An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
June 15th, 2010 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 10 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2 Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: WWWWL (Meiji Jingu Stadium) Tokyo’s longest winning streak of the season came to a screeching halt at the hands of the Hokkaido Fighters who refused to be swept. In fact, they were so adamant about not being [...]
June 14th, 2010 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 3 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 8 Streak: Won 5 Last 5: WWWWW (Meiji Jingu Stadium) When this game was originally scheduled to be played (May 23rd), Takada was still at the helm, the birds had just gotten whupped by Chiba 20-4, and the team was in the midst [...]
June 10th, 2010 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 4 Streak: Won 2 Last 5: LWLWW (Sapporo Dome) They finally did it. For the first time since Tokyo beat the Yokohama Baystars on the 2nd and 3rd of April, the Swallows have won back to back games and thus won a series. That’s all [...]
June 9th, 2010 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 1 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: WLWLW (Sapporo Dome) Tokyo won the first of their four meetings in a week with their PL 6th-placed equivalents as they continued their affinity to alternate their wins and losses. Tokyo’s starting lineup was notable for Guiel being switched to [...]
Yakyu Baka (via Sanspo) is reporting that the Swallows have signed left-handed first baseman Josh Whitesell to a contract. The contract, which reportedly will run to the end of the season, is said to be worth 30M yen (approx. 327,000 USD). The Sanspo article reports that Whitesell will arrive in Japan on the 9th. No [...]
June 1st, 2010 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4 Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 3 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: LDWLW (Yahoo Dome) With the dismal and eventful month of May finally behind them, the Tokyo Swallows headed south to Fukuoka for a run-in with the Pacific League’s wins (8) and strikeouts per nine innings (11.84) leader, Sugiuchi. [...]
May 26th, 2010 Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 3 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2 Streak: Lost 9 Last 5: LLLLL (Meiji Jingu Stadium) After last Saturday’s debacle at Chiba, Tokyo had to pick themselves up off the floor and try to soldier on, despite today’s devastating news that Takada hadn’t resigned after all (Takada Count: 9). [...]
Gen over at Yakyu Baka has put together a phenomenal, stats-laden post that compares the 2009 and 2010 production of Tokyo’s cleanup–Aoki, D’Antona, and Guiel. The results don’t exactly jive with what the team and the media are saying about these guys. Most Japanese baseball aficionados won’t find it surprising that D’Antona and Guiel particularly [...]
May 9th, 2010 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 9 Chunichi Dragons 0 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: LLLLW (Nagoya Dome) Do not adjust your screens, that score above really is correct. And that is a “W” up there too. The previously comatose Tokyo bats finally exploded into life as they snapped their losing streak at 6 [...]
May 7th, 2010 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1 Chunichi Dragons 2 Streak: Lost 5 Last 5: LLLLL (Nagoya Dome) The Swallows went into their last series before entering the 2010 Interleague schedule hoping to find some way to but the brakes on their horrible slide into the CL basement before facing the Pacific League’s best. [...]
