araki started by hitting a 2-0 low-octane fastball into center, and after he was bunted over, Morino collected his second RBI of the game on a single to center. 2-0 Chunichi.

And that was the end of both Chunichi’s scoring and Masubuchi’s night on the mound. He was relieved by Barnette after throwing only 32 pitches, many of which drifted into the middle of the zone and ended up getting hit hard. He gave up four hits, two earned runs, and had one strikeout and a walk to show for his effort. He also came away with the loss and a bloated second stage playoff ERA (check the box score above).

Barnette quickly induced two pop flies to end the third, and he came back in to pitch the fourth. After walking Wada following an eight pitch battle, Barnette struck Hirata out swinging and Wada got caught trying to take second on the failed hit-and-run. With two outs, Barnette struck out Oshima swinging as well to keep Tokyo’s hopes alive.

Barnette was one of the only bright spots early on.

But the offense wasn’t exactly lighting things up. Tokyo’s best opportunity up to that point was in the top of the third. Aikawa, continuing his form from Monday night’s game, ripped a double off the wall in left-center to set the table for a Masubuchi bunt. After a couple of flubbed attempts, he finally laid down a decent one that allowed Aikawa to safely take third base.

Aoki followed by drawing a walk, but with runners on the corners and one out, both Tanaka and Fukuchi failed to move anyone closer to home.

The birds finally got on the board in the top of the eighth. Aoki’s second hit of the game, a one-out double to right, was followed by a Fujimoto (pinch-hitting for Tanaka) single to left which put men on the corners for Fukuchi. Fukuchi grounded out to short, but Aoki was able to scamper home. 2-1 Chunichi.

And after Lim got through the bottom of the eighth without giving up more than a walk (17 pitches), the Swallows had their work cut out for them when Asao took the mound once again (he had relieved Yoshimi with one out in the top of the eighth).

Miyamoto grounded out to short, and then Balentien worked an impressive nine-pitch walk in which he protected the plate by fouling off three pitches. Morioka then grounded out to second, but luckily Chunichi wasn’t able to turn the double play, and then Aikawa drew a walk of his own.

But then Iwase was brought in to face Whitesell, and he got the Tokyo slugger to ground out to third to end the

Fukuchi stranded runners on the corners in the third.

game.

The offensive standout for Tokyo was definitely Aoki. He went 2-3 with a walk.

After Barnette and before Lim, relievers Matsui, Oshimoto and Matsuoka pitched an inning each.

Game two of this series is tomorrow night at 6PM. As you can probably imagine, it’s a do-or-die situation for the Swallows.

Notes:

Masubuchi gave up more hits (four) than all five of the relievers combined (three).

Both Miyamoto and Morioka went 0-4 at the plate.

In the four playoff games so far, Miyamoto is 1-14 with one RBI (sac fly).

Chunichi’s under-performing third baseman, Morino, went 3-4 at the plate and recorded both of his team’s RBIs.

Chunichi’s second baseman, Ibata, was 2-3 with two doubles.

Yomiuri Giants 1

Tokyo Swallows  3

Series: Swallows Win 2-1

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Yomiuri	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	6	2
Tokyo	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	X	3	7	0
W: Akagawa (1-0) L: Gonzalez (0-1) S: Muranaka (1)

Based on the comments received in yesterday’s game report, you don’t need to read this report to find out that the Swallows won game 3 of their series against the hated Giants. The raw details of what happened and the sequence of events that lead to the victory are available elsewhere. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to offer a game report with my own personal insights watching as a fan from the right field stands of Jingu…

	Yomiuri		Tokyo
1	SS Sakamoto	1	CF Aoki
2	2B Terauchi	2	2B Tanaka
3	CF Chono	3	LF Whitesell
4	C Abe	4	1B Hatakeyama
5	LF Ramirez	5	3B Miyamoto
6	1B Ogasawara	6	RF Balentien
7	RF Tani	7	SS Morioka
8	3B Furuki	8	C Aikawa
9	P Gonzalez	9	P Akagawa

No matter how well I had tried to mentally justify our position prior to the game, I did not come into tonight’s game cofortable with the idea that we could win. Call it pessimism or realism, I did go to the game tonight mentally preparing for the possibility that our season would end. The negatives (injuries, lack of offense throughout the series, losing momentum after game 2, starting a young pitcher in a pressure game, etc.) had piled higher in my mind than the positives (Akagawa has been effective, Dicky Gonzalez is not the second coming, we’ve come back from a lot of bad positions all year, etc.)

The Monday night crowd was less than that of the 2 weekend games, with an announced attendance of 31,687. But with clear skies and the moon in the sky I knew it would be a beautiful night for baseball even if the crowd was a touch smaller. Akagawa allayed my fears that he would buckle under the pressure with consecutive 1-2-3 innings culminating with strikeouts to start the game. On offense, our inability to score runs right away let the doubt monster creep into my head, but the fact that we managed to get the first hit of the game in the first (Whitesell infield single no less) helped keep the paranoia from taking over.

Doubt began to manifest again when the Giants got their first hit from Furuki with 1 out in the top of the third. The Giants gave us a free out by bunting Furuki over to second, and Akagawa got Sakamoto to ground out to third for the final out. When Aikawa started the bottom of the inning with a solo homerun down the left field line, and drew first blood for the Swallows for the first time in the series, I started to believe that we could win. 1-0 Swallows

That belief would get tested in subsequent innings, as Akagawa allowed consecutive 2 out walks (on 8 pitches no less) in the fourth, consecutive 1 out hits to put on the corners (to the pitcher no less) in the fifth, and a lead off single to start the sixth. But each time, Akagawa regrouped and managed to get the Giants to end the inning without any damage. While Akagawa continued to put up zeros on the top of the scoreboard, the Swallows were unfortunately doing the same thing.

When Akagawa’s night came to an end with 2 outs and a man on second in the seventh, another thought of uncertainty crossed my mind as Oshimoto made his way to the mound. Would we see the reliable Oshimoto or the tired and overworked Oshimoto? These toxic thoughts weren’t able to take root as Oshimoto struck out Sakamoto on just 4 pitches to end the threat.

Things got wild in the bottom of the inning. Miyamoto got on base via a 1 out infield single, but it looked like Balentien had ended the inning with a double play when he grounded out to short. Fortunately, Terauchi wasn’t able to turn the play as his throw missed first base by a mile. Balentien, who had ran hard to try to beat the throw, was half way into right field before he turned to take second base. Ueda came in to run for Balentien, and Morioka came up to bat. Morioka fell behind 0-2, but managed to lace a liner into left field while Ueda was running on contact. Ueda ran towards home and dove in head first, narrowly avoiding the tag, to score the insurance run. 2-0 Swallows

Muranaka came into the game and shut down Giants in the eighth on just 7 pitches. While it seemed like the Swallows were getting closer to closing out the series, there was palpable nervousness in the air as the lead was still relatively small. The Swallows offense gave us a chance to forget about failure as a wild series of events further extended our lead. Aoki started things off with a 1 out double down the left field line that most of us in right assumed was a foul ball. Hiroyasu followed with a hard hit to second that Terauchi let get past him for an error. Aoki turned the corner and headed to home but his barrel roll of a slide into home apparently did not avoid Abe’s tag. (It was too far for us to really determine.) Hiroyasu advanced to second on the throw, and Fukuchi was up with 2 outs. Before any thoughts of changing of momentum could take root, Fukuchi took the first pitch he saw and hit it into right. This time the runner was able to score from second without problem. 3-0 Swallows

So it was up to Muranaka to close out the game and prevent us all from having an aneurism. Things started off nicely with a 3 pitch strikeout of Ramirez. At this point I was huddled shoulder-to-shoulder with my fellow Tsubamegun friends. Unfortunately Ogasawara had to add some drama to the proceedings with a solo shot to right field. 3-1 Swallows But unlike Saturday, Muranaka would stay in the game even as Tateyama could be seen warming up in the pen. Despite the home run, the Swallows crowd did not lose any energy. Muranaka battled Tani and got a ground out to third to make it 1 out from the win. The Giants sent Yoshinobu Takahashi to the plate and he got ahead 2-1. Then we channeled nervous energy to start a Muranaka chant that was quickly picked up by our section and then propagated by the ouendan. The sight of half the stadium chanting for Muranaka and drowning out the Giants cheers was moving and can’t be adequately described in words. Muranaka responded by getting a foul ball, and a massive wiff from Takahashi to end the game and the series.

The next few moments were a flurry of high fives and hugs. I’ll be honest, I cried a little. Not as much as Ishii’s retirement, but the feeling of unity with my friends and thousands of strangers tugged at my heart strings. While the Swallows will move onto Nagoya, I will have to remain in Tokyo. Regardless of what happens at Nagoya, those games won’t be able to beat the emotion I felt in the packed crowd tonight. I hope to see the Swallows bring the action back to Jingu for the Japan Series. Even if they can’t bring it back, I will always have tonight’s game to remember… I feel lucky to have been able to share this moment with many great people of various backgrounds, and I thank the Swallows and this site for that opportunity.

Post Game Celebrations. It wasn't the prettiest win, but a memorable night because of it. (Photo taken by Chris Pellegrini)

Yomiuri Giants 6

Tokyo Swallows  2

Series: Tied 1-1

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

The Swallows were never really in control of this contest. That was evident throughout. Making it worse was the fact that the team never had a shot once we got deep into our bullpen.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Yomiuri	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	4	6	9
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	2	7
W: Utsumi (1-0) L: Ishikawa (0-1)

Uninspiring. Unhelpful. Unhappy. Unbe-Lim-able.

	Yomiuri		Tokyo
1	Sakamoto SS	1	Ueda LF
2	Terauchi 2B	2	Tanaka 2B
3	Chono CF	3	Aoki CF
4	Abe C	4	Hatakeyama 1B
5	Ramirez LF	5	Miyamoto 3B
6	Ogasawara 1B	6	Balentien RF
7	Tani RF	7	Morioka SS
8	Furuki 3B	8	Aikawa C
9	Utsumi P	9	Ishikawa P

Utsumi was in control of this game from the start. Everything that came off the bat in fair territory was Lim-p at best. He pitched six innings and gave up only three hits and one earned run (94 pitches). He was locked in and didn’t cry in the dugout as far as anyone has been able to tell.

Tokyo’s starter, Ishikawa, was reasonably solid through four and two-thirds innings (an Abe homer in the fourth notwithstanding), but he got yanked after giving up a suicide squeeze bunt to Utusmi which put the visitors up 2-0.

The one run that Utsumi surrendered came in the fifth when pinch-hitter Kawamoto came up with a two-out single to knock in one run. 2-1 Gomiuri.

But that was the extent of the threat from the home team as the cross-town visitors plated four runs in the top of the ninth to put the game out of reach and force a decisive Monday contest.

Surprisingly, Tokyo’s vaunted closer, Lim, did as poorly as he’s done all year by allowing three runs on his watch and a fourth after he had been sent packing.

Abe collected his third hit of the night on the second pitch he saw–an outside slider that ended up in right field.

Hashimoto then bunted him over, and Ogasawara followed with a fly-out to Aikawa (he caught it IN Yomiuri’s dugout).

Then with two outs, pinch-hitter Suzuki singled, and Furuki drew a walk.

It got ugly.

That left the bases juiced for Takahashi who came up with a double to center which scored three. 5-1 Yomiuri.

Lim was then replaced by Matsui (which is normally as unthinkable a switch as can possibly be fathomed), but he walked Sakamoto and allowed Takahashi to score on a Terauchi single to center. That ended up being Lim’s fourth earned run of the game, and that was basically it. 6-1 Yomiuri.

A pair of doubles in the bottom of the ninth (Morioka and Whitesell) meant that Tokyo was able to scrape a conciliatory run back, but that was all she wrote. 6-2 Final.

The home team never really got things going in this game and will likely lose tomorrow unless the team’s veteran’s step it up on offense.

Aoki and Hatakeyama have only one hit each thus far in the series, and Miyamoto is hitless. That has to change. Believe it or not, Morioka, Aikawa and Tanaka are leading the charge so far. Unbe-Lim-able.

To be fair, however, at least Hatake has collected a walk in each of the two games thus far. And Balentien drew as many in tonight’s contest (which is utterly unthinkable).

Tomorrow we’ll likely get to see a Gonzalez vs Akagawa showdown on the mound. Tokyo is going to win, but it never needed to get this far.

See you at Jingu!

There's always tomorrow.

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.

	Yomiuri		Tokyo
1	SS Sakamoto	1	LF Ueda
2	2B Terauchi	2	2B Tanaka
3	CF Chono	3	CF Aoki
4	C Abe	4	1B Hatakeyama
5	LF Ramirez	5	3B Miyamoto
6	1B Ogasawara	6	RF Balentien
7	RF Takahashi	7	SS Morioka
8	3B Furuki	8	C Aikawa
9	P Sawamura	9	P Tateyama

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

With their alternate first pick the Swallows chose...

The night started off with the Swallows vying for Shuhei Takahashi along with the Dragons (as expected) and the Buffaloes. After each team’s rep had drawn their envelopes there was a few moments of confusion as it seemed for a moment that no one had drawn a lucky envelope. But then the Dragons’ future manager Takagi figured out he was holding the winning ticket and the Dragons had Takahashi. After losing out on Takahashi, the Swallows chose high school outfielder/pitcher Ryuhei Kawakami of Kosei Gakuin High School. While he’s listed as a pitcher/outfielder, the Swallows have him as just an outfielder. The right-hander hit 3 homeruns (including an inside-the-park HR) during the most recent summer Koshien tournament. Kawakami possesses a strong arm, and good speed, and while his upside is much lower than Takahashi’s, it seems the club is looking for him to become a 5-tool player down the line.

After Kawakami, the Swallows decided to go a little bit older electing to draft only university and industrial league guys. The first of those players was Ryohei Kiya of Nihon Bunri University. The right-handed pitcher throws a 145 km/h fastball as well as a splitter. The Swallows like his mound presence and believe he can find his way into the rotation in the very near future.

With their third and fourth picks the Swallows chose players from Nippon Paper Ishinomaki, Kyuko’s old Industrial League team. The first of those picks was Wataru Hiyane who is a right-handed outfielder with speed and defensive ability. The Swallows have a quote from Kyuko calling Hiyane very fast, and the Swallows themselves note that he could be a regular if his bat can adapt to the pro game. The second player the Swallows took from Nippon Paper was Yuya Ota, a left-handed pitcher with a dropping curve and a cut fastball. It seem the Swallows will be looking for him to follow in Kyuko’s footsteps and have an impact on the bullpen immediately.

In the fifth round the Swallows selected right-handed pitcher Yuji Nakane from Tohoku Fukushi University. Nakane was a high school teammate of Yoshinori. Unfortunately, injuries have held him back. When healthy Nakane exhibits a fluid fastball and if he can avoid any more injuries the Swallows believe he can be a rotation regular with his old teammate.

The Swallows final pick in the regular draft was Masato Furuno from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Kobe. Like many Industrial League pitchers Furuno has a fairly slow fastball (MAX 143km/h), but has a variety of breaking balls to keep hitters guessing. The Swallows believe he will be able to contribute to the bullpen right away.

The Swallows made 2 additional picks in the ikusei portion of the draft. Their first ikusei pick was Takeaki Tokuyama from Ritsumeikan University. The right-handed pitcher, who also bats switch, throws an array of pitches and the Swallows seem to consider him a high ceiling guy. The final pick for the Swallows in the 2011 draft was used for Hugo Kanabushi from Hakuoh University. While very rough, the left-hander has a strong fastball and the Swallows no doubt hope he’ll follow in the footsteps of another former Hakuoh University Brazillian, Fernandes.

Going through the picks beyond the Kawakami pick, it seems that the Swallows have drafted a few arms that can contribute right away in the bullpen. Unlike last year’s draft class, this class seems to have a lower potential ceiling but will have a higher immediate impact.

2011 Swallows' Draftees