Tokyo Swallows 1

Chunichi Dragons 5

Series: Chunichi 3-2 Tokyo

(Nagoya Dome)

[table "1105111" not found /]

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 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?

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.

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 deactivated.

November 1st (travel day)
Noguchi was deactivated.

November 2nd (Second Stage Game 1)
Yamamoto was activated.

So the current roster, as of the first pitch of game one of the final stage of the Climax Series is as follows:

Pitchers
Lim, Matsuoka, Masubuchi, Tateyama, Barnette, Matsui, Yamamoto, Akagawa, Watanabe, Oshimoto, Ishikawa, Muranaka

Catchers
Aikawa, Kawamoto, Fukukawa

Infielders
Miyamoto, Tanaka, Takeuchi, Fujimoto, Hatakeyama, Whitesell, Miwa, Morioka

Outfielders
Aoki, Fukuchi, Balentien, Ueda, Iihara

(28 players total)

Central League

2nd place Tokyo Yakult Swallows vs 1st place Chunichi Dragons

All games will be played at Nagoya Dome, home of the Chunichi Dragons.

*As 2011 Central League champions, Chunichi enters the best of seven series with a one game advantage. In other words, just pretend that the Dragons and Swallows already played the first game and that the Dragons won. Yes, we agree that it’s stupid.

Pacific League

3rd place Saitama Seibu Lions vs 1st place Fukuoka Softbank Hawks

All games will be played at Yahoo Dome, home of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks.

*As 2011 Pacific League champions, Fukuoka enters this best of seven series with a one game advantage. In other words, just pretend that the Hawks and Lions already played the first game and that the Hawks won. Therefore, they already lead the series 1-0.

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 this is all guesswork, but one thing seems certain: Tateyama will start Game 1. He was after all ready to take the mound if needed in last night’s decisive First Stage Game 3.

But what the short (one day!) break between the First and Final Stages means, is that Tateyama (and Ishikawa if the above prediction is correct) will be making his first, and if needed, second appearance of the Final Stage on just three days rest. And for a guy who still has blood flow issues with his throwing hand, that is a concern.

What the above list of starters would also mean, is that Muranaka would continue to be used out of the pen, which given his key role in the defeat of Yomiuri, I’d be quite happy with.

Anyway, what are your predictions/hopes for the rotation over the coming week?

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)

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 the Yomiuri Giants this year. Now they’re halfway to a triumph that may be even more satisfying.”

You can read the rest of his observations on game one here. Incidentally, Coskrey featured in an interview of baseball writers that was published on this site all the way back in January. It’s very interesting to read their Central League predictions now!

Rob Smaal, who writes a lot about baseball for the Asahi, started his game report with:

“Shohei Tateyama and Kyohei Muranaka provided a right-left combination Oct. 29 at Jingu Stadium that left the visiting Yomiuri Giants reeling and on the ropes.”

Smaal actually visited us not too long ago in the right field stands and penned this about our revelry at Jingu Stadium.

And for a very detailed, by the numbers, look at what went down in that crucial game last night, look no further than Gen Sueyoshi’s inimitable Yakyu Baka website.

Sueyoshi reminded us that:

“The Swallows can wrap this up with either victory or a tie on Sunday. … Muranaka got the win in relief and is now 1-0. … Lim saved his first game of the postseason.  He also became the first pitcher in Climax Series history to record a save with just 1 pitch.”

Read the entire post here.

The hits just keep on coming.

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 in Sunday’s podcast, but Araki has company at the hospital right now. The 24 year old, who was just brought up from the farm team on the 14th, is the latest in a string of injuries and illnesses to sting the left side of the Tokyo infield. Kawabata is out with a wrist injury, and it was announced last week that Keizo Kawashima had season-ending (and 2012 season-killing) elbow surgery.

That’s three shortstops down, so who’s left?

It looks like Morioka is the last man standing, so expect to see him starting next to the hobbled (two balky hamstrings) Miyamoto at third.

Oh, and according to the same Chunichi Sports article, no fewer than 16 Tokyo players have gone down with injuries or illnesses in 2011. It was mentioned that Aoki curbed the intensity of his workouts over the weekend due to back tightness. All of this may help Tokyo fans to recall a wave of influenza that washed over the team the only other time they made it to the Climax Series in 2009.

Wonderful.

What does all of this mean? Could rookie inflielder, Tetsuto Yamada, get a call-up and be grudgingly gifted his top team debut?

Well, the left side of the infield is now potentially far more porous than it was has been at any other time this season. Miyamoto can’t really play short with two injured legs (Ogawa has said as much), so you have Morioka, and then…Yamada or Fujimoto as a backup.

Yamada has had the better run of the two this season on the farm team. Yamada logged the most at-bats (409) on Tokyo’s minor league squad and hit .259/.320/.342. Fujimoto, on the other hand, has only had 111 at-bats. His top team experience could come in handy though, even if his defensive lapses at short are well-documented.

Losing Miyamoto for even a short period of time is also a cause for concern although it does seem like we have better cover on the corners. Hatakeyama has occasionally played third, and that could mean that Whitesell would see more time at first which is definitely a good thing.

Noguchi’s stock has also risen it seems, but he’ll likely still be second in line behind Takeuchi for defensive duties at first should it come to that. Here’s a quick question: has anyone ever seen alleged speedster, Noguchi, successfully steal a base? I’m only half being a smartass here.

It will also be interesting to see if Yoshimoto gets called up even though he’s been told that his contract will not be renewed next season.

As of the time of posting, the Yakult Swallows website has not been updated with any further information regarding player movements or other injury concerns. Check back here periodically after tonight’s regular season-ending game against the Hiroshima Carp for information on how the team reshapes itself before Saturday’s game one versus Yomiuri.

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 matchups against Yomiuri and throw a few predictions out there just for fun.

Just like last time, Dave came equipped with some of his noise-making toys.

As always, thank you very much for listening!

PS. If you have subscribed to our podcasts through iTunes, please give us a nice review and lots of stars.