We need a lot more praying it seems.

The season is nearly two months old, and Dave and Christopher have finally sat down to discuss the ups and downs (but mostly the latter) of the 2013 campaign as it has unfolded thus far.

Here’s some of what to expect:

• A new TSP sponsor to help compensate for the sorry start to the season.
• The lay of the land in the Central League.
• Why Tokyo sucks so phenomenally right now.
• Revisions to the Interleague schedule?
• Our proposal for a new ticket package at Jingu Stadium.
• More female genitalia.

As always thank you for listening, and in case you missed it, the last installment of the TSP can be found right here.

May 19th, 2013

Tokyo Swallows 0

Tohoku Golden Eagles 1

Streak: Lost 1  Last 5: LLWWL

(Kleenex Stadium Miyagi)

Your Swallows headed north for a pair of games in Tohoku, hoping to build on the home run-fueled wins of the previous two nights (game reports here and here).

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
Tohoku	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	X	1	6	1
W: Nagai (2-0; 2.04 ERA) L: Yagi (1-4; 2.28) S: Rasner (2S; 1.50)

But they were going to need to deal with a decent pitcher that they weren’t familiar with in order to run their winning streak to three games.

Tokyo	Order	Tohoku
Hiyane (CF)	1	Matsui (SS)
Morioka (2B)	2	Ginji (2B)
Milledge (LF)	3	Hijirisawa (CF)
Balentien (DH)	4	Jones (DH)
Iwamura (3B)	5	McGehee (1B)
Hatakeyama (1B)	6	Takasu (3B)
Takeuchi (RF)	7	Nakajima (LF)
Nakamura (C)	8	Shima (C)
Kawashima (SS)	9	Teppei (RF)
Yagi (P)	P	Nagai (P)

This game was pretty boring for the most part, especially if you are a Swallows fan. Once again, the team’s offense didn’t make much noise for much of the game. Tokyo nearly got a runner on second in the third inning, but Kawashima was adjudged to have obstructed Shima’s throw to second on Nakamura’s steal attempt with one out. That sent Nakamura back to first, Kawashima to the dugout, and added a red lamp to the out count. Hiyane grounded out to third to end the Swallows’ half of the inning.

Tohoku had a bit more luck getting people on base, even getting a runner as far as the left corner with one out in the third, but Yagi put together a couple of strikeouts at just the right moments to keep the home team off of the board.

But while Yagi was reasonably sharp, Tohoku’s Nagai looked a couple of grades better. He worked his giant, looping curve to great effect and struck out five batters through the first four innings.

Yagi can’t catch a break. Seven innings and just one earned run, but he still got the loss.

Yagi ended up logging a full seven innings, but his time on the mound ended up involving plenty of base runners. Although he only allowed four hits, he also issued five walks as the nearly constant rain seemed to mess with his grip at times.

Tohoku finally got to him in the bottom of the sixth.

With one out, Hijirisawa singled to center, and then both Jones and McGehee drew walks to load the bases. Takasu then lifted one deep enough to center to allow Hijirisawa to scamper home from third. The inning ended when Jones was picked off at second base.

1-0 Tohoku.

Nagai, on the other hand, didn’t walk anyone over his eight innings of service. And he also allowed only four hits.

Rasner relieved Nagai in the top of the ninth and was a few pitches into Milledge’s at-bat when the sky opened and everyone headed to the dugouts. After a lengthy break, Milledge was eventually able to force an error at short and made it safely to first even though he slipped coming out of the batter’s box. Ueda was inserted in his place and quickly stole second, Balentien drew a full count walk, and then Iwamura grounded out to second but was able to beat the double-play throw to first.

That left runners on the corners for Hatakeyama with two outs.

But he popped out to second to end the game.

The second game of this mini-series is scheduled for tomorrow night with a first pitch slated for 6PM.

Game Notes:

13,171 tickets were sold to this game.

Iwamura was hoping to have a good game in his return to Tohoku after a disastrous couple of seasons there. However, he struck out swinging twice, flew out to center, and grounded out in his final at-bat.

Not counting the rain delay, this game was officially over in three hours and nine minutes.

Chiba Lotte Marines 3

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5

Last 5: LLLWW  Streak: Won 2

(Jingu Stadium)

The Swallows sweep their two game series against the Marines at Jingu in a bizarre series of plays that should’ve seen the Swallows win comfortably, but ultimately lead to a cardiac-inducing game.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Marines	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	10	0
Swallows	0	1	1	1	2	0	0	0	X	5	6	3
W: Ogawa (4-1) L: Naruse (4-1) S: Roman (1)

	Marines		Swallows
1	Shunichi Nemoto (2B)	1	Wataru Hiyane (CF)
2	Takashi Ogino (LF)	2	Keizo Kawashima (SS)
3	Tadahito Iguchi (1B)	3	Lastings Milledge (LF)
4	Toshiaki Imae (3B)	4	Wladimir Balentien (RF)
5	Ikuhiro Kiyota (RF)	5	Kazuhiro Hatakeyama (1B)
6	Daichi Suzuki (SS)	6	Shinya Miyamoto (3B)
7	Takeshi Kanazawa (C)	7	Keisuke Mizuta (2B)
8	Shota Ishimine (CF)	8	Yuhei Nakamura (C)
9	Yoshihisa Naruse (P)	9	Yasuhiro Ogawa (P)

If I had told you that the Marines’ ace, Naruse, held the Swallows to 4 hits and 1 walk through 5 innings on 59 pitches, how many runs would you have expected the Swallows to have scored? If you have been following the 2013 Swallows, I think the obvious answer would be no runs, maybe 1 run. But sometimes, reality can be strange and bucks expectation. Allow me to give you a quick run down of the scoring against Naruse…

Balentien lead off the second inning with a solo shot to left. 1-0 Swallows

Nakamura lead off the third inning with a solo shot to left. 2-0 Swallows

Balentien launched a monster 1 out solo shot to left in the fourth inning. 3-0 Swallows Coco sent a ball into the back picnic area of left field for the second night in a row. These two home runs account for the two longest home runs I’ve personally witnessed at Jingu.

Naruse issued an one out walk to Nakamura in the fifth inning. After Ogawa struck out on a failed bunt attempt, Nakamura advanced to second on a stolen base. Hiyane (!?) proceeded to line his first career homerun into the left field stands. 5-0 Swallows

This is not a picture of a Hiyane strikeout…

The above represents every hit and walk issued by Naruse tonight. Otherwise, Naruse held the Swallows in check and looked like he was in control.

On the other hand, Ogawa held the Marines scoreless through six  innings. Ogawa did allow multiple runners in the first, fourth, and sixth innings, but the rookie kept his poise and got out of the jams through strikeouts and generally weak Marines hitting.

Unfortunately, Ogawa was not as efficient as Naruse and had to hand the ball off to the bullpen after six innings. Ishiyama pitched a perfect seventh inning, and “Mr. Three-run” Matsuoka held the Marines off the board in the eighth despite allowing two runners.

The Swallows handed the ball to erstwhile closer Tetsuya Yamamoto in the ninth. Although after Yamamoto’s meltdown in Thursday’s game against Seibu it wasn’t entirely clear if Yamamoto was being sent in as a closer in a non-save situation. Yamamoto immediately gave up a solo shot to Keisuke Hayasaka. 5-1 Swallows The Marines fan I was watching the game with was as surprised by this home run as I was for Hiyane’s homer. Before the Swallows faithful were able to digest what had happened, Yamamoto served up a first pitch meatball that Nemoto launched into the left field stands. 5-2 Swallows Yamamoto managed to get a strikeout from Ogino before facing Iguchi. Iguchi took the first pitch he saw, and drove it into center for a no-doubt-about-it homer. 5-3 Swallows At this point the Swallows bullpen rushed into action, but Yamamoto still had to face batters as the bullpen rushed to warm up. Yamamoto managed to get Imae to fly out uncomfortably close to the left field wall, and walked Kiyota on four pitches before he was relieved for Roman. Roman kept the Swallows’ fans’ hearts beating at an uncomfortable pace by allowing a hit up the middle to Suzuki to put two men on with two outs. The Marines sent rookie Kato  up to hit. Kato recently had made headlines for hitting his first career pitch out of the park, so it seemed the fairy tale ending was being written for the Marines. After a few nervy fouls, Roman managed to get Kato to chase a 2-2 chageup away for a strikeout and the save. 5-3 Swallows FINAL

Whoever made this image best captured the tragedy that was the ninth inning.

Game Notes

• Ogawa got his fourth win by holding the Marines scoreless through 6 innings on 114 pitches. He gave up 5 hits and 2 walks, but also got 7 strikeouts.
• Despite the win, the Swallows remain in last place in the Central League.
• Balentien had his third multi-homer game of the season. He has 14 home runs in 132 plate appearances. Meanwhile, Central League homerun leader Tony Blanco (BayStars) has 20 homeruns in 180 plate appearances.
• Miyamoto got a hit in tonight’s game giving him 2097 career hits, tying him with Atsuya Furuta for second on the Swallows’ career hits list. His next hit will make Miyamoto the Swallows’ all-time right-handed hits leader.  Tsutomu Wakamatsu is the Swallows’ all-time hits leader with 2173 career hits.
• The Swallows will travel to Sendai to take on the Rakuten Eagles on Sunday and Monday. Yagi is slated to start tomorrow’s game.

Chiba Lotte Marines 5 

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6

Last 5: LLLLW  Streak: Won 1

(Jingu Stadium)

Tonight saw the Birds battle back in superior fashion and make up for some anti-Swallows calls in the 7th.

Ishikawa was on  the hill for the start of the game but didn’t have his best stuff early on. The Marines jumped on him early but the big bats for the Swallows eventually showed up with the game on the line in the bottom of the 9th to sneak out a win for Yakult.

Chiba would take a 3 run lead after 3 innings thanks to 3 solo HRs. The 1st one came in the 2nd inning by Ishimine. 1 – 0 Chiba

In the 3rd inning, Iguchi and Imae would hit back-to-back solo HRs. 3 – 0 Chiba

The Birds would get a couple back in the bottom of the 4th inning. After a Milledge single, Coco hit a 2-run shot to bring the Swallows to within one. 3 – 2 Chiba

Both teams were relatively quiet until the top of the 7th. Here is where the umpires decided they must do everything they can do let Chiba win. Ishimine lead off the inning with a single. Karakawa would sac bunt him over to second. With one out, Nemoto would ground out to Tanaka. Ishime would move to third on the play. Ishikawa would then walk Ogino to put runners on the corners (1st questionable decision by the umps in the inning; some balls could have been strikes). That would be the end of the evening for Ishikawa. Roman then came into pitch. He would promptly hit Iguchi square in the back to load the bases. Imae then hit a broken bat grounder towards short. Kawashima hustled in and made a great bare-handed play to pick up the ball and throw it to 1st. All replays showed that Boo had the ball about 1/2 a second before Imae reached 1st. However, Mr. 1B umpire saw it another way and called Imae safe (2nd BS call in the inning). Boo, Kawashima, and Roman all were rather animated about the call. However, Ogawa did not leave his perch in the dugout to protest. Ishimine would score on the play and the bases would remain loaded. 4 – 2 Chiba

Roman would then, according to the home-plate umpire, walk Kiyota (both Roman and Nakamura acted as if ball 4 was strike 3 and headed to the dugout; 3rd f@#%in BS call of the inning). Ogino would score on the play. 5 -2 Chiba

That would bring us to the ninth inning. Milledge would start things off with a single. Coco would be safe on a fielders choice. Miyamoto would reach on a single and load the bases for Boo. On the third pitch, Boo lined a walk-offfffffffffff, GRAND SLAM HR into the wannabe Darth Vaders section in left field, to get a much needed win for the Birds. 6 – 5 Tokyo

Boo hits the game winning grand slam.

I do believe as he rounded 1st base, Boo gave a lovely your #1 in my book salute to the 1B umpire. I’m not sure but that is what my sources tell me!!

Boo coming around 3rd!!

Let’s party!!

Game notes:

• 17,934 folk were in attendance
• This game was relatively fast; 2 hours and 56 minutes
• Shoda picked up his first win in over 9 years
• This was Boo’s fifth career grand slam and first walk-off grand slam.
• According to Yakyubaka.com, Boo is the 37th player in NPB history to hit a walk-off grand slam
• Tomorrow will see two of the teams better pitchers going at it. For Chiba, you are scheduled to see Naruse (4-0; 0.85). The Birds will counter with Ogawa (3-1; 3.97). First pitch is 6 pm

Saitama Seibu Lions 9

Tokyo Swallows 3

Streak: Lost 6     Last 5: LLLLL

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Saitama	1	0	2	1	0	0	0	1	4	9	14	0
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	0	3	5	2
W: Makita (4-2); L: Tokuyama (0-1)

Brace ourselves, indeed, Mr. Watkins. Here’s hoping there’s a net at the end of this slide.

	Saitama		Tokyo
1	Asamura (SS)	1	Morioka (SS)
2	Akiyama (CF)	2	Miwa (2B)
3	Kuriyama (LF)	3	Milledge (LF)
4	Ortiz (1B)	4	Balentien (RF)
5	German (3B)	5	Iwamura (3B)
6	Iida (RF)	6	Takeuchi (1B)
7	Kaneko (2B)	7	Nitta (C)
8	Sumitani (C)	8	Ueda (CF)
9	Makita (P)	9	Tokuyama (P)
RP	Sarfate, Oishi	RP	Shichijo, Oshimoto, Ishiyama, Matsuoka, Yamamoto

The Swallows continued to mix things up in attempt to end the hemorrhaging – Takeuchi started at first, Coach put Ueda in to be centerfield, Miwa played second (pretty rare to see him doing much other than pinch-run), and Nitta caught the very recently called up Tokuyama, who took his first top-level beating.

Poor young Takeaki Tokuyama. He took the mound to face his first batter, Hideto Asamura, and saw his third ichi-gun pitch, a slider over the middle, knocked into the left field bleachers. 1-0 Saitama.

Tokuyama

In the third, Akiyama doubled. Tokuyama then managed two outs before hitting German, then giving up a two-run double to Iida. A Kaneko ground-out got Tokuyama out of the inning, but ended his debut. 3-0 Saitama.

 Shichijo took the mound in the fourth. Two outs into the side, Asamura singled and was then brought in by an Akiyama single to center. 4-0 Saitama.

Tokyo finally got on the board in the fifth, when Iwamura singled and was brought home by a Takeuchi double out to the centerfield fence. 4-1 Saitama.

The bottom of the seventh was the window of hope for Tokyo. After Balentien struck out, Iwamura was walked. The aptly named Genki Nitta (not the same kanji, but it sounds good) then went after the first pitch he saw, a low slider over the middle, and hit it for his first career home run, which just barely cleared the left field fence. 4-3 Saitama.

 It then got painful. The Lions scored another run in the eighth and four more in the ninth, making a meal of Yamamoto. At least Tokuyama wasn’t alone in misery and shame on his first big night out. 9-3 Saitama, Final.

Tomorrow’s a day off. Chiba comes to Jingu on Friday and Saturday.

Saitama Seibu Lions 4

Tokyo Swallows 3

Streak: Lost 5     Last 5: LLLLL

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Saitama	1	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	4	9	1
Tokyo	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	12	1
W: Iwao; 1-0 / 0.00 ERA L: Muranaka; 3-2 / 2.81 ERA. S: SOME SEIBU DUDE

Brace yourself folks, as for better or for worse, it’s Interleague time. It was during this period last year where the wheels fell off the Swallows season, as they embarked upon a truly dire ten game losing skid against Pacific league opposition. Here’s hoping that this year’s Interleague schedule will have the opposite effect by galvanising Tokyo as they try to fix the across the board inconsistency that has plagued them so far in 2013. However, after tonight’s game, I feel that is unlikely. The only thing I took from this game was WASTED CHANCES! WASTED CHANCES!! WHY ALL THESE WASTED CHANCES!!!? OH MY LORD MY EYES ARE BLEEDING!!!!

	Lions		Swallows
1	Asamura (SS)	1	Kawashima (SS)
2	Akiyama (CF)	2	Tanaka H. (2B)
3	Kuriyama (LF)	3	Milledge (LF)
4	Ortiz (1B)	4	Balentein (RF)
5	German (3B)	5	Iwamura (3B)
6	Sakada (RF)	6	Hatakeyama (1B)
7	Kaneko (2B)	7	Takeuchi (CF)
8	Sumitani (C)	8	Nakamura (C)
9	Togame (P)	9	Muranaka (P)

Muranaka enjoys another shift at the abbatoir

Both of  these teams came into this evening’s game nursing a four game losing streak, though the Lions were in a much better position in their respective league (second in the PL versus pretty much tied for last in the CL).

Muranaka started this one in uninspiring fashion. The first batter of the evening got on board via a Hatake error at first, then a single and a walk loaded the bases with no outs for Ortiz. An excellent play by Tanaka at second got one out and left men on the corners with the score now at 1-0 Saitama. German then grounded out to first, with the final out of the inning then made via a run-down of the runner between third and home plate.

The Swallows struck back in the bottom of the 1st, as back-to-back one-out singles from Tanaka and Milledge put two men on. And after
Cococ struck out, Iwamura hit a rather fortunate pop-up to left, which fell fair in the no-man’s land between the infield and out for a double, which scored Tanaka for 1-1. Hatake then flew out to right to end the inning.

Akinori Iwamura – the lone bright spot

It was Iwamura who struck again in the 3rd to put Tokyo ahead. After Milledge had worked a one-out walk (and later stole second), Akinori hit one over the fence in right for his third dinger of the year, 3-1 Tokyo. The Swallows then threatened to pull away as Hatake doubled to right, but Takeuchi flew out to left to end the threat.

Three consecutive one-out singles made it 3-2 in the top of the 3rd, before the Lions pulled ahead once more in the 4th. Two more singles got things rolling for Saitama, and a sac-bunt moved both runners into scoring positions. Kuriyama then hit a grounder to Kawashima at short, Keizo threw home in what would have been time to get the out at the plate, but his throw was a touch high and wide, meaning the runner was called safe and Kurihara was safe at first on the fielder’s choice, 3-3.

That was all for Muranaka (4.1 IP / 78 P / 7 H / 1 K / 1 BB) as Roman came in to try and stem the bleeding. But he gave up the go-ahead run (charged to Muranaka) off a single up the middle for 4-3 Saitama.

The Swallows should have at least drawn level in the bottom of the 6th. With reliever Iwao on the mound, a walk for Takeuchi, and two singles from (a pinch-hitting) Morioka and Kawashima loaded the bases with one out for Tanaka. And despite working the count to a hitter’s dream 3 balls 0 strikes, after taking a fastball down the middle for strike number one, Hiroyasu hit a grounder to short, and the out was made at home. This brought up Milledge with the bases still juiced and two outs on the board, but he could only do the same as Tanaka had before (grounder to short) and a golden chance to get back in the game went begging.

And the chance wasting became a very very bad joke in the bottom of the 7th. Facing the third Lions pitcher of the evening Sakamoto, singles for Balentien, Iwamura and a walk for Hatake loaded the bases with no outs. But two strikeouts from Takeuchi and Nakamura sandwiching an infield fly-out from Morioka stranded three more men.

After all that chance wasting Tokyo were pretty much spent, though they did bring the go-ahead run to the plate in the 9th after Iwamura singled (his fourth hit of the night, and a triple away from a cycle), but of course neither Hatake nor a pinch-hitting Miyamoto could do jack shit. 4-3 Saitama Final.

Game Notage

• After Muranaka and Roman had conspired to give up four runs, the Swallows bullpen put up goose eggs over the final four frames. Ishiyama, Matsuoka both worked perfect innings, and after Oshimoto let two men on (walk and single) Shoda came in to get the final out of the 9th.
• Tokyo out hit Saitama 12-9, but stranded 14 runners on base.
• Coco was 1 for 5 with 3 Ks.
• 14,742 people were enticed into Jingu by the unseasonally hot weather. The mental institutes of Saitama all took the night off as their residents inhabited the left field Jingu bleachers once more.
• I really, really don’t like Seibu.
• I don’t want to talk about this game any more.
• Tomorrow will see Tokuyama make his pro debut on the mound for Tokyo, with Seibu countering with Makita.

]]> http://tokyoswallows.com/2013/05/14/may-14th-2013-vs-saitama/feed/ 2 http://tokyoswallows.com/2013/05/13/takeaki-tokuyama-promoted-to-70-man-roster/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=takeaki-tokuyama-promoted-to-70-man-roster http://tokyoswallows.com/2013/05/13/takeaki-tokuyama-promoted-to-70-man-roster/#comments Mon, 13 May 2013 12:41:10 +0000 Kozo http://tokyoswallows.com/?p=16135

Takeaki Tokuyama taken in his university days.

Today, the Swallows added 23 year-old right-hander Takeaki Tokuyama to the 70-man roster and assigned him number 62. Tokuyama was chosen by the Swallows out of Ritsumeikan University in the 2011 ikusei draft. As an ikusei player, Tokuyama has appeared in 18 Eastern League games over the last season and this season. Tokuyama has also appeared in an unspecified number of exhibition games versus independent and industrial league teams.

Tokuyama boasts a decent win rate and ERA this year, and some reports indicate that he may be called to start on Wednesday against Seibu. The tall righty features a 147 km/h fastball and an array of breaking balls including a slider, changeup, and forkball delivered from a conventional overhand motion. He is listed as a switch hitter, but his recent batting form is unknown.

Tokuyama joins fellow 2011 ikusei draftee Hugo Kanabushi on the 70-man roster. The Swallows now only have Takanori Sato, Yoshinori’s younger brother, on their ikusei roster.

Takeaki Tokuyama's Ni-gun Stats

Hanshin Tigers  4

Tokyo Swallows 2

Streak: Lost 4   Last 5: WLLLL

(Botchan Stadium - Matsuyama)

Tokyo got an early lead and held onto it for most of the game thanks to Yagi’s solid start, but Hanshin won the game on a three-run effort in the top of the eighth.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Hanshin	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	4	12	0
Tokyo	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	8	2
W: Noumi (3-2; 2.76 ERA) L: Matsuoka (1-2; 6.50) S: Kubo (2-2, 6S; 3.00)

And guess who was on the mound when the game slipped away…「ミスター・スリー・ラン」.

Hanshin	Order	Tokyo
Nishioka (2B)	1	Hiyane (CF)
Yamato (2B)	2	H. Tanaka (2B)
Toritani (SS)	3	Milledge (LF)
Murton (LF)	4	Balentien (RF)
R. Arai (3B)	5	Hatakeyama (1B)
T. Arai (1B)	6	Miyamoto (3B)
Fujii (C)	7	M. Tanaka (C)
Shunsuke (RF)	8	Kawashima (SS)
Noumi (P)	9	Yagi (P)

Anyway, let’s get this over quickly, shall we?

Yagi threw 132 pitches over seven innings while allowing seven hits, three walks, and striking out three in the process. He didn’t allow a run, earned or otherwise, during that span of time.

Meanwhile, after sitting down in order during the first two frames, Masahiko Tanaka (ie. not Beavis) got a small rally started for the Swallows in the bottom of the third. His single was followed by more of the same from Kawashima, and after a Yagi sac bunt Hiyane lifted a fly ball deep enough to left to score Tanaka from third. Given the four players involved, it was about as improbable a run as you’ll ever see manufactured in professional baseball.

1-0 Tokyo.

But after some huffing and puffing in the fourth, Tokyo was kept at bay for much of the rest of the game.

Hanshin threatened a couple of times (especially in the first), but Yagi was able to wiggle out of everything that he waded into. However, things got ugly in the eighth. There was also some serious damage received in the fourth, but more on that in the game notes below.

Matsuoka took the mound to face Hanshin’s cleanup, and all hell promptly broke loose. Toritani singled, Murton brought him around to score, and two batters later Arai the Elder homered over the wall in left to put the game out of reach for Tokyo.

3-1 Hanshin.

Mizuta, Tokyo’s other backup infielder who once played for Hanshin, got the two dozen attending Tokyo fans’ hopes up when he homered to lead off the bottom of the eighth, but Hatakeyama would eventually strand two runners when he flew out to right.

3-2 Hanshin.

Roman allowed one unearned run in the top of the ninth (Kawashima error), but it ultimately didn’t matter as Hanshin closer, Kubo, sat the Swallows in order in the bottom of that frame.

4-2 Final.

Ugh.

Tokyo have the day off tomorrow as they prepare for the start of the Interleague schedule.

Oh joy.

First up, Saitama come to town for a two-game set (Tues-Wed) with both games scheduled to start at 6PM. The forecast currently predicts fantastic conditions for Tuesday night, so get your ass to the stadium if you live anywhere in Asia. The only chance to see Tokyo win a game seems to be when they are playing at Jingu.

Game Notes:

• Are you ready for this? We lost another catcher. Masahiko Tanaka (again, not Beavis) fractured his collarbone when Murton slid hard in the fourth. It was certainly a hard hit, and if you live in Japan, then you can watch the video here.
• If anyone reading this post can catch things and is accustomed to being hit by non-Japanese, please report to Jingu immediately.
• This game dragged on for three hours and 51 minutes.
• 18,207 people allegedly bought/were given tickets to this game.
• Kawashima was the only Swallow to have a multi-hit game. He was the only Tokyo player to reach base twice.
• Roman saw 7 batters in the top of the ninth.

Ouch #1.

Ouch #2.

On average, Tokyo lose a catcher every 13 games.

Hanshin Tigers  11

Tokyo Swallows 7

Streak: Lost 3   Last 5: WWLLL

(Botchan Stadium - Matsuyama)

Rookie Yasuhiro Ogawa took to the mound to try to avenge his drubbing from last week. Unfortunately despite an OK start, Ogawa and the Swallows’ pitching served up enough meatballs that the Swallows’ offense was never able to catch up.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tigers	1	0	4	0	2	3	0	1	0	11	16	0
Swallows	0	3	0	2	0	0	0	2	0	7	13	0
W: Tsuru (1-0) L: Oshimoto (1-2)

	Tigers		Swallows
1	Tsuyoshi Nishioka (2B)	1	Wataru Hiyane (CF)
2	Yamato (Maeda) (CF)	2	Hiroyasu Tanaka (2B)
3	Takeshi Toritani (SS)	3	Lastings Milledge (LF)
4	Matt Murton (LF)	4	Wladimir Balentien (RF)
5	Ryota Arai (3B)	5	Kazuhiro Hatakeyama (1B)
6	Takahiro Arai (1B)	6	Shinya Miyamoto (3B)
7	Takeshi Hidaka (C)	7	Yuhei Nakamura (C)
8	Hayata Ito (RF)	8	Keizo Kawashima (SS)
9	Minoru Iwata (P)	9	Yasuhiro Ogawa (P)

The Tigers struck first with a Nishioka bloop single to left, followed by a sac bunt, and topped off by a Toritani double to score 1. 1-0 Tigers

The Swallows came back in a big way in the bottom of the second inning. Coco started off the inning with a double. Hatake and Miyamoto went down easily for 2 outs. But Iwata walked Nakamura and Keizo made him pay with a single to score Coco. 1-1 All Ogawa proceeded to hit a ball over the head of a shallow-playing Tigers’ outfield for a double to score an extra 2 runs. 3-1 Swallows This would be the first and last time the Swallows held the lead against the Tigers tonight.

Ogawa had started his hot season with an abnormally low BABIP (.207 prior to last week’s game and .247 prior to tonight’s game), but in the third inning he got to see what happens when the ball doesn’t land in your favor. Things started to go wrong after Ogawa gave up a clean one out hit to Nishioka. Ogawa got Yamato to ground out for out number two, although Nishioka managed to advance all the way to third on the play. Nishioka’s advance became somewhat moot, as Ogawa proceeded to load the bases on consecutive walks. Arai the younger swung hard at the first pitch he saw off of Ogawa and got jammed. Unfortunately the ball sailed down the right field foul line and landed just in front of Balentien who got there a hair late. With the runners running with two outs, two runs came to score and Arai the younger was credited with a double. 3-3 All Arai the elder took back the lead with a scorching 2-2 grounder along the third base line just past a diving Miyamoto for a 2 run double of his own. 5-3 Tigers

The Swallows showed some fight in the bottom of the fourth. A Miyamoto single and a Keizo double put men on second and third with just one out. Genki Nitta came in to hit for Ogawa. Nitta chopped a grounder just weak enough to second to give Miyamoto just enough time to slide under the tag at home. 5-4 Swallows HIyane followed with a beautiful squeeze bunt down the first base line which forced left handed Iwata to make a awkward field and throw attempt to home. The ball didn’t made it cleanly into Hidaka’s glove and Keizo scored the tying run. 5-5 All

Unfortunately that was the end of the see-saw scoring action as the Swallows’ bullpen imploded and the Tigers’ bullpen held the Swallows bats. The Tigers would score two runs in the fifth off of Oshimoto and Shoda (both runs creditted to Oshimoto). Followed by a three runs off of Emura courtesy of a Toritani homerun in the sixth inning. 10-5 Tigers

Shichijo pitched a perfect seventh inning, but in the eighth succumbed to the same hit, sac bunt, hit (this time a single) combo that gave the Tigers’ their first run. 11-5 Tigers

After being held 1-for-10 between the fifth and seventh innings, the Swallows finally showed some offensive spark in the eighth. Balentien started the inning with a solo homerun. 11-6 Tigers Singles by Hatake, Nakamura, and Keizo managed to plate another run, but no more. 11-7 Tigers

Matsuoka came in to pitch the ninth inning and was the only pitcher to really do his job tonight as he got the bottom of the Tigers’ order to go down 1-2-3. The Swallows somehow found themselves with the tying run at the plate with no outs in the ninth inning. Fukuhara gave up back-to-back singles to Hiroyasu and Milledge, and then walked Balentien. One mighty swing, or a combination of hits by Hatake, Miwa, or Nakmura could’ve tied the game but Fukuhara manged to buckle down and kept the Swallows off the board. 11-7 Tigers FINAL

Game Notes

• The game lasted 4 hours and 4 minutes and 20,115 (mostly Hanshin) fans watched the game.
• Nishioka went 5-for-5 with 4 runs scored. Toritani and Murton had 3 hit games.
• On the Swallows’ side, Balentien came within a triple of the cycle, and Keizo also had a 3 hit game.
• The Swallows will attempt to salvage the series tomorrow afternoon with Yagi. The Tigers will counter with Nomi who will get the start due to an injury to Fujinami.
• Nakamura and R. Arai were involved in an awkward collision on the Tigers’ second run in the fifth. Nakamura rolled around for a bit but stayed in the game.

MIyamoto gets in under the HIdaka tag.

Aftermath of R. Arai collision with Nakamura. Arai was called safe on the play.

Hanshin Tigers  5

Tokyo Swallows 0

Streak: Lost 2   Last 5: WWWLL

(Botchan Stadium - Matsuyama)

Tonight, Messenger rocked the Birds on the mound and at the dish.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tigers	0	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	0	5	7	0
Swallows	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	2
W: Messenger (5-0; 3.717) L: Ishikawa (2-4; 3.57)

If it wasn’t for the crazy 5th inning, the Birds may have gotten a win tonight. However, the 5th inning did happen and the Birds bats were shutout (the 6th time this season).

Tigers		Swallows
Nishioka (2B)	1	Hiyane (CF)
Yamato (CF)	2	Tanaka H. (2B)
Toritani (SS)	3	Milledge (LF)
Murton (LF)	4	Balentien (RF)
Arai R. (3B)	5	Iwamura (3B)
Arai T. (1B)	6	Hatakeyama (1B)
Fujii (C)	7	Morioka (SS)
Fujikawa (RF)	8	Nakamura (C)
Messenger (P)	9	Ishikawa (P)

Once again, the chaw-chomping hurler had the Birds number. Messenger pitched a complete game shutout and also had 3 RBIs! The Tigers did all of their damage in the 5th inning. Here is how it went down.

Ryota Arai lead off the inning with a hit. Takahiro Arai would ground out for the first out, with Ryota moving to second on the play. Fujii then hit a grounder to Morioka. Morioka’s throw to first would be low and Boo was unable to handle it cleanly (it bounced off the palm of his glove). Fujii would be safe and Morioka would be charged with an error (in this observers opinion, Boo was more at fault then Morioka).  Fujikawa would then load the bases with a single to center. With only one out and Messenger coming to the plate, Ogawa brought everybody in close, including the outfielders. Unfortunately, Ishikawa couldn’t get a solid pitch pass Messenger. He was able to hit the second pitch he saw to the warning track. Since everybody was playing in, the ball would drop for a stand-up double for Messenger and three runs would cross the plate. 3 – 0 Hanshin

Nishioka would hit a single to left and Messenger would advance to third on the play. Yamato would then hit the second double of the inning knocking in Messenger and Nishioka. 5 – 0 Hanshin

After another hit by Toritani, Murton and Ryota Arai would be the final outs of the inning.

The Birds never really threatened. After the 1st inning, they never managed more than one base runner in an inning.

Tonight was purely dominated by Messenger. He is arguably the best pitcher in any league at the moment and his record shows that. He is 5-0 with 2 no decisions. His ERA is a bit high at 3.717 but he is still controlling the opposition hitters. And, according to Yakyubaka, he is the first foreign Hanshin pitcher to start the season 5-0 since Trey Moore in 2003. His last loss was against the Swallows on Sept. 11, 2012.

Messenger tipping his cap after a great night.

As hard as it is for me to type this, Randy you are on a nice roll.

Now that I got that out of my system, PLEASE F**KING STOP IT!!!

Notes:

• Only 10,036 folks made it out to see this one 
• The game lasted exactly 3 hours
• Hanshin now leads the series 7-3
• Milledge (7 games) and Tanaka (6 games) both extended their hitting streaks, while Morioka’s ended at 6 games
• Tomorrow will see Iwata for Hanshi and Ogawa for Tokyo; 1st pitch is 6 pm