10/19/09 — Central League Climax Series — Tokyo vs Chunichi (Game 3)

Recognize these guys (other than Yoneno and Yoshinori)? This is what the flu can do to your roster.

October 19th, 2009 Tokyo Swallows 4 Chunichi Dragons 7 Series: Chunichi 2-1 Tokyo (Nagoya Dome) Chunichi was definitely the better team today, but they should never forget that they had the flu and a little bit of Takada on their side. Either way, the season came to an end for the Swallows while the Dragons [...]

9/28/09 — Hanshin (Home)

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.

9/21/09 – Hiroshima (Away)

September 21st, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Hiroshima Toyo Carp 6 Streak: Lost 4      Last : WLLLL (Mazda Stadium) There are nights when I seriously have to question whether or not watching and writing about baseball is actually fun, or in fact a colossal waste of time, emotion and energy. Tonight (as well as far [...]

8/1/09 — Chunichi (Home)

D'Antona did it again.

August 1st, 2009 Chunichi Dragons 2 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4 Streak: Won 2    Last 5: WLLWW (Jingu Stadium) Well, Tokyo pulled off the unpredictable today by taking the series versus Chunichi with its second win in as many days.

6/30/09 – Yokohama (Away)

June 30th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2 Yokohama BayStars 3 Streak: Lost 2  Last 5: WLWLL (Matsumoto Stadium) Ah you’ve gotta love Tokyo. Can’t beat the best, can’t beat the worst. A day after losing the series against the Giants, Tokyo travelled to Matsumoto for a road game against the frankly terrible BayStars to try [...]

6/21/09 – Saitama (Home)

June 21st, 2009 Saitama Seibu Lions 5 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6 Streak: Won 7       Last 5: WWWWW (Jingu Stadium) Tokyo won their season-best seventh straight game, and their third walkoff victory in a row as they wrapped up their interleague schedule against the Lions.

6/11/09 – Fukuoka SoftBank (Away)

June 11th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6 Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 3 Streak: Won 1     Last 5: WLWLW (Yahoo Dome) In 2009 a Shohei Tateyama start is becoming shorthand for almost certain victory. And tonight it proved no different, as he got good run support to go with his decent seven innings to put [...]

6/08/09 – Hokkaido (Home)

June 8th, 2009 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 3 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4 Streak: Won 1   Last 5: LWWLW (Jingu Stadium) A 9th inning timely Takeuchi RBI single broke a 3-3 tie as Tokyo had themselves their first sayonara victory of 2009. It was a great end to a truly absorbing game between two closely matched [...]

6/06/09 – Tohoku Rakuten (Home)

June 6th, 2009  Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 1  Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Streak: Won 2 Last 5: WLLWW (Jingu Stadium) Today was a good day. So far in the Interleague campaign, the Swallows have been humbled by the best pitching the PL has to offer. Tanaka, Darvish, Sugiuchi and Wakui have all had their way [...]

5/28/09 – Orix (Home)

May 28th, 2009 Orix Buffaloes  0 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4 Streak: Won 2   Last 5: LLLWW (Jingu Stadium) Seven battling innings from Shohei Tateyama combined with some timely hitting carried Tokyo to victory in rainswept conditions on Thurday evening. It rained continuously throughout the game, with conditions becoming more and more difficult as the [...]