An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
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 [...]
November 2nd, 2011 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 [...]
There’s been plenty of action recently in terms of players being added to, and wiped from, the top team roster. The following players have recently gone up or down. October 29th (First Stage Game 1) Murakawa, Ishikawa and Miwa were activated. Yuichi was deactivated. October 31st (First Stage Game 3) Iihara was activated. Hidaka was [...]
It’s now time to decide who will move on to the 2011 Japan Series. The schedule for the final stage of the Climax Series is set to go a little something like this (scroll down for the Pacific League schedule): Central League 2nd place Tokyo Yakult Swallows vs 1st place Chunichi Dragons All games will [...]
Last night’s glorious edition of Fuji TV’s Pro Yakyu News featured their stab at predicting the Swallows starters for the upcoming series in Nagoya. Here is what they thought: Game 1 (11/2): Tateyama Game 2 (11/3): Ishikawa Game 3 (11/4): Masubuchi Game 4 (11/5): Akagawa Game 5 (11/6): Tateyama Game 6 (11/7): Ishikawa Of course [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
As if things weren’t already bad enough on the injury front, Tokyo has at least one new headache to deal with. It was reported in the Chunichi Sports online paper that second year infielder, Takahiro Araki, sustained a fractured left ankle during practice. He will miss all future 2011 games. We covered this a bit [...]
With only one game left to go in the regular season, hosts David Watkins and Christopher Pellegrini look ahead to the first stage of the playoffs which will be played at Jingu next weekend. After talking briefly about why the Swallows finished second in the Central League, David and Christopher move on to probable pitching [...]
