Now that preseason play has begun, you’re probably either spending your afternoons at Jingu or you’re wondering how the squad is shaping up. Newcomer Takahiro Araki, 23, has been the regular at short and looks pretty good in the field, although he seems to be swinging for the fences a bit much; Eulogio de la [...]

October 9th, 2009

Hanshin Tigers 1

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3

Streak: Won 4      Last 5:  LWWWW
(Jingu Stadium)
Whisper it, we are A-Class. No f*uck that. Shout it from the rooftops, WE ARE A-CLASS!!
In the biggest game the Swallows have faced in years, they did what was necessary and beat the Hanshin Tigers to secure 3rd place in [...]

October 8th, 2009

Hanshin Tigers 0

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5

Streak: Won 3      Last 5:  WLWWW
(Jingu Stadium)
The birds rode a complete game shutout by starter Tateyama to their third win in a row and reclaimed third place in the Central League in the process.

October 3rd, 2009

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6

Hanshin Tigers 4
Streak: Won 1      Last 5:  WLLLW
(Koshien)
With the race for 3rd getting tighter with every day, this was a game that the Swallows simply had to win. A loss tonight and they’d be two games back of Hanshin, a win and they’d be level. For these big [...]

September 30th, 2009

Hanshin Tigers 7

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1

Streak: Lost 2     Last 5:  WWWLL
(Jingu Stadium)
The birds outhit the Tigers 12-10 but still got annihilated. Yuki pitched six rather solid innings but got roughed up a little in the seventh. Takada factored a bit in this one as well.

The current key series with the ever-lovable (cough) Hanshin Tigers is proving to be a costly one, even if Tokyo do manage to take tonight’s game to win the series.

September 29th, 2009

Hanshin Tigers 8

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2

Streak: Lost 1     Last 5:  WWWWL
(Jingu Stadium)
Well, no blisters were involved, but that still sucked.

September 28th, 2009

Hanshin Tigers 1
Tokyo Yakult Swallows 7
Streak: Won 6    Last 5:  WWWWW
(Jingu Stadium)
Tokyo starter, Takagi, had another solid outing as Tokyo won a very important contest versus the Hanshin Tigers.

September 3rd, 2009

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4
Hanshin Tigers 2

Streak: Won 1    Last 5:  LLLLW
(Koshien)
Tokyo finally broke it’s losing streak on the back of a solid, complete-game 134-pitch performance by Ishikawa.

September 2nd, 2009

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4
Hanshin Tigers 9

Streak: Lost 6    Last 5:  LLLLL
(Koshien)
Luckily for the surging Tigers, Takada plugged Masubuchi into the lineup for his first start of the year. One could probably argue that this was not the wisest time to do such a thing, but we’ll get to that later.