An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
November 6th, 2011 Tokyo Swallows 1 Chunichi Dragons 2 Series: Chunichi 4-2 Tokyo (Nagoya Dome) 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 [...]
November 5th, 2011 Tokyo Swallows 1 Chunichi Dragons 5 Series: Chunichi 3-2 Tokyo (Nagoya Dome) 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 [...]
November 3nd, 2011 Tokyo Swallows 3 Chunichi Dragons 1 Series: Chunichi 2-1 Tokyo (Nagoya Dome) 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 [...]
Friend of Tsubamegun “M”, has taken the shinkansen down to Nagoya to cheer on the Swallows as they attempt to do what they failed to do at all down the stretch – flourish in the Nagoya Dome. The prize at stake is restoration of Swallows pride and much more importantly, a place in the Japan [...]
October 31th, 2011 Yomiuri Giants 1 Tokyo Swallows 3 Series: Swallows Win 2-1 (Meiji Jingu Stadium) 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 [...]
Gen Sueyoshi has a great post, ‘By the Numbers‘, at his site on all of the relevant numbers from this season’s 24 matchups between Tokyo and Yomiuri. By all accounts, it looks like it will be Akagawa pitching for Tokyo and former Tokyo import Dicky Gonzalez throwing for Yomiuri. Gonzalez hasn’t pitched much this season, [...]
October 30th, 2011 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. Uninspiring. Unhelpful. Unhappy. Unbe-Lim-able. Utsumi was [...]
In addition to Dave’s game report published on Tsubamegun last night, you can get some additional commentary from a few other reputable sources. Jason Coskrey, writer for the Japan Times, summarized game one of the Central League Climax Series First Stage thusly: “The Tokyo Yakult Swallows came out on top in their season series against [...]
October 29th, 2011 Yomiuri Giants 2 Tokyo Swallows 3 Series: Swallows Lead 1-0 (Meiji Jingu Stadium) 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. In a packed and buzzing Jingu it was Tateyama, not Ishikawa as [...]
August 10th, 2010 Yomiuri Giants 3 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4 Streak: Won 7 Last 5: WWWWW (Jingu Stadium) The birds put their six-game winning streak on the line against Yomiuri in the latest version of the Tokyo derby. And even though they did a few things wrong, they did just enough things right to [...]
