Miyamoto’s Meikyukai Induction

Miyamoto became the 40th batter to reach the 2,000 hit milestone with a single in his first at-bat against Hiroshima starter, Yuya Fukui on Friday. The game was immediately halted as Miyamoto’s teammates came onto the field to congratulate him.

The team has decided to designate May 30th Miyamoto Milestone Memorial Day when Hokkaido will be in town for a two-game series (May 30th and 31st). Former Tokyo Swallow and teammate, Atsunori Inaba, who became the 39th hitter to enter the Meikyukai just a short while ago, will be playing for the Fighters in that game, and it is likely that Inaba will also be honored by the team in some way.

For more information, including stats and lots of trivial information, check these two posts (here and here) on Yakyu Baka.

In case you missed it, here’s a video replay:

Many congrats to Miyamoto and his family from everyone at Tsubamegun!

Swallows of the Week

Week 5

The Tsubamegun community voted on the outstanding performances by the following five players: Wladimir Balentien (RF), Tony Barnette (P), Kazuhiro Hatakeyama (1B), Lastings Milledge (LF), and Shohei Tateyama (P). There were 35 official votes this week, and here’s how the numbers added up:

Player	Votes	%
Lastings Milledge	20	57
Wladimir Balentien	6	17
Tony Barnette	5	14
Kazuhiro Hatakeyama	2	6
Shohei Tateyama	2	6

Congratulations, Thrilledge! The man has been an impact player at the plate, and he has shown hustle and determination both on the field and the basepaths. All the best to Milledge from the Tsubamegun community as he continues to transition to the pitching and style of play here in Japan.

Week 6

The Swallows played five games last week which completed a eight-games-in-nine-days marathon against Central League competition. The first two were in Yokohama, and after romping in the first game thanks to Balentien’s three bombs, the offense was quieted in game two due to some decent pitching from the home team.

The second series was at home against the Hiroshima Carp. The first two games were both monumental and enjoyable to watch for Tokyo fans as Miyamoto eclipsed the 2,000 hit mark on Friday, and the team churned out an impressive performance both on offense and defense to clinch the series. Yesterday’s game, however, was a bit of a mess thanks mostly to the fact that Tokyo wasn’t able to get anyone on base for most of the game.

Coco made this pose many times this week. They must've thought it was hailing in the left field stands.

May 1st at Yokohama 7-0 W
May 2nd cancelled (rain)
May 3rd at Yokohama 1-3 L
May 4th vs Hiroshima 8-4 W
May 5th vs Hiroshima 4-1 W
May 6th vs Hiroshima 0-6 L

Several players put up impressive numbers last week, and here are the names for you to choose from:

Wladimir Balentien (RF) had a crazy week 6 at the plate. He was 8-17 with six homers, four walks, eight RBI, and 27 total bases. Here’s his slash line for the week: .471/.571/1.588.

Masanori Ishikawa (P) recorded his first complete game shutout in a couple of seasons at Yokohama on Tuesday. He threw 145 pitches through nine innings of work and gave up five hits, one walk, and one beanball while striking out five on his way to helping his team secure a 7-0 victory.

Orlando Roman (P) had his longest outing of the year on Saturday when he subdued a very aggressive Carp team with only 95 pitches through eight innings of work. He gave up only five hits, three walks, and one earned run while striking out three. The Swallows went on to win that contest 4-1.

Hiroyasu Tanaka (2B) was solid both at the plate and on defense. He was one of only two players to hit safely in all five games last week and was 7-21 at the plate. He mixed in a couple of doubles, two walks, and four RBI to help reward Hatakeyama and Nakamura for their solid offense in the bottom third of the lineup. Slash line: .333/.391/.429.

Tick the box next to the player you think most deserves SOW honors for week 6.

Roster Updates

On Wednesday May 2nd, Genki Nitta (C) and Yuhei (OF) were demoted, and on Thursday veterans Atsushi Fujimoto (IF) and Kazuki Fukuchi (OF) were brought up. Fujimoto had his first hit of the season that same day. Fukuchi had his first hit on Friday and recorded his first sac fly of the season on Saturday.

Ueda (CF) was dropped to the farm on Saturday after banging up his right shoulder on a herculean effort to prevent a home run in Friday’s game. He was 1-2 at the plate with a double before being removed from the game. Hopefully his rehab stint doesn’t take too long.

Rookie Hiyane (OF) was brought back up on the same day to serve as cover/competition for Kazuki Fukuchi in center field.

Takeuchi was dropped to the farm on Sunday for reasons that were not immediately clear. Hopefully it’s nothing more than an attempt to keep him fresh by seeing live pitching on a regular basis on the farm.

That leaves 27 players on the top team roster as of this morning:

Pitchers
Muranaka, Ishikawa, Masubuchi, Tateyama, Barnette, Hidaka, Akagawa, Watanabe, Roman, Abe, Oshimoto, Hirai

Catchers
Fukukawa, Nakamura

Infielders
Kawabata, Miyamoto, Tanaka, Fujimoto, Hatakeyama, Noguchi, Miwa, Morioka

Outfielders
Hiyane, Fukuchi, Balentien, Iihara, Yuhei, Milledge

From the Farm

Tokyo’s minor league team dropped two of their three games against Tohoku up in Sendai. Depressingly, they lost both of the first two games in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the 10th inning. But there were definitely some bright spots tucked in there.

The Swallows won the third game thanks largely to a fourth inning, two out grand slam care of Yuichi which put a previously tied ballgame at 6-2 in Tokyo’s favor. The team eventually won the game 6-4 with rookie Hugo Kanabushi getting the ‘W’ thanks to his six innings of  eight hit, three run baseball.

Chikara Onodera continues to pitch effectively from the bullpen. He made two appearances last week and kept the opposition off the board. In 15 appearances so far (farm team high), he’s pitched 15.1 innings and has an ERA of 0.59.

Kyuko has also seen his workload increase, which is another great sign for the team as he was a phenomenal left-handed option out of the pen last year. He made two appearances last week and didn’t allow any runs.

Recently demoted center fielder, Yuhei, started all three games last weekend and was 5-15 at the plate.

Kawamoto (C) appears to be back in action and both caught and DH’d last weekend. Nitta did the same and appears to be having a bit more success at the plate so far.

Tokyo’s little birds will play six home games up in Toda starting tomorrow. The first three are against the little Giants, and the second set is against the little Marines. All six games are scheduled to start at 1PM.

Around the Central League

Tokyo finished the week with three wins and two losses which leaves them in sole possession of first place in the Central League with an overall record of 18-10-2. After splitting a rain-shortened series with Yokohama, the birds returned to Jingu and took 2-3 from the visiting Hiroshima Carp. They enjoy a mere half-game lead over second place Chunichi.

Chunichi finished the week with two wins, two losses, and two ties. Those two losses came over the weekend when they were visiting Yokohama who are now in possession of a semi-healthy Tsutsugoh at third base. The boy has been hitting the ball hard, and if memory serves, he’s eligible for ROY voting this season. The Chunichi Dragons finished the week in second place, half a game behind the Tokyo Swallows.

Staff ace, Kazuki Yoshimi, was taken off the active roster due to a gammy hammy on May 2nd. That’s good news for the Swallows because it means that they won’t have to face him next week when they travel to play Chunichi.

Hanshin finished the week with one win, four losses, and one draw. In fact, they finished the Golden Week nine-game stretch with a league worst 1-6-2 record. They only scored five runs in their six games last week, and they were shut out three times. They’re still in third place though, 4.5 games behind Tokyo and just a half game ahead of the surging Yomiuri Giants.

The scoreless draw against Yomiuri at Tokyo Dome on April 30th was the first time in 69 years (link in Japanese) that such a result has happened between those two clubs.

Looking for some depth at catcher due to injuries to Johjima and Fujii, Hanshin traded pitcher Ryuji Wakatake to Hokkaido for backup catcher, Kenta Imanari. 24-year-old Imanari appeared in 22 games for the Fighters last year and hit .115 with three hits.

Yomiuri finished the week with four wins and two losses. They took 2-3 from the visiting Hiroshima Carp at Tokyo Dome and then did the same against Hanshin when they played there this past weekend. Yomiuri finished the GW stretch with a Japan-best .750 winning percentage which is terrible news for those who value what is just and right in the world. Yomiuri still has a losing record, but they’re just a half game behind the faltering Hanshin Tigers.

Yomiuri is apparently going to be welcoming 33-year-old Edgar Gonzalez back into the fold. You may recall that Gonzalez played for the Giants back in 2010. He had 327 plate appearances in 100 games for Yomiuri that year, hitting .263/.342/.457 with 76 hits (12 HR) and 44 RBI. Last year he hit .315/.378/.457 with 159 hits (30 2B, 14 HR) and 82 RBI in 137 games for AAA Fresno (San Francisco Giants).

Hiroshima finished the week with two wins and four losses. They dropped all three of their GW series, and critically four of their six games with the first place Tokyo Swallows. They are now in fifth place in the Central League, one game behind Yomiuri and just two games ahead of the improving Yokohama Baystars.

Yokohama finished the week with three wins, one loss, and one draw. The biggest thrill for them was undoubtedly winning their weekend series against the defending Central League champs, Chunichi. They outscored the Dragons 19-6 in those three games, and it should be fun to see if they can keep this momentum going into the Interleague block of the season which begins on the 16th. Yokohama are still in last place, but they’re finally showing some signs of life. If Yoshimura, Ramirez, Nakamura, and Tsutsugoh all get on track at the same time, then they should be able to produce quite a few runs.

Yokohama apparently has some kind of ticketing scheme worked out whereby fans can get a refund if they were unhappy with the game that they watched. According to reports, there have been some long lines at the ticket windows following several of the games.

The Week Ahead

Tokyo has a slightly abbreviated schedule this week, the last before Interleague games begin on May 16 with a two game home series against 2011 Japan Series Champs, Fukuoka.

This week also features quite a bit of running around for the team. The first series is against the Dragons May 8th-10th, and even though it’s an ‘away’ series for the birds, only one of those games will be played at Nagoya Dome. Game 1 is in Toyohashi, game 2 is to be played in Gifu, and the final game will see the teams play a game in the cavernous dome that Chunichi calls home.

Friday the 11th is a travel day as the birds head north to Akita for a two-game “home” series against Yomiuri.

Games on the 8th-10th and 12th start at 6PM. The game on the 13th is scheduled to begin at 3PM. Check the calendar at the bottom of this site’s homepage if you need more detail.

Former Swallows

Seth Greisinger continues to be unhittable for the Chiba Marines. He leads the Pacific League in ERA (0.31), winning percentage (perfect), opposing team’s batting average (.165), and K/9 (8.59).

Norichika Aoki only has 34 at-bats in the 22 games that he’s appeared in (usually as a pinch hitter), and his slash line is currently: .235/.316/.353. It will be fun to see what he can do if/when he gets to start regularly for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Alex Ramirez continues to struggle at the plate in his new home of Yokohama (.198/.217/.284). He finally hit his first homer of the season on Friday when Chunichi came to town.

Standing ovation for Tokyo's legendary third baseman.

Alright, that’s all for this week. Please excuse me because I have fallen woefully behind on my meat consumption.

Drink up.

Hiroshima Carp  1

Tokyo Swallows  4

Streak: Won 2  Last 5: WWLWW

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Carp	0	0	3	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	5	1
Swallows	0	0	1	0	1	1	1	0	X	4	10	0
W: Roman (2-4); L: Nomura (2-2); S: Barnette (11)

After struggling against the Carp’s rookie pitcher Nomura over 2 starts, the Swallows finally got to him and gave Roman the offensive support necessary to get the win.

	Carp		Swallows
1	Soyogi (SS)	1	Tanaka (2B)
2	Kokubo (2B)	2	Fukuchi (CF)
3	Maru (CF)	3	Milledge (LF)
4	Nick (LF)	4	Balentien (RF)
5	Hirose (RF)	5	Kawabata (SS)
6	Matsuyama (1B)	6	Miyamoto (3B)
7	Dobayashi (3B)	7	Hatakeyama (1B)
8	Shirahama (C)	8	Nakamura (C)
9	Nomura (P)	9	Roman (P)

Fukuchi got the start at center, after Ueda’s collision against the wall in yesterday’s game.

Tanaka started things off for the Swallows with a hit off Nomura. While the next 3 batters all grounded out, it was a refreshing change from being held to 1 hit over 8 innings by Nomura in his last outing.

Roman quietly had a solid game getting the defense to field balls and keep his pitch count low. An overeager Carp line up helped by swinging early in the count, in fact 16 of 31 at bats against Roman tonight ended in 2 pitches or less.

The Swallows got the scoring started in the third. Tanaka patiently fouled off Nomura’s pitches low pitches, and finally took a high outside pitch (9th in the AB) and put on the ground to right field for a hit. Fukuchi flied out to center for the first out, and Milledge skyed a pitch to shallow left field that looked to be going foul. Nick may have resigned himself to a similar conclusion, but instead the ball bounced in fair and by the time the ball came back into the infield, Tanaka was on third and Milledge was standing on second for a wonky double. Balentien followed with a grounder to first, and while Matsuyama looked to throw to home, Tanaka got a good enough jump at third to score and Matsuyama had to settle with the out at first. 1-0 Swallows Kawabata couldn’t get Milledge home from third, but first blood had been drawn.

Two innings later, Milledge managed a more traditional looking double down the left field line with 1 out. With first base open, the Carp decided to pitch around Balentien granting him a 4 pitch walk. Kawabata made the Carp pay by lining a single into left, which allowed Milledge to score from second. 2-0 Swallows Again, the Swallows failed to bust the game open and the scoring stopped at 1 run.

Run Lastings Run!

After being held to 1 hit through 5 innings, the Carp finally showed some life in the sixth. After giving up 2 fly outs to center in only 3 pitches, the Carp scored 1 run with a Nick double and Hirose single in only 4 pitches. 2-1 Swallows But Roman only needed 2 pitches to get Matsuyama to fly out to end the inning.

The Swallows got the run back right away after Nakamura got to second after Dobayashi allowed his league leading 7th error letting the ball go right by him. Roman executed a pretty bunt, forcing Dobayashi to make a good throw to first to put a man on third with 1 out. Tanaka drew a 4 pitch walk to put men on the corners. Fukuchi managed to get a ball deep enough to center to score Nakamura on a sacrifice. 3-1 Swallows

With May 5th being Children’s Day in Japan, the 5th inning fan shout out segment consisted of 4 pint sized fans. The last child asked Balentien to “Homer in his next at bat… please”. Balentien, who’d never let down down his fans, obliged with a solo shot to right center to open the bottom of the seventh. 4-1 Swallows

Roman ended up pitching 8 innings in only 95 pitches, giving up 5 hits and 3 walks (1 intentional), to go with 3 strikeouts. With the save situation in order, Barnette came in and got the Carp to go down 1-2-3 with 2 Ks to preserve the win.

Notes

• The win was Roman’s second of the season. Both of Roman’s wins have come at Jingu.
• The Swallows’ win, and a 12-1 thrashing of the Dragons by the BayStars means the Swallows are back at the top of the CL standings.
• After the logjam that was the Miyamoto milestone game, the crowd for the Saturday nighter was announced at 33,089.
• The Swallows will go for the sweep tomorrow night at 18:00. Both teams will be throwing their aces on the table. The Carp will send out Maeda, while the Swallows will go with Tateyama
  

  Roman benefitted from an overeager Hiroshima offense.

  .

Tokyo Swallows 7

Yokohama BayStars  0

Streak: Won 2    Last 5: WWLWW

(Yokohama Stadium)

The last time the birds played the stars, they lost two on the trot. That ugly set of events transpired  April 10th, 11th, and 12th, and it was the first time this season that  any club dropped two in a row to the team from Yokohama. Hanshin has since repeated Tokyo’s performance at Yokohama Stadium, and the Swallows traveled a bit south of the Yamanote Line today hoping not to relive that embarrassment.

The Baystars are coming off a week in which they dropped four straight–overall they’ve lost five in a row following their glorious back-to-back wins over the Tigers. Also, they didn’t score more than three runs in any of those five games, and they were blanked in two of their last three games at Nagoya Dome.

In case you missed it, this week’s Snapshot has a complete summary of what’s been going on recently in the Central League.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tokyo	0	1	0	3	1	0	0	2	0	7	15	1
Yokohama	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	1
W: Ishikawa (2-3, 3.43 ERA) L: Yamamoto (1-3, 4.64 ERA)

Tokyo, on the other hand, are coming off of a week in which run production was less of a concern than it had been during the first weeks of April. The birds plated at least four runs in four of their last six games and are 10-3-1 since last meeting the Baystars.

Tokyo	Order	Yokohama
Tanaka (2B)	1	Ikki (RF)
Ueda (CF)	2	Morimoto (CF)
Milledge (LF)	3	Nakamura (3B)
Balentien (RF)	4	Ramirez (LF)
Kawabata (SS)	5	Yoshimura (1B)
Miyamoto (3B)	6	Watanabe (SS)
Hatakeyama (1B)	7	Yamazaki (2B)
Nakamura (C)	8	Tsuruoka (C)
Ishikawa (P)	9	Yamamoto (P)

Also in Tokyo’s favor was the fact that Yokohama finished the month of April with a team batting average of .192–worst in Japan by quite some margin.

On to the game report.

After Yamamoto pitched a perfect first, Balentien opened the scoring for Tokyo with a home run on a full count pitch that eventually landed in the bleachers in left. It was his seventh of the season.

1-0 Tokyo.

Kawabata hit a double down the line in right immediately after that, but nothing came of it when he was caught in a rundown between second and third on Miyamoto’s come-backer to the mound.

The Swallows threatened again in the top of the third thanks to Tanaka drawing a walk, getting bunted over to second, and advanced to third on Milledge’s grounder to short.

Balentien came out swinging and managed to drill the first pitch he saw right at Shiroishi in the third base coach’s box. It appeared to get him in the leg, but Shiroishi bounced back up. Balentien worked a walk after getting behind early 0-2.

With runners on the corners and two outs, Kawabata got tricked on an inside pitch and struck out swinging as he half hopped out of the way.

So the highlight of that inning was Shiroishi getting cracked in the leg.

In the top of the fouth, Miyamoto and Hatakeyama opened with back-to-back singles to left to make things interesting, but then Ogawa had another brain fart and asked Nakamura to bunt with the pitcher waiting in the on deck circle. To make matters worse, Nakamura’s bunt didn’t wander far enough from home plate, so Tsuruoka was able to pick it up and gun Miyamoto down at third.

Ishikawa was asked to bunt as well, and while he was successful at moving the runners over, a second red lamp was illuminated on the board.

After a 3-hit night, Miyamoto is just one hit shy of 2,000.

But everything turned out OK as Tanaka was there to save the day. He did well to protect the  plate and stay alive at 2-2, and he eventually pounced on a fastball, sending it over the head of former Swallow, Alex Ramirez, to clear the bases and leave Beavis standing safely on second.

3-0 Tokyo.

And just for good measure, Ueda followed with a stand-up triple for Tokyo’s fourth run.

4-0 Tokyo.

One more would have scored on Milledge’s hit to left center, but unfortunately he was robbed by Morimoto with a nice sliding catch the like’s of which once broke Hideki Matsui’s wrist back when he played for the Yankees.

The scoring resumed in the top of the fifth when Balentien blasted home run number eight into the very top of the bleachers in left center just a few feet shy of the picnic area at the top.

5-0 Tokyo.

And before the travelling Swallows fan could even pick up their plastic bangers after putting down their mini umbrellas, Miyamoto and Hatakeyama had once again strung together back-to-back hits which left runners on the corners for Nakamura. No more runs scored, but Miyamoto’s second hit of the game means that he’s only two away from induction into the Meikyukai.

The big question now becomes whether he’ll reach the milestone in Yokohama or when the team returns too Jingu this weekend.

There has been talk of keeping him out of the lineup if he looks likely to reach 2,000 hits away from Jingu. Normally I’m against putting individual accolades ahead of the everyday business of winning baseball games, but we’re currently dicking on Yokohama, so I’m willing to listen to other opinions today.

Kobayashi replaced Yamamoto on the mound for Yokohama in the sixth, and Tanaka quickly welcomed him to the game by slapping a single into left.

Nothing else of consequence happened during the inning, but the Swallows continue to look pretty confident at the plate.

The big question going forward is whether or not Ishikawa can keep the ball in the park. He nearly gave up a huge home run to Yoshimura earlier (drifted foul) on a ball left up in the zone.

But since I’m typing this as I watch the game, I must admit that Ishikawa made the bottom of the sixth look pretty easy. It only took six pitches.

Miyamoto was at the plate for his scheduled at-bat in the top of the seventh with Fujie now pitching for the Baystars. He once again grounded past the diving Watanabe at short (Nakamura’s defensive range is just slightly wider than the circumference of his generous gut), leaving him just one hit shy of 2,000 career hits.

This also marked his second three-hit game of the 2012 season.

Our Nakamura also singled, but with two outs on the board and Ishikawa at the plate, there wasn’t much else that we could ask for.

The first time that Yokohama got two runners on base was in the bottom of the seventh when Nakamura (Yokohama’s pudgy third baseman, not our fantastically talented catcher) singled for his second hit of the game, and then Ishikawa beaned Watanabe to put runners on first and second.

But Ishikawa worked his way out of trouble as he always does and joined his teammates on the bench having thrown 113 pitches through seven shutout innings.

Shinohara took the mound for Yokohama in the top of the eighth and gave up a one out single to Ueda, his second hit of the evening. Milledge flew out in foul territory over by the wall behind first base, but Balentien decided to leave a parting shot. 1-2 fastball, BANG. Round-tripper number three of the game for Coco.

7-0 Swallows.

Shinohara retaliated by pegging Kawabata in the ribs (he tried to hit him on the first pitch, but it wasn’t far enough inside). The second pitch got him. But that didn’t dampen the party for the contingent of Swallows fans in the left field stands.

Yamaguchi took the mound for the Baystars in the top of the ninth, and allowed Hatakeyama’s third hit of the game, a single to right.

Is it just me, or is Hatakeyama hitting almost exclusively to the opposite field so far this season? Two of his three hits tonight were to right field. Can someone check on that and get back to me?

Anyway, no runs scored in the top of the ninth, and Ishikawa again took the mound in the bottom of the ninth to try and go for a complete game shutout.

Moirioka and Noguchi came in as defensive replacements at third and first, respectively.

Unfortunately, Yokohama’s Nakamura was the first man up, and he smacked his second double of the game off the wall in right. Of Yokohama’s five hits tonight, Nakamura had three of them.

Two outs later, Watanabe drew a rare Ishikawa walk (ie. sorry for hitting you in your last at-bat), but it wasn’t enough as Yamazaki popped up harmlessly to Noguchi at first to end the game.

It was Ishikawa’s first complete game shutout since September 28th of 2010. That game also took place at Yokohama Stadium.

Pitching:
Ishikawa threw a gargantuan 145 pitches today while going the full nine innings in his strongest showing since opening day against Yomiuri.

He gave up five hits, struck out five, gave Watanabe two free trips to first (HBP and BB) while shutting out Yokohama. His record improved to 2-3 and his ERA dropped significantly from 4.45 to 3.43.

Hitting:
OK, Balentien was the obvious standout here, but there are several players worthy of praise here. After all, the birds banged out a season high 15 hits today.

Balentien – three home runs (7th, 8th, and 9th of the season), four RBI, one walk. Crazy.

Hatakeyama – three hits, four total bases.

Miyamoto – three hits, just one more until he makes it into the Meikyukai.

Tanaka – two hits from five plate appearances today, one walk, two RBI. Plus a nice catch in shallow right field early in the game.

Ueda – also 2-5 with a run-scoring triple.

Notes:

In 12 games at Yokohama Stadium last year, Balentien hit .372 (16-43 at the plate) with seven homers and 16 RBI. Judging by today’s game, it’s perhaps fair to think that last year’s numbers were not an anomaly.

Interestingly, as soon as the game was over, Balentien grabbed all of his gear in the dugout and hurried out of sight so as not to be called back onto the field to crowd Ishikawa’s hero interview. Respect.

If the next two games go ahead as planned, and Miyamoto starts both of them, he will likely reach 2,000 hits in Yokohama. Not that that’s a bad thing.

Yokohama is apparently on pace to lose 100 games this year.

Chunichi beat Hanshin 1-0 tonight, so the birds and blue dragons are still tied at the top, eight games above five hundred.

Tomorrow’s game, if it doesn’t get rained out, will feature Yokohama’s Brandon (0-3, 3.98 ERA) versus Tokyo’s Muranaka (3-0, 2.18 ERA).

Tokyo tied the season series with the Baystars 2-2 with tonight’s win. Game five of the series is tomorrow night in Yokohama, and if it doesn’t rain too hard then the game will start at 6 PM.

Swallows of the Week

Week 3

Last week’s vote saw the strong performances by Hiroyasu Tanaka (2B), Lastings Milledge (LF), Katsuki Akagawa (P), and Kyohei Muranaka (P).

28 people cast their vote this week, and here’s what they decided:

Player	Votes	%
Hiroyasu Tanaka	19	68
Lastings Milledge	6	21
Katsuki Akagawa	2	7
Kyohei Muranaka	1	4

Congratulations to Beavis, a very well-liked player in these parts. We’re excited to see him having a chance to swing the bat more often this season (now that he’s not on perpetual bunt duty), and we hope to see him lead a threatening top of the order for Tokyo.

Week 4

HR number four (2nd this weekend).

Tokyo played six games this week: one in Kobe, two at Koshien, and a three-game home stand at Jingu against Yomiuri.

The birds were outscored 6-10 in their series against Hanshin, but played decent baseball throughout most of those games. They then returned home for the Tokyo derby and took the series against Yomiuri.

In case you missed them, here are game reports:

April 17th vs Hanshin (Away)
April 18th vs Hanshin (Away)
April 19th vs Hanshin (Away)
April 20th vs Yomiuri (Home)
April 21st vs Yomiuri (Home)
April 22nd vs Yomiuri (Home)

Overall, the birds won four and lost two last week.

And here are the contestants for your week 4 vote:

Katsuki Akagawa (P) – The 21-year-old lefty pitched Tokyo’s first complete game shutout of 2012. In fact, it was the first time that any starter went the full nine, period. In the process, he faced 32 batters and threw 127 pitches (5 H, 6 K, 1 BB). He’s now 2-1 after four starts and leads all Swallows starters with a 0.95 ERA and .210 opposing team batting average.

Wladimir Balentien (P) – Suddenly more focused both in the field and on the basepaths, Coco got on base in all six games last week. He had six hits (two homers), three RBI, and two walks last week. When the Swallows returned to defend Tokyo against the Giants, he was switched up to cleanup in place of the ineffective Hatakeyama, and that’s when both home runs appeared.

Tony Barnette (P) – The week 2 Swallow of the Week was back at it again in week 4. He took the mound in the ninth three times last week, each time to protect a one-run lead. He allowed just one runner last week and converted all three save opportunities. His three strikeout performance on Friday was a clear indication of how well he’s throwing at the moment. His ERA remains at zero, and he has a NPB career-high seven saves which is good enough for second for second in the Central League. He was also ready to go Saturday night when Akagawa was attempting to get through the ninth on his own.

Shingo Kawabata (SS) – Tokyo’s shortstop continues to display some of the gap power that he displayed last season which was highlighted by his bases clearing triple on Saturday. Like Balentien, he had six hits and three RBI last week while mixing in a pair of walks as well. His defense at short was also solid, and he has teamed nicely with Tanaka in turning a number of clutch double plays. He currently leads the team in hits (20) and has done a good job of protecting the cleanup hitter.

Orlando Roman (P) – With a five-man rotation, someone has to pitch twice in the same week. Although the team had been able to avoid doubling any of its starters up earlier in the month, Roman became the workhorse of the week. He pitched six full innings on Tuesday and 5.1 on Sunday. During those eleven and one-third innings he allowed nine hits (two homers) and four earned runs. He worked hard in the rain on Sunday and was awarded with his first NPB win.

OK, Tsubamegun, cast your vote. Click the button for your Swallow of the Week. Please vote only once.

Roster Updates

There were no major roster updates announced by the team last week.

From the Farm

It sounds like Yoshinori’s rehab had another setback and he may not be ready to rejoin the top team until Golden Week or later. Instead, there are rumblings that Shichijo may get promoted to relieve some pressure on the starting rotation. (HT Yakyu Baka)

As for minor league performances, it seems like outfielder Jun Matsui is playing alright. He has appeared in 22 games so far and has a slash line of .345/.371/.452 with a team-leading 29 hits.

None of Tokyo’s minor league starters are exactly tearing it up at the moment, but Chikara Onodera seems to be posting serviceable numbers. Through 12 innings of middle relief, he’s posted a 0.75 ERA.

Tanaka has been clutch protecting the middle of the infield.

Around the Central

Chunichi finished the week with five wins and one loss. They took two of three from Yomiuri at Nagoya Dome and then swept Hiroshima at Mazda Stadium to make it five wins in a row. Chunichi is still in first place.

Yomiuri finished the week 1-5. Sugiuchi helped earn a series-opening win on Tuesday in Nagoya, but the Giants haven’t won since. They wrapped up their week by being swept by the Tokyo Swallows at Jingu. They remain in last place in the CL, half a game behind Yokohama.

Hanshin finished the week 3-3. They took two of three from Tokyo on their home soil but then only won a single game in Yokohama this past weekend. They remain in third place, half a game behind the second place Tokyo Swallows.

Hiroshima finished the week 3-3. With all six games played at home, they swept the Baystars to start the week and then dropped three in a row to the visiting Dragons. They are fourth in the Central, 1.5 games behind third place Hanshin.

Yokohama finished the week 2-4. After getting swept by Hiroshima away, they returned home and took two games from the visiting Tigers. They’re doing just enough to stay out of sixth place at the moment.

The Week Ahead

The birds will host current CL front-runners, Chunichi, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. All games are scheduled for a 6PM start. Both teams swept their most recent opponents and hope to take advantage of that momentum during the upcoming matchup.

Tokyo has Friday off and will travel to Hiroshima for a three-game set with a 1:30PM first pitch scheduled for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Former Swallows

Norichika Aoki finally got his first major league start and collected his first home run in the process, an inside-the-park round tripper.

He batted second and finished the game 2-4 with six total bases (HR, 2B), two runs scored, and one RBI.

Seth Greisinger has been pitching well for the Chiba Marines. He’s 2-0 through two starts and 15 innings of work. He’s averaging a strikeout per inning, and he has yet to give up an earned run.

Former Tokyo third baseman, Akinori Iwamura, played in his first minor league game on Saturday. It was his first day back in competitive action after hurting his right hamstring more than a month ago.

That’s it for this week’s snapshot. Please excuse me while I start peeling.

Drink up!

Tokyo Swallows  3

Hanshin Tigers  4

Streak: Lost 1   Last 5: WWLWL

(Koshien Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Swallows	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	3	9	0
Tigers	0	2	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	4	8	0
W: Ando (2-0) L: Ishikawa (1-3) S: Fujikawa (6)

Ishikawa and the Swallows lose a back-and-forth affair at a windy Koshien.

	Swallows		Tigers
1	Tanaka (2B)	1	Hirano (2B)
2	Ueda (CF)	2	Yamato (CF)
3	Milledge (LF)	3	Toritani (SS)
4	Hatakeyama (1B)	4	Arai (3B)
5	Kawabata (SS)	5	Brazell (1B)
6	Miyamoto (3B)	6	Murton (RF)
7	Balentien (RF)	7	Kanemoto (LF)
8	Nakamura (C)	8	Komiyama (C)
9	Ishikawa (P)	9	Ando (P)

The Swallows struck first in this game in the second. After Kawabata walked to lead off the inning, Miyamoto got career hit number 1987 to put men on the corners with no outs. Balentien took the first pitch he saw and hit it deep enough into center field to cash Kawabata in on a sacrifice fly. 1-0 Swallows Unfortunately, the inning ended 2 pitches later as Nakamura grounded out into a double play.

The lead didn’t last long as the heart of the Tigers’ lineup got hot to start the bottom of the inning. Arai started the inning off with a single. Brazell followed with a double off the left field wall, to put men in scoring position with no outs. It looked like Ishikawa jammed Murton on a 1-1 pitch, but a strong wind pushed a ball that normally would have sailed comfortably into Balentien’s glove back into shallow right field for a run-scoring single. 1-1 All With no out and men on the corners, Kanemoto killed the Tigers’ momentum by grounding into a 6-5-3 double play, but not before scoring Brazell for the lead. 2-1 Tigers

The Swallows came back in the fifth. Balentien and Nakamura opened the inning with back-to-back singles, and Ishikawa bunted them both into scoring position. Tanaka hit a high fastball that Toritani just managed to snag on a dive, and throw to first. The ground outallowed both runners to advance, scoring Balentien and putting Nakamura on third. 2-2 All Ando walked Ueda on just 5 pitches to put the Swallows’ hopes on Milledge’s bat. He answered with a single to right to score Nakamura and put the Swallows back in the lead. 3-2 Swallows

Unfortunately Ishikawa wasn’t able to hold the lead in the sixth. Ishikawa started the inning off with a strike out off Yamato, but things started to go awry with a single up the middle by Toritani. Ishikawa walked Arai to put 2 men on, but did manage to induce a fly out from Brazell despite getting behind 3-1 in the count. But Ishikawa’s lack of control got to him as Murton cashed in both runners with a 1-0 double to retake the lead for the Tigers. 4-3 Tigers Kanemoto ended the inning with a fly out, but the damage was done and Ishikawa’s night ended there.

The Swallows had a chance in the eighth when Iihara, pinch hitting for Ueda, started the inning off with a double and Milledge bunted him over to third (?). Neither Hatake or Kawabata could bring him home. The Swallows also got their lead man on in the ninth against Tigers’ closer Fujikawa. But Miyamoto’s 1988th career hit was for naught, as his pinch runner, Hiyane, got picked off of first and Fujikawa struck out Balentien and Takeuchi to end the night.

The only other highlight for the Swallows in the latter third of the game came in the bottom of the eighth with Hidaka in to face the heart of the Tigers’ order. Hidaka managed to get Toritani, Arai, and Brazell all to go down swinging. Hopefully a confidence boost for the young pitcher, and a sign that the Swallows have another option out of the pen.

Ishikawa pitched 6 inning on 94 pitches, got 4 strikeout, and gave up 7 hits, 2 walks, and all Tigers 4 runs. His Tigers’ counterpart, Ando, had similar numbers giving up the same number of hits and walks, and getting 1 less strikeout.

The Swallows travel back home to face the Giants and Dragons for a 6 game homestand. Muranaka is the announced started for the Swallows, while the Giants will open the series with Utsumi.

Ishikawa doesn't quite get the night he wanted.

Nakamura has some nerves to steady, and some big shoes to fill, but he's doing well so far.

Something for you to read while fielding offers for a more appropriate gig.

Swallows of the Week

Week 2

Ishikawa was the week one MVP, but he tanked after that. Hopefully the same fate does not await the winner of the week two polling.

31 people voted this time around, and they had five choices:

Shingo Kawabata (SS)
Orlando Roman (P)
Wladimir Balentien (RF)
Tony Barnette (P)
Takehiko Oshimoto (P)

And here’s how the community voted:

Players	Votes	%
Tony Barnette	18	58
Wladimir Balentien	8	26
Shingo Kawabata	2	6.5
Takehiko Oshimoto	2	6.5
Orlando Roman	1	3

Congratulations to Mr. Barnette! Hopefully the Tokyo bats continue to churn out enough runs that his services won’t be necessary more than a few times a week. It sure would be nice to have him with us for the pennant race this time around.

I must say that I actually didn’t expect a closer to win the community voting on this one so early in the season. I didn’t expect it, but I like it. Any time a closer wins the voting, it means that the team is winning, and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t appreciate that.

Week 3

Tokyo played five games this past week, three at Jingu and two in Matsuyama. In case you missed them, here are the game reports:

April 10th vs Yokohama (Home)
April 11th vs Yokohama (Home)
April 12th vs Yokohama (Home)
April 14th vs Hiroshima (“Home”)
April 15th vs Hiroshima (“Home”)

The series against Yokohama started OK, but was pretty dreary for the last two games. Please don’t tell me that we’re going to revert to our old ways against Yokohama. Remember how they always used to piss on our collective pillow, at least through the 2010 season, even though they generally didn’t know how to play baseball? Ugh. Hopefully 2011 wasn’t an anomally.

Saturday’s game versus Hiroshima was an enjoyable one to watch for Tokyo fans. Sunday’s was a good one, too, although not nearly as easy on the heart.

And here’s the compiled data for the top five performers from week 3:

Hiroyasu Tanaka (2B) – Beavis scored two hero interviews this week, one on Tuesday and another yesterday evening (shared with Akagawa). His game winning hit against Yokohama and decisive RBI single against Hiroshima on Sunday were just two of his team-high six hits last week. He was 6-17 at the plate with three RBI and three walks.

Lastings Milledge (LF) – Despite spending another week in the batter’s box against pitchers he’d never seen before, Milledge was one of Tokyo’s biggest contributors this week. His quick feet and arm in left kept opposing base runners honest while he also presented himself as a constant nuisance when it was his turn to to start targeting extra bases. In addition to his heads-up base-running, Milledge was 5-19 at the plate. Two doubles and a home run helped lead to three RBI this week, and he added a walk just for good measure. Oh, and get this–he’s actually been seen running hard to first base even on routine grounders. Weird.

Kyohei Muranaka (P) – Tokyo’s socially-awkward southpaw from Kanagawa Prefecture earned his first win of the year with a very solid eight-inning performance on Saturday against Hiroshima. He threw 116 pitches and allowed just one run off of eight hits and two walks. He also struck out five while lowering his ERA to 2.25. He leads the team in winning percentage (100%), innings pitched (20), hits allowed (18), HBP (2), and strikeouts (13).

Katsuki Akagawa (P) – Like Muranaka above, Akagawa earned his first win of the year this past weekend. He threw 105 pitches in seven innings of very solid work. He didn’t strike anyone out, but he kept his pitches down and allowed just four hits (all singles), three walks, and one beaned batter. He’s now 1-1 with an impressive 1.40 ERA through three starts and 19.1 innings.

So let’s hear it, Tsubamegun. Who was your MVP? Cast your vote below. Please vote only once.

This poll is closed. To see who won the voting, please check next week’s Snapshot.

Roster Updates

With Aikawa and Kawamoto both out with injuries, we’re down to our 3rd, 4th, and 5th string catchers now. Hopefully Nakamura shows us that he’s up for the challenge. He’s been playing pretty well so far.

Here’s what the roster looks like as of game time on Sunday April 15th:

Pitchers
Muranaka, Ishikawa, Masubuchi, Tateyama, Barnette, Hidaka, Akagawa, Watanabe, Roman, Abe, Oshimoto, Hirai

Catchers
Nitta, Fukukawa, Nakamura

Infielders
Kawabata, Miyamoto, Tanaka, Takeuchi, Yamada, Hatakeyama, Morioka

Outfielders
Hiyane, Balentien, Iihara, Yuhei, Ueda, Milledge

(28 players total)

From the Farm

Yoshinori got some work in during an exhibition game on Friday (4/13) against Fuji Heavy Industries. Final line: 8 IP, 8 H, 3 K, 0 BB, 3 R (all earned). Fernandez gave up one unearned run in the ninth to allow Fuji Heavy Industries to come back and tie the game for a 4-4 final score. (The team’s official Japanese write-up is here.)

Saturday’s game against the Futures was rained out.

The Week Ahead

Beavis isn't hitting the cover off the ball, but he's been pretty clutch recently.

Tokyo will next head to Koshien Stadium to take on the Hanshin Tigers for the second time this year. All three of the games start at 6PM from Tuesday – Thursday, and it seems likely that the pitching matchups will look a little something like this:

Tuesday
Messenger 1-0, 5.40 ERA (Hanshin) vs Tateyama 0-0, 2.08 ERA (Tokyo)

Wednesday
Kubo 1-0, 1.17 (Hanshin) vs Ishikawa 1-2, 5.19 (Tokyo)

Thursday
Ando 1-0, 0.69 (Hanshin) vs Roman 0-2, 3.97 (Tokyo)

Hanshin currently lead the season series 1 W, 0 L, 1 T against Tokyo.

And then Tokyo play host to crosstown rivals, Yomiuri, next weekend. Again, all three games start at 6PM, but I’m going to hold off on making predictions about starters at this point since things can so easily change in these parts.

Tokyo currently lead the season series 2-1 against Yomiuiri.

Around the Central League

Chunichi has opted to send slugger Tony Blanco down to the farm for some extra practice since he’s striking out a bit too much these days. Victor Diaz was sent down with him.

In other Chunichi news, starter Kenshin Kawakami is still out of action after tweaking his back on a high bouncer back to the mound  early in his April 7th start against Tokyo.

Elsewhere, NPB umpires have expressed concerns about showing replays of close calls on the big screens at various stadia. (Read: they are worried about their horrid decisions being advertised to the entire audience.)

First placed Hanshin finished the week with 3 wins, 2 losses, and 1 tie. They will play host to Tokyo in a three-game series starting on Tuesday. They were 2-0-1 against Hiroshima early in the week, but then dropped both weekend games against Chunichi. Their record of 7-4-3 puts them half a game clear of Chunichi and Tokyo in second place.

Tied with Tokyo for second place in the Central, Chunichi followed two losses to the Swallows at Nagoya Dome the weekend prior (Saturday’s game report; Sunday’s game report) with a tie and two losses away to Yomiuri, and an opening game loss at Koshien on Friday. However, they prevailed over the weekend by outscoring the Tigers 10-4. Their record of 7-5-2 is good enough for a tie with Tokyo for second place in the Central.

Hiroshima slid into sole possession of fourth place in the Central League after dropping both of its “away” games to the Swallows. They were outscored 11-1 in the two weekend games (Saturday and Sunday), and this followed two losses and a draw against Hanshin on Hiroshima’s home soil. The Carp are now 6-6-2 so far this season.

Yomiuri is starting to show some life, but they’re not nearly as good as they likely will be this summer. They lost to Yokohama in walk-off style yesterday afternoon, but that was the only real blemish during a week that the team posted a 3-1-1 record. Their 5-8-1 record leaves them a game and a game and a half behind fourth place Hiroshima, and half of a game ahead of last place Yokohama.

Yokohama had its best week of the season by taking two of three from the Swallows and one of two from the Giants. At 4-8-1, and once again gurgling in the CL cellar, Yokohama’s start hasn’t yet met many people’s expectations, but nobody’s particularly surprised by that nugget of reality either.

Former Swallows

It seems that catchers in the Pacific League squat a bit closer to home plate than we’re used to here in the Central. Former Tokyo first baseman, Josh Whitesell, took out a catcher with his backswing on both Thursday and Friday evenings. Call it whatever you want, a slump or unfair treatment of a foreign player, but Josh was removed from the active roster following Friday’s game.

Norichika Aoki has only seven at-bats so far this season, but he’s not embarrassing himself. He’s currently hitting .429/.556/.429 and is generally one of the first bats off the bench plus a pretty consistent late game replacement on defense. Here’s video of Aoki’s first big league hit.

Alright, that’s all for this edition of the snapshot. Please excuse me while I cut off a media outlet or two.

Drink up!

Hiroshima Carp  0

Tokyo Swallows  1

Streak: Won 2       Last 5: WLLWW

(Matsuyama)

The Swallows go 2 for 2 in Matsuyama against Yoyo, I mean, Toyo Hiroshima Carp. After last nights outburst by the Swallows, the bats cooled off this fine Sunday afternoon. Still, thanks in large part to Tanaka, the Swallows did enough to win this one.

Our "heros" of the moment

Today’s “hero’s”, Tanaka and Akagawa, were the main story from today’s game. Besides some fine defensive plays, there was not much offense in todays game. As you can see from the boxscore below, both starting pitchers did very well. Thankfully, Tanaka was able to knock the ball around the park today.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Hiroshima	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0
Tokyo	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	X	1	4	1
W: Akagawa (1-1, 1.39 ERA) L: Nomura (1-1, 0.90 ERA) S: Barnette (4)

In what turned out to be a great pitching performance from both teams, a few lucky breaks went the Swallows way and Akagawa got the victory. However, the win was not an easy one.

Things did not start off well for Akagawa. He walked Soyogi to start the game. Then Higashide bunted Soyogi over to second. With Stavinoha up, Nakamura decided to take a pitch off and dropped the first pitch Akagawa threw to Stavinoha. This allowed Soyogi to move to third with ease. Both pitcher and catcher looked a little uneasy at this point. However, that was quickly taken care of when Akagawa collected the come-backer from Stavinoha, looked to third, and calmly threw to first for the force out. Kurihara flew out to left to end the early threat.

We pick up the action in the bottom of the third. After a fly-out by Balentien, Nakamura walked. After a few attempts, Akagawa finally bunted him over to second. With two outs, Ueda also walked. That brought Tanaka to the plate. The second pitch he saw was smacked down the right field line. Kurihara made a valiant attempt to jump for the liner but the best he could do was only slightly alter the path of the ball. This might have made the difference in the inning as Stavinoha got to the ball very quickly. However, the ball had lost its speed while Nakamura was gaining speed around third. He was easily safe at home, as were all the runners. Milledge would ground out to end the inning.

1-0 Tokyo

In what was a repeated occurrence in this game, Hiroshima would strand two runners in the top half of the fourth. They also had another threat stomped out on a 5-4-3 double play in the 6th.

The last serious threat from Hiroshima was in the 7th inning. Hirose lead off the inning with a single to center. Dohbayashi bunted him over to second. Shirahama walked to put runners on 1st and 2nd and only one out. Not facing enough of a challenge, Akagawa hit Kokubo to load the bases. Soyogi bailed out Akagawa by popping up the pitch and being called out on the infield fly rule. Higashide grounded out to Kawabata to end the inning.

Not much excitement came until the top of the ninth. With the Birds clinging to a 1-run lead, they turned to Barnette to secure the game. The inning opened up with a single by Dohbayashi. Kurihama bunted him over to second. Maeda came to bat and hit a grounder back up the middle. Kawabata was able to chase it down and throw him out in time. With Dohbayashi now only 90 feet away from tying the game, Barnette had to buckle down and get the last out of the inning and the game. In what I can only say as a great play (with a snarky smile on my face) by Barnette, the game ended like this:

Barnette leaped and caught the ball; drops the ball; picks it up and threw to first in time for the out; and fell over.

Game over!

Thank you all and see you soon!

Notes

• Three of the Swallows 4 hits came from Tanaka (Iihara getting the other)
• 16006 were in attendance to watch this 3 hour and 5 minute affair
• Miyamoto was unable to reach base; he is still 14 shy of the magic number
• Barnette picked up his 4th save of the season
• The Birds have a tough week ahead. They play three games on the road against Hanshin and face their Tokyo neighbors at Jingu Friday thru Sunday.
• With Hanshin sitting atop the table and Tokyo in a tie for second, this looks to be an important showdown for both teams.

Hiroshima Carp  1

Tokyo Swallows  10

Streak: Won 1       Last 5: WWLLW

(Matsuyama)

The birds’ first game of the year against the fish was a home-away-from-home game in Matsuyama, a fortunate choice of location given the constant rain that cancelled every other game in the Kanto region.

	Hiroshima		Tokyo
1	Soyogi (SS)	1	Ueda (CF)
2	Higashide (2B)	2	Tanaka (2B)
3	Stavinoha (LF)	3	Milledge (LF)
4	Kurihara (1B)	4	Hatakeyama (1B)
5	Aizawa (RF)	5	Kawabata (SS)
6	Hirose (CF)	6	Miyamoto (3B)
7	Dohbayashi (3B)	7	Balentien (RF)
8	Kura (C)	8	Nakamura (C)
9	Bullington (P)	9	Muranaka (P)

Your Tokyo Swallows were relentless today. With Muranaka holding the Carp to just one hit through four innings, Tokyo plated six runs (four earned) at Hiroshima starter Bullington’s expense. It was nice to see Tokyo start to find their way a bit at the plate, too, if I do say so myself. Especially after not being able to score against the Baystars over the previous game and a half.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Hiroshima	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	8	3
Tokyo	1	1	1	3	3	1	0	0	X	10	12	0
W: Muranaka (1-0, 2.25 ERA) L: Bullington (1-2, 4.50 ERA)

In the bottom of the first inning, Milledge’s grounder forced Tanaka out at second for out number two, but he would soon team up with Hiroshima’s young third baseman, Dohbayashi, to help put the Swallows on the board. With Hatakeyama falling behind quickly at the plate, Milledge swiped second on a 0-2 fastball that missed wide. He took off on the next pitch as well which Hatakeyama grounded toward third. With Milledge already directly behind him as Dohbayashi moved in to execute an easy 5-3 third out, the youngster somehow let the ball squirt past him, and Milledge was quick to pick himself off the ground and sprint home.

1-0 Swallows.

Muranaka then got out of the second despite surrendering a walk and a single, and the Swallows added another run thanks to three

Coco feasts on a hanging slider.

straight two-out singles and a Tanaka walk with the bases juiced.

2-0 Swallows.

Muranaka retired the side in the top of  the third inning, and then the bats put another run on the board. Dohbayashi again chipped in with an error, this time on his throw to first, with Hatakeyama being the recipient of another free base. Hatake moved over on Kawabata’s fielder’s choice to second. And the big man was able to scurry over to third when Miyamoto hit another grounder to second. He came home on Balentien’s first-pitch rip to the base of the wall in right (RBI double).

3-0 Swallows.

Tokyo decided to start scoring in threes after that. Muranaka led off the bottom of the fourth with his second single of the game, and he moved over to second on Ueda’s surprise first pitch bunt which would have allowed him to reach first safely if he’d pushed it a bit further down the third base line. Tanaka’s single to center put runners on the corners.

Hat tip to Tanaka for his heads-up base-running on the next hit of the game. Milledge lofted the second pitch he saw (0-1 heater) off the top of the wall in left field. Muranaka tagged up on third, but Tanaka took off as soon as he saw the ball leave Milledge’s bat. Both runners scored, and Milledge ended up on second. He later scored on Kawabata’s bloop single to shallow center. And that was the end of Bullington’s evening.

6-0 Tokyo.

Hiroshima recorded a couple of one out singles in the top of the fifth, but it was just a minor delay before Tokyo started scoring more runs.

Balentien led off the Swallows’ fifth with a full count walk, and then motored hard to third when Nakamura punched a 2-2 fastball down the line into left. With runners on second and third, Muranaka grounded out to second, but then Ueda doubled against a drawn in outfield which allowed Balentien and Nakamura to score.

After Tanaka’s full count walk, Milledge hit a come-backer at the pitcher which looked like a double-play ball, but Soyogi wasn’t able to reel it in at second. As soon as the Ueda saw the ball hit the dirt, Ueda took off for home, and craftily slid around the catcher to help throw another three up on the scoreboard.

9-0 Tokyo.

Tokyo scored one final run in the sixth thanks to a Miyamoto single and a Nakamura sac fly to left. Miyamoto was able to take second on a wild pitch, and then advanced to third on a Balentien fly ball to right. Nakamura punted an inside fastball to the foot of the warning track, and Miyamoto was able to trot home safely.

10-0 Yogurt Penguins.

Muranaka did start to leave his pitches up a little bit after that, and he was perhaps lucky to get through the next two innings without surrendering more than the one earned run. Five of the eight hits that he allowed came in the seventh and eighth innings. The one run he gave up was in the seventh, and Hirai got mop-up duty in the ninth. But he did earn a well-deserved first win of the season, and his two hits were icing on the cake of a solid early-season performance.

10-1 Final.

There’s no doubt that Hiroshima’s defensive blunders helped Tokyo today–Tokyo scored following all three of them. But several birds deserve credit for their production at the plate as well.

Milledge's hustle in the field and on the basepaths is paying dividends.

Offense

Ueda, Tanaka, Nakamura, and Muranaka each recorded a pair of hits today. This is certainly a sigh of relief for the bench since we haven’t gotten much out of that part of the lineup thus far in the season.

Tanaka had a solid game at the plate and did wonder for his OBP in the process. In addition to his two singles, he drew three walks, the first of which forced in Tokyo’s run in the second. In other words, 2-2 at the plate in five appearances.

The only starter not to hit safely today was Hatakeyama. His line is now .200/.280/.267.

Pitching

Muranaka got the win tonight after eight innings of eight hit, one run baseball. He threw 116 pitches in his third start of the season and struck out five while walking two. His ERA of 2.25 is currently third best on the team (starting rotation) behind Tateyama (2.08) and Akagawa (2.19).

Hirai pitched the ninth and was solid aside for allowing a walk. His ERA through four appearances remains at 0.00.

Defense

We already know that Milledge has an arm in left, but Ueda also showed that he’s no downgrade from Aoki in that department. He would have thrown Hirose out at third on a fly to center if his throw had been closer to third in the top of the seventh.

Yamada showed good range on defense in the top of the ninth (defensive substitute for Kawabata). He moved well to his left to track down a grounder up the middle and added a backhand toss to Tanaka to seal the force out at second. Both he and Morioka (in for Miyamoto) finished the game with Hirai on the mound.

Tomorrow

With today’s win, the Swallows climbed into a three-way tie with Chunichi and Hiroshima for second place in the Central League. Hopefully it’s more of the same tomorrow for the Swallows in Matsuyama. The game starts at 2PM, and Akagawa will be taking the mound for Tokyo against Hiroshima’s Nomura.

Yokohama Baystars  1

Tokyo Swallows 2

Streak: Won 3    Last 5: LLWWW

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
Yokohama	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	8	0
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1x	2	7	1
W: Oshimoto (3-0/0.00) L: Yamaguchi (0-1/13.50)

After leaving Nagoya with a magnificent hard-fought series win against the Dragons, the Swallows returned to Jingu to take on the perennially struggling Baystars. And while they huffed and puffed, they eventually blew the YOKOHAMA DeNA MOBAGE WHATEVERTHEFOOKTHEY’RECALLEDTHISYEAR BAYSTARS house down in ten innings.

	Yokohama		Tokyo
1	Morimoto (CF)	1	Hiyane (CF)
2	Ishikawa (2B)	2	Tanaka (2B)
3	Kinjo (RF)	3	Milledge (RF)
4	Ramirez (LF)	4	Hatakeyama (1B)
5	Koike (1B)	5	Kawabata (SS)
6	Fujita (3B)	6	Miyamoto (3B)
7	Kajitani (SS)	7	Balentien (RF)
8	Tsuruoka (C)	8	Aikawa (C)
9	Kuniyoshi (P)	9	Tateyama (P)

Tateyama started for Tokyo, looking to register his first win of the new season. Alas he wasn’t at his sharpest as he struggled with his control at times, and he let at least one man on base in each of the eight innings he pitched.

Meanwhile, the Swallows struggled to get to grips with the Baystars’ starter Kuniyoshi. And it took them until the 4th inning to register a hit against the 20 year old, as Lastings Milledge got on base via a bloop infield single that took the Yokohama infield by surprise.

But from that point on they started to threaten a little more. In the 5th a single for Kawabata and a walk apiece for Balentien and Aikawa loaded the bases with one out on the board. Tateyama could only strike out swinging while Hiyane hit one back to the pitcher to strand all three men.

Home run no.2 for Lastings

And so to alleviate the strain on the struggling Tokyo bats, Milledge took matters into his own hands in the bottom of the 6th, as he smacked his second NPB home run in to the leftfield stands to make it 1-0 Tokyo.

But Tateyama couldn’t quite hold onto the lead, as he allowed a run off two hits in the top of the 7th (Morimoto with the RBI) to even-steven things back up at 1-1. And Shohei would work one more scoreless inning as he ended his evening’s work with the scores still tied. He wouldn’t feature in the final decision after his 8I/116P/7H/6K/5BB/1ER outing, and his quest for a win continues as his record remains at 0-0 with his ERA now at 2.08.

After Barnette worked a 1-2-3 top of the 9th to preserve both the tie and his 0.00 ERA, Tokyo finally looked like breaking that tie in the bottom of the 9th. With reliever Kikuchi on the mound, Hatakeyama got things rolling with a single to centre. He was replaced with the substantially more nimble feet of Ueda at first, and those feet were put to use as Kawabata bunted him to second for the first out of the inning. Miyamoto then continued to struggle at the plate he grounded out to third with Ueda remaining at second. Balentien got a free pass to first which brought up Aikawa, who was 1 for 2 with a walk to that point. He hit one up the middle, which was just about fielded by the diving second baystarsbaseman, who flipped the ball to second just in time to get the force-out of Balentien to end the inning and send the game into extra(s).

Oshimoto also maintained his goose-egg ERA in the top of the 10th before Tokyo had three outs to avoid the tie (due to the 3.5 hour rule). With Yokohama’s closer Yamaguchi on the mound, a pinch hitting Takeuchi made a good start toward that target with a grounder to first that neither infielders nor pitcher could come up with to get on board. He was replaced by Yamada at first and then up stepped Hiyane to try to lay down the sacbunt. And it looked bleak as he fouled off two bunt attempts, but he came good with try number three to move Yamada to second.

And so the stage was set for Tanaka, with the lively looking Milledge waiting on deck if needed. But he wasn’t, as Hiroyasu hit one deep to right, out of the reach of any Yokohama arms and Yamada was home to cue the on-field Sayonara celebrations. 2-1 Tokyo Final.

Notes

• 11576 souls were present to witness Tokyo extending their win streak to three.

• Though Tanaka took to the mic for the post-game hero interview, Lastings Milledge was the undoubted stand-out of the evening. Aside from his 2 for 4 night with the bat, he also showed another side to his game, namely his cannon of an arm. In the 5th inning, with one out on the board and Morimoto at first, Shimozono hit a shallow fly ball to left, which was taken on the run by Lastings, who then fired the ball back to first to pick off the scampering runner to end the inning. And in with two outs in the 10th, Aranami hit one up the foul line to left, which was fielded by Milledge in foul territory who again unleashed a pinpoint throw which threw out the runner at second, and effectively ended any chance of a Yokohama win.

• Tokyo’s quest to replace Aoki continues. With Hiyane given his second straight start in centre, he had a rather torrid night, going 0 for 3 with a walk, and with only that final 10th inning sac bunt saving the day for the chipmunk-faced rookie. He also was charged with an error in the field in the 3rd, as a fumble allowed Shimozono to stretch a single into two bases. He was also thrown out attempting to steal second in the 4th after getting on base via that walk. Possibly time to give Ueda another shot.

• Miyamoto was the only other member of the starting lineup to go hitless, aside from Tateyama of course. He still has 17 hit to go to reach the magical world of 2000.

• The two teams will return tomorrow for game two of the series. Rain is forecast for the afternoon and evening, so Ishikawa will likely take the mound in a damp Jingu for the Swallows, while Yokohama will counter with Yamamoto.

He's only 19 hits away...

The season has started and your birds are off to a decent start. This past weekend they largely embarrassed crosstown rivals, Yomiuri, in a three-game series at the stain-dome, and they’re now looking ahead to an infestation of Hanshin maniacs starting tomorrow night at Jingu Stadium.

But before I forget, here are the game reports from the first series of the 2012 season:

Game 1: Yomiuri 0-4 Tokyo
Game 2: Yomiuri 3-6 Tokyo
Game 3: Yomiuri 4-2 Tokyo

Oh, and welcome to our new column! Actually, this is more like a testing ground for a new column. So…welcome to the creative process, I guess. Sorry if we get anything on you.

Last season Kozo kept us up to speed on everything that was going on in and around the Swallows with his tirelessly-researched and hugely-insightful Monday Reviews. But he’s busier than most of us here at Tsubamegun (word has it that he works in some skyscraper in downtown Tokyo), so we’re hoping to create a column that can easily incorporate input from a variety of sources and writers and not drive any one contributor into the ground.

So what follow are a couple of ideas that could become mainstays of this column depending on how useful/popular they turn out to be.

However, nothing is sacred. Including the title. Your input is expected and appreciated.

Tokyo Player of the Week

We’ve only seen three games, but I feel that it’s time for another vote. As mentioned earlier, the Friday-Sunday series at the dome was a decent one for the birds, and there was no shortage of solid play. I propose that we elect a player of the week, based on input from the Tsubamegun community. Wait, should this be renamed “Swallow of the Week”?

The rules are simple. We’ll propose a few different players who went above and beyond during the previous week’s games, and you’ll have a few days to select your favorite before we close the polls.

Below are the Tokyo players that stood out in the team’s three-game series at Yomiuri’s stain-dome. Just so you know, they’re listed in alphabetical order. We’re thinking about creating a list of the Players of the Week in the sidebar, so be sure to cast your vote below. Don’t worry, no personal information is collected, and please vote only once.

The nominees:

Tony Barnette
Filling in for Chang-yong Lim as Tokyo’s closer, Barnette quickly and quietly sealed the deal on both of Tokyo’s wins last weekend. He pitched one and two-thirds innings, allowed only one hit, struck out one, surrendered no walks or runs, and earned two saves.

Masanori Ishikawa
Ishikawa took a no-hit bid into the ninth inning in Friday’s game and managed to help deal the Giants a first ever shutout on opening day. He ended up getting the win. Final line: 8 1/3 innings, two hits, one walk, three Ks, 0 ER, .071 opposition batting avg.

Shinya Miyamoto
Mr. Timeless just keeps on ticking. He started the season 25 hits short of induction into the prestigious Meikyukai (at least 2,000 career hits minimum), and he ripped it up during Tokyo’s opening series. He went 3-4 with an RBI on Friday,  1-3 on Saturday, and 2-3 with an HBP on Sunday. He’s now just 19 hits away from the goal, and he hit .600/.636/.700 during those three games.

Hiroyasu Tanaka
For the first time since anyone can remember, Tanaka wasn’t forced to spend his time at the plate bunting someone else into scoring position. And the team was rewarded for it. Tanaka led off in all three games and posted a slash line of .357/.400/.643 with five hits, one double, one HR, two runs scored, three RBI, nine total bases, and one walk.

**Voting has concluded and Masanori Ishikawa won the balloting. Details here.**

And if you haven’t done so already, go vote here, too. You lazy poophead.

Spits or Swallows?

Sorry. Couldn’t resist. Maybe it should be the name of the column, no?

Actually, we were kind of leaning towards having a section that mentions the hottest and coldest players from the previous series/week. Obviously, this would involve elements of the just-mentioned Player of the Week, plus info on a couple of players who hope to quickly forget what we just endured.

Layouts ‘n Stuff

Other things are bound to change as well. We’re currently trying to figure out how to most effectively categorize posts on this bad boy, and there is also talk of adding a sidebar to the left side of the homepage. As always, your input is welcome, as are your essays, story proposals, and rants. E-mail us at admin[at]tokyoswallows.com. We’re currently looking for someone who spends some time going to minor league games in Japan. If that’s you, drop us a line.

At any rate, expect some changes during the coming weeks. We don’t plan on introducing anything as revolutionary and polarizing as the new Facebook Timeline, so please stick with us and offer your feedback with our feelings in mind.

The Week Ahead

Hanshin is in town for a Tuesday-Thursday series starting April 3rd at 6PM.

And although things could easily change, it’s likely that Tateyama Roman will take the mound against the Tigers on Tuesday. And while neither of them are currently on the top team, don’t be surprised to see Roman, Yoshinori, and perhaps one other pitcher get traded up to the pro team over the next couple of days.

If things continue to go according to the order established last weekend, then look for Ishikawa to start the first game against Chunichi in a mini replay of last year’s Climax Series second stage on Friday April 6th.

While you’re contemplating the six games that will be played over the next six days, go ahead and give this article about Tony Barnette a read.

Around the Central League

After winning last year’s Central League pennant, Chunichi is back with a new manager (Takagi in, Ochiai out) and has resumed its position at the front of the pack. Starters Yoshimi and Kawakami put in very solid performances versus last year’s fifth placed team, Hiroshima. Expect to hear a lot more from Yoshimi this season. The jury is still out on MLB-reject Kawakami. The Chunichi Dragons are currently in first place in the Central League, half of a game ahead of the Tokyo Swallows.

Dave and I have Chunichi dropping off a bit this year, but these asshats went a different way with their predictions, so who knows…

Hanshin split its series with Yokohama down the middle by going 1-1-1 this past weekend.

Hiroshima is the only team in the Central League that didn’t win a game last weekend. Sixth place belongs to the team that went 0-2-1 against Chunichi.

Former Swallows

After a shaky spring training with Pittsburgh, former Tokyo closer, Ryota Igarashi, was cut from the top team roster and then traded to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Norichika Aoki continues to keep his name in the mix with the Milwaukee Brewers. He’s not a shoe-in for a starting job, but he continues to show that he can hit, run the bases, and play defense.

Josh Whitesell, Chiba’s new DH, currently leads the Pacific League with four RBI, is second on the team for hits (5), and his slash line isn’t too shabby either: .357/.357/.429.

***

Anyways, thanks for joining us for the first installment of this column. Hopefully we’ll see this thing grow into something entertaining and sustainable.

Go, Go Swallows!!

And in case you prefer not to take that suggestion literally, allow me to rephrase it in a way that might provide more universal accessibility.

Drink up.

(HT to Kyle Lobner for the bookends of this article.)