Orix Buffaloes 6

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3 

Streak: Lost 2 Last 5: DLWLL

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

After a busy week of two polar opposite games against the iPhone Hawks, Tokyo played host to the B’s.

Tonight started out well for both starting pitchers, with Roman getting the edge over Kisanuki in the second.

Roman pitching lights out in tonights game.

After a quiet first inning, the Swallows made their presence felt in the bottom of the second inning. Hatakeyama lead off the inning with a single. However, he was quickly forced out at second when Miyamoto hit a grounder to second. Miyamoto was safe at first on the play. Yuhei followed that with a hit to left field. Up walked Aikawa. With Roman in the on deck circle, Kisanuki was looking to get Aikawa out and then face his counterpart to end the inning. Well, he succeeded at the first task by getting Aikawa to fly out to shallow center. However, Roman made him pay. He hit a nice line drive to left center to easily score Miyamoto from second. Tanaka would hit yet another ball out of the infield to load the bases for the Swallows. But the inning and the early threat would end when Morioka went down on strikes. 1 – 0 Tokyo

The next 5 inning went rather quietly as both starting pitchers settled down. Roman was helped out by a couple of double plays in the 3rd and 4th innings. While Kisanuki was helped out by some poor swinging choices by the Swallows.

In the top of the 8th, the B’s finally crossed home plate. Gotoh was the first batter to face Roman. He started the inning off with a double to left to excite the fans in the left field bleachers. He was bunted over to 3rd by Kawabata. In what turned out to be a smart call, Kitagawa came to bat in place of Suzuki. Kitagawa was able to knock the ball to center to easily score Gotoh from third. Akada was up next but the best he could do was ground out to Miyamoto to end the inning. 1 – 1 

Roman was obviously upset as he walked back to the dugout. However, this is a team game and his teammates bailed him out in the bottom half of the 8th. Milledge started off the inning with a single to left. Balentien hit a ball up the middle that bounced off the pitchers glove and was picked up by the second baseman, Gotoh. Gotoh was able to get “Coco” out at first for the first out of the inning. “Boo” was up next. In a swing reminiscent of 2011, “Boo” hit a long fly ball off the left field wall. This easily scored Milledge and “Boo” made it to 2nd base with ease. That would be as far as “Boo” would go as he was replaced on the bases with Noguchi. In the end it didn’t matter as the next two batters were easy outs for Gotoh. 2 – 1 Tokyo

With the fans bouncing around the stadium, Barnette came in to pitch for the first time in a week. After disposing of  T-Okada, Nakano snuck a single off of Barnette. Ohbiki then went down on strikes for the second out of the inning. Up walked the Korean giant, Lee D. H. After battling to a full count, Lee placed the ball in pretty much the same place that three Hawks did on Thursday evening, 12 rows past the left field fence. Yamasaki followed that with a fly out to Tanaka. 3 -2 Orix

But fear not my faithful readers. In a show of unity (team slogan), Barnette would be saved from his blown save.

Aikawa started off the bottom of the ninth with a sharp liner down the first base line. He was replaced on the bases by Hiyane. With Miwa batting in the pitchers spot, he bunted Hiyane over to 2nd. Tanaka would then strike out for the second out of the inning. After seeing enough of Morioka at the plate, Ogawa replaced him with Fujimoto. In what turned out to be a fortuitous decision, Fujimoto spanked the ball down the third base line for a stand-up, RBI double. Milledge would then draw a walk to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Up walked Coco. If this was May 2011, the game would normally have ended at this point. But the season has not gone according to plan for Coco. After battling Kishida for a few pitches, Coco eventually flew out to right-center to end the inning.

3 -3 

Guess what folks? That meant free baseball!!

Oshimoto took the mound for the Birds to start the 10th. After giving up a hit to Gotoh, Kawabata then laid down a bunt. Gotoh advanced to 2nd and Kawabata was thrown out at first. After a Saitoh flu-out, Nakamura hit a soft liner to right. Coco the sent a laser to first nearly throwing Nakamura out at first and ending the threat. However, both runners were safe on the corners. Arakane ended the inning by grounding out.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Birds went down in order.

That meant we move to the 11th and final inning of the game.

Hidaka took the hill for the final inning of the game. He induced the first two batters to fly out to Miwa in right. Then he threw the Balentien special, the unintentional intentional walk to Lee. That was the end of the night for Hidaka. In trotted “snoochi boochie” Masubuchi. Yamasaki hit a soft grounder to short but beat the throw from Araki. Up next was Gotoh. He was walked to load the bases. (Sidebar: WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY? You should be challenging the f-in hitters not gifting them a free pass.)

Kawabata was 2 for 4 at that point. Who cares if he is a rookie. He was swinging the bat well and you wanted to face him with the bases loaded. Not good. And of course we then experienced Murphy’s Law as Kawabata hits a bases clearing double. Then Saitoh goes down on strikes.

6 – 3 Rental car Buffaloes

In came Ming-chen to close out the game for the R.C.B. With all of the big bats out of the line-up, the Birds did not stand much of a chance. They did get a runner on base but that was not much of a scare.

6 – 3 Orix (Final)

That is not how we want to see our relief pitchers walking back to the dugout. Tough loss for the Swallows and Masubuchi. Still, it was only one game.

Notes

• This is the second game in a row that the Swallows had the bases loaded on numerous occasions and got nothing to show for it. On Thursday, it happened 3 times. Tonight, twice. That my friends is why we lost. Let’s all thank Morioka for striking out twice with the bases loaded tonight.
• Roman pitched 8 strong innings tonight, but still got a no decision for his efforts.
• Barnette gave up his first two runs of the season.
• We need to be more aggressive on the base paths.
• Coco needs to stop trying to hit golf shots when he is batting. It worked for a bit in the past but not anymore
• Same two teams go at it tomorrow night; first pitch is scheduled for 6 pm
• The Buffaloes will send out Nishi; while the Swallows will have Tateyama on the hill
• With another loss this evening, the Swallows are only a game in front of their Tokyo rivals.

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.

Website Updates

Apologies for the delay, but we finally set up a game schedule up on the front page. We didn’t have one on there last season due to space limitations, but we think that you’ll find this year’s solution to be a workable one. Scroll down to the bottom of the front page for a look at Tokyo’s upcoming schedule as well as the Central and Pacific League Standings. Oh, and there’s a list of the community selections for Swallows of the Week down on the right.

Swallows of the Week

Week 4

Last week you chose your favorite from among five outstanding performers: Katsuki Akagawa (P), Wladimir Balentien (RF), Tony Barnette (P), Shingo Kawabata (SS), and Orlando Roman (P).

28 people cast their vote this time around, and here’s what you decided:

Player	Votes	%
Wladimir Balentien	13	46
Tony Barnette	7	25
Shingo Kawabata	5	18
Katsuki Akagawa	2	7
Orlando Roman	1	4

Nicely done, Mr. Balentien! Coco was a force in week five as well, so it should be interesting to see if he can be the first player to ring it up twice here in the voting. At any rate, we’re enthused that he’s helping the team so much. Love, love, love! his improved control of the strike zone and hustle in the field. Long may it last!

Week 5

Tokyo played six games in the fifth week of the 2012 season. Three of those were played in the rain at Jingu, and the other three were day games at Mazda Stadium in Hiroshima.

Tokyo outscored Chunichi 9-4 in the three game series that they hosted last week, and including the rough day against Hiroshima’s young Nomura on Sunday the birds outpaced the Carp 13-8.

Game reports:

April 24th vs Chunichi (Home) 4-1 W
April 25th vs Chunichi (Home) 1-1 D
April 26th vs Chunichi (Home) 4-2 W
April 28th vs Hiroshima (Away) 6-4 W
April 29th vs Hiroshima (Away) 0-3 L
April 30th vs Hiroshima (Away) 7-1 W

And here are the top-performing birds from week 5:

Wladimir Balentien (RF) comes fresh off of his first ever SOW win with another solid performance in week 5. He hit .304 last week (7-23 at the plate) with three walks and seven RBI. He hit another two home runs in week 5, including that three-run dinger that helped the team steal game one of its just-finished series against Hiroshima.

Tony Barnette (P) notched three saves last week and appeared in the first four games of the week. That was good enough for the most innings pitched of any reliever. Over four innings of work, Tony struck out two while allowing three hits and no walks. He has yet to surrender a run this season (0.00 ERA).

Kazuhiro Hatakeyama (1B) had a bit of a breakout week while continuing to toil in the 7-hole. He was 8-22 at the plate (.364 average) with a double and a triple (gasp!) this week. He also drove in five runs and added two walks. Give the man some more pudding.

Lastings Milledge (LF) was awesome this week. He hit .391 and was a team-leading 9-23 at the plate with three doubles, a game-changing home run, three RBI, and three walks. And I daresay that his aggressiveness in left field is having a ripple effect in right. Oh, and he’s a sure bet to get waved home. I lost count, but Lastings slid home safely several times this week.

Shohei Tateyama (P) is at the end of this list due solely to alphabetical concerns. Tokyo’s true ace won two games this week, and that’s no mean feat. 13 innings pitched, 10 hits, 5 K, 5 BB, and just two earned runs–not too shabby. He co-shares the league lead in wins (3) and winning percentage (perfect!).

Let us know what you think! And as always, please vote only once.

Roster Updates

Rookie Hiyane (CF) was dropped to the farm on the 23rd due to some general greenness at the plate and in the field, and a complete inability to use his speed to swipe second base.

Utility infielder, Noguchi, was promoted on the 24th and featured as a pinch runner and defensive replacement at third last week.

Second year shortstop, Tetsuto Yamada, was dropped on the 27th in order to get some actual playing time, and speedster Miwa (INF) was promoted a day later to provide another pinch-running option.

The active roster, as of game time on the 30th, looked like this:

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

Catchers
Nitta, Fukukawa, Nakamura

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

Outfielders
Balentien, Iihara, Yuhei, Milledge, Ueda

From the Farm

The team announced that an Eastern League game was scheduled for May 17th at Toda against Saitama. You can check the farm team’s full schedule here (link in Japanese).

Tokyo’s game against Rakuten on the 27th was rained out, but the little birds won three of the four games that they played last week (results for Monday’s game against Saitama were not available when this article was published).

Lim pitched in a few games last week and earned a couple of saves but also got shelled in his outing yesterday against Saitama. If the bullpen holds together over the next few days, that could mean that Roman gets at least one more start on the top team.

Onodera continues to look pretty sharp, and it looks like Kyuko is getting a little bit of work in. I didn’t see Yoshinori’s name anywhere though.

Around the Central

Tokyo finished the week with 4 wins, 1 loss, and 1 tie. They took two of three from Chunichi in the rain at Jingu (one tie game), and two of three from the Carp in Hiroshima. They’re tied with Chunichi for first place in the Central League.

Chunichi finished the week 3-2-1. They lost two of three to Tokyo (one tie), and then swept Yokohama at Nagoya Dome. They’re tied at the top with your Tokyo Swallows.

Hanshin finished the week 2-3-1. They took two of three from Hiroshima at Koshien Stadium, and then lost two and drew one against Yomiuri at Tokyo Dome. Tossers. Hanshin are 2.5 games behind the first place tie of Tokyo and Chunichi.

Hiroshima finished the week 2-4. They lost two of three against the Tigers in Hanshin territory, and then they dropped another two at home to the Tokyo Swallows. They remain 2 games behind the third place Tigers and 4.5 behind Tokyo and Chunichi in first.

Yomiuri finished the week 3-0-1. They won one game against Yokohama in Kagoshima (the other game got rained out), and then won two and drew one at home against the Hanshin Tigers. Yomiuri are one game behind Hiroshima in fifth place.

Yokohama finished the week 0-4. They didn’t win a game this week against either the Yomiuri Giants or the Chunichi Dragons. Sixth place and three games behind the Giants.

The Week Ahead

Tokyo are headed straight to Yokohama for a three game series against the last-placed Baystars. The games on Tuesday and Wednesday both start at 6pm, but the game on Thursday starts at 2pm. Ishikawa will start for the birds on Tuesday.

Don’t be too surprised if the outfield bleacher seats are all reserved (ie. more expensive than normal) as Yokohama has a history of gouging during Golden Week.

Also, the weather looks kind of iffy, so plan accordingly. If the game gets rained out, and you’ve got extra time on your hands in the Kannai/Bashamichi area, stop by the Baird Bashamichi Taproom for a couple of brews and some BBQ ribs.

The final third of Tokyo’s current nine-game marathon will be played at the lovely Jingu Stadium Friday to Sunday. Friday’s game starts at 3pm, but the two weekend games are scheduled for 6pm starts. If the weather’s nice, those games could see some pretty healthy attendance, so arrive early if you’re part of a decent-sized group (four or more) or are picky about where you sit.

Former Swallows

Alex Ramirez (Tokyo player from 2001-07) didn’t start against the Dragons on Saturday or Sunday. The manager is apparently worried about his conditioning and wants him to get his legs back in shape. Ramirez did start yesterday, however, and was 0-3. He’s currently hitting .215/.227/.262.

Atsunori Inaba (Tokyo player from 1995-2004) joined the Meikyukai on Saturday after recording his 2,000th hit in a game against Tohoku in Sendai. Check this post for some excellent factoids related to Inaba’s feat.

Alright, please excuse me while I tune in to the derby.

Drink up!

Tokyo Swallows 7

 Hiroshima Carp 1

Streak: Won 1       Last 5: DWWLW

(Mazda Stadium, Hiroshima)

Yesterday Tokyo ran headlong into a masterful performance by early rookie-of-the-year candidate, Yusuke Nomura. The 22-year-old drafted out of Meiji University threw his slider wherever he wanted and induced 14 groundouts from the 25 batters he faced (1 H, 4 K, 2 BB).

And today looked like it might be another long day for the Tokyo bats as Hiroshima’s ace, Kenta Maeda, brought his own lethal slider with him as he took the mound on a rainy afternoon at Mazda Stadium.

Maeda (3-1, 0.97 ERA) had won his last three decisions and hadn’t given up more than one since his opening day start at Nagoya Dome back in March. Yikes.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	1	3	3	0	0	7	10	1
Hiroshima	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	6	0
W: Tateyama (3-0, 1.85 ERA) L: Maeda (3-2, 1.67 ERA)

Tokyo’s ace, Shohei Tateyama (2-0, 2.00 ERA) started for the Swallows and hoped to win his third consecutive start.

Yuhei was called upon to roam center field in place of Ueda who was perhaps being dealt some thinking time on the bench after his rather inexplicable error in center field yesterday.

	Tokyo		Hiroshima
1	Tanaka (2B)	1	Soyogi (SS)
2	Yuhei (CF)	2	Higashide (2B)
3	Milledge (LF)	3	Hirose (RF)
4	Balentien (RF)	4	Stavinoha (LF)
5	Kawabata (SS)	5	Maru (CF)
6	Miyamoto (3B)	6	Iwamoto (1B)
7	Hatakeyama (1B)	7	Dohbayashi (3B)
8	Nakamura (C)	8	Shirahama (C)
9	Tateyama (P)	9	Maeda (P)

You may recall that Maeda no-hit the Baystars back on April 6th. Well, he painted both sides of the plate with his slider early on and had a no-hitter going against us through four this afternoon.

His opposite number, Tateyama, didn’t get through the innings with quite as much ease as Maeda, he faced a bases-loaded jam in the second but got Maeda to strike out swinging to preserve the scoreless tie.

Tateyama pitched a solid seven innings and finally got some real run support.

Kawabata was the first Tokyo bat to finally get to Maeda in the fifth. It kind of makes sense that it was Kawabata since he hit .636 against Maeda last season. He grounded a 2-2 changeup just to the right of second base that the sprawling Higashide did very well to get to but was in no position to throw Kawabata out at first. Miyamoto quickly popped up to second for the first out, but then Hatakeyama sliced an outside slider into right field which allowed Kawabata to reach third standing up.

With runners on the corners, Nakamura very nearly surprised everyone with a safety squeeze bunt that drifted wide of the first base line. But three sliders later, he was able to bloop a single just behind first base that scored the crucial first run.

1-0 Tokyo.

Maybe watching all of those sliders yesterday when Nomura was pitching was good practice for the birds because they came right back at Maeda in the sixth. Yuhei grounded out for the second time in as many at-bats, but then Milledge worked a full count and ended up poking an outside slider into the corner in left for a stand-up double.

Balentien got ahead in the count during his ensuing at-bat and was able to wait for the fastball that he knew would be coming. He drove it to center field and Milledge was able to motor home from second.

2-0 Tokyo.

Balentien was able to hustle to second as Milledge was busy beating the throw home, and that brought Kawabata to the plate again with just one out on the board. Shingo drew a five pitch walk, and then Miyamoto juiced the bases with a single to center.

That brought Hatakeyama to the plate. Tokyo’s pudding-filled first baseman protected the outside of the plate marvelously in a nine pitch encounter that was 2-2 after four pitches but never budged after that. After that fourth pitch, Hatake fouled off four consecutive pitches and had Maeda scratching his head. The man who inspired the shape of the Tsubakuro costume came through on the ninth pitch with another hit to right which scored both Balentien and Kawabata.

4-0 Tokyo.

And that was it for Maeda. He was replaced by Nakamura in the seventh, but that did nothing to stop the bleeding. Tanaka and Ueda (batting for Yuhei) both grounded out to start things off, but Milledge reignited things with a single to left, and Balentien followed with a five pitch walk.

Kawabata punched a 1-1 fastball into left which was enough for a double and a plus-one on the board for the good guys as Milledge was once again able to score from second.

Just four hits to go.

5-0 Tokyo.

With Balentien on third and Kawabata on second, Miyamoto drove a 1-0 fastball into right which cleared the bases and allowed him to reach second safely.

7-0 Tokyo.

And that was it for the offensive onslaught from the Tokyo Swallows. But it was more than enough, and more than expected.

Tateyama surrendered a consolation run in the bottom of the seventh when Dohbayashi’s double was followed by a one out Matsuyama single.

7-1 Final.

Pitching:

Tateyama got the win, his third of the season, on seven innings and 106 pitches of work. He gave up six hits, struck out four, walked three, and gave up one earned run. His ERA is now 1.85.

Masubuchi pitched a perfect eighth, and his ERA is now down to 3.00.

Hidaka worked the ninth for the birds and had a minor fielding hiccup, but didn’t allow a runner past first. His ERA is still 0.00 through 11 appearances.

Hitting:

Milledge, Kawabata, Miyamoto, and Hatakeyama all had multi-hit games. Kawabata and Hatakeyama earn extra praise for reaching base a third time thanks to drawing a walk each.

Notes:

Maeda hadn’t given up a run since the seventh inning of his start against Hanshin on April 12th. The four earned runs he gave up today were the most he’s allowed so far this season.

Maeda was perhaps a bit unlucky to give up that first run as nobody was hitting him hard. If Nakamura’s hit had sailed six inches to the right it would have been foul.

Tateyama is tied with Tokyo’s Muranaka for the Central League lead in wins (3) and perfect winning percentage. He’s also currently tied for the team lead in innings pitched (34 with Akagawa), and leads outright in both strikeouts (23) and K/9 (6.09).

Tokyo won the series 2-1 and are now 4-1 against the Carp so far this season.

With Chunichi’s win against Yokohama this afternoon, the birds are still tied for first place with a 15-8-2 record.

Tokyo are now off to Yokohama for a three-game set

Tokyo Swallows 6

 Hiroshima Carp 4

Streak: Won 2       Last 5: WWDWW

(Mazda Stadium, Hiroshima)

Tokyo traveled to Hiroshima yesterday for their first away series at Mazda Stadium. The two teams have played each other twice so far this season (played in Matsuyama) with Tokyo taking  both of those contests. Akagawa (2-1, 0.95 ERA) earned the win in the Sunday afternoon game of that short series, and he was back on the mound today to take on an injury-depleted Hiroshima.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	6	11	0
Hiroshima	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	4	9	1
W: Hirai (1-0, 0.00 ERA) L: Mickolio (1-1, 3.48) S: Barnette (1-0, 10 S, 0.00)

Akagawa wasn’t exactly overpowering in that April 15th game against the Carp, but he was able to get through seven full innings without giving up a run (4 H, 4 BB, 1 HBP, 0 K). He was much sharper in his last start when he pitched a complete game shutout at home against the Giants on April 21st (5 H, 1 BB, 6 K).

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

All in all, the Swallows had to be liking their chances against the fourth-placed Carp.

It seemed clear from the start that birds were going to try to wear down Hiroshima’s starter, Fukui (1-1, 3.18 ERA), and get to the

Hatake's timing at the plate is improving.

bullpen as quickly as possible. If that was in fact what Tokyo was doing, then it was a very good idea. Like the Swallows, Hiroshima is scheduled to play nine games in as many days, and if Tokyo can force Hiroshima to use it’s bullpen early and often, that could mean good things for the birds when Hiroshima come to Jingu next weekend.

Tanaka and Ueda worked a pair of walks to start the game, and both Milledge and Balentien worked full counts as well. The latter coaxed Fukui into issuing his third walk of the inning, and the bases were loaded for Kawabata. Unfortunately, the Swallows were not able to take advantage of the situation, as Kawabata lined out to second and Ueda was doubled up.

But the good news was that Fukui threw 31 pitches that inning.

Akagawa, on the other hand, got through the first inning on only six pitches despite giving up a leadoff hit to Soyogi.

The birds finally got something from all of their patience in the top of the third. Milledge worked a full count walk with one out, and then Kawabata singled to left with two outs. Miyamoto then singled to center to bring Milledge home from second.

Hiroshima 0-1 Tokyo.

But Hatakeyama then chipped in with a bases-clearing triple (sixth of his career, believe it or not) to give Akagawa some breathing room.

3-0 Tokyo.

And to make matters worse for Hiroshima, second-year starter, Fukui, had already thrown 76 pitches by the end of that inning. Fukui had his most efficient inning in the fourth when he only expended 13 pitches on three batters.

First career win.

But Kokubo came in to pinch hit for him with two outs and a runner on first in the bottom of the fifth.

The Swallows loaded the bases on reliever, Kishimoto, but weren’t able to bring anyone home in the process.

Akagawa ran into a bit of trouble in the bottom of the sixth when his control started to suffer, and he either left pitches up or started throwing a lot of stuff down the middle.Hiroshima was able to string a walk and three back-to-back hits together to get themselves back in the game with a pair of runs.Hiroshima 2-3 Tokyo.

He was fortunately able to get the second out on a foul fly off to the side of third base, and then he was hooked in favor of Masubuchi to face Dohbayashi with runners on first and second.

Masubuchi eventually got the rookie to strike out swinging at an offspeed pitch to help Akagawa avoid getting tacked with any more runs.

Hikaka pitched a perfect seventh.

Oshimoto had a more eventful inning of work. He surrendered a leadoff single and a one out walk to put runners on first and second. With veteran Maeda pinch-hitting, Oshimoto watched the count get worked full before finally conceding his first earned run of the season on a soft single to right.

3-3.

Oshimoto out, Watanabe in.

Second pitch, Maru RBI single to center.

Game-winning home run.

4-3 Hiroshima.

Watanabe out, Hirai in. Hirai got the final two outs of the frame on only six pitches to help stop the bleeding.

Mickolio took the mound for the Carp in the top of the ninth with a one-run lead to protect. Tanaka led off with a grounder to right, and Ueda then bunted pinch-runner, Miwa, over to second. Milledge poked a single to center to put runners on the corners for Balentien.

Mickolio hung a slider right in the middle of Balentien’s wheelhouse, and the next time anyone touched it, it was a souvenir for a lucky fan in the left field bleachers.

6-4 Tokyo.

Barnette closed out the game on six pitches in the bottom of the inning.

Pitching:

Akagawa left the game with a one-run lead and didn’t figure into the final decision. It was almost like he suddenly got tired during the sixth. At any rate, here’s his line: 5.2 IP, 88 NP, 5 H, 1 K, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 2 R, 2 ER, 1.32 ERA. His record remains at 2-1.

Oshimoto was tagged with both runs in the eighth. His ERA rose from 0.00 to 1.69.

Hirai got the win, the first of his career.

Barnette continues to lead the league in saves (10) and appearances (14).

Hitting:

Balentien was the hero of the game due to his game-winning homer, his league-leading sixth of the season. He was 2-4 with a walk and three RBI.

Hatakeyama also had a good game down at number seven in the lineup. He was 3-5 with two RBI.

Tanaka, Ueda, Milledge, and Miyamoto all got on base twice. Milledge also scored twice.

Notes:

Today was Hatakeyama’s first three-hit game of the season, and he very nearly had a fourth hit in the eighth. However, Soyogi made a nice leaping grab at short to rob Hatake of extra pudding.

Miyamoto’s RBI single today puts him at six hits away from the 2,000 hit milestone.

Former teammate, Atsunori Inaba, reached the Meikyukai 2,000 hit threshold this afternoon in a game against Tohoku.

Tokyo needed three pitchers to get through the eighth inning when Hiroshima temporarily took the lead. It was a bit of a departure from how solid the bullpen has been this month, but one could argue that Oshimoto was a little bit unlucky and pitched better than his line. Unfortunately, Tokyo used two more relievers than they might have liked to today. But luckily the team still won.

Mickolio was as hittable in the ninth as Akagawa was back in the sixth.

The birds now lead the season series against Hiroshima 3-0.

Chunichi also won today, so Tokyo’s lead at the top remains at one game.

The game tomorrow kicks off at 1:30 PM. Nomura (1-1, 1.00 ERA) will pitch for the Carp, and the Swallows will counter with Roman (1-3, 3.57 ERA).

Tokyo is undefeated in its last seven games (one tie).

Yomiuri Giants  2

Tokyo Swallows 3

Streak: Won 3  Last 5: WLWWW

(Jingu Stadium)

Sweep! Sweep! Sweep! Sweep! Sweeeeeeeeeeeeep!

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Yomiuri	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	3	0
Tokyo	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	X	3	8	1
W: Roman (1-3, 3.57 ERA) L: Fukuda (0-2, 1.35) S: Barnette (1-0, 7 S, 0.00)

Roman finally got his first NPB ‘W’ in his fourth start of the year and second this week.

	Yomiuri		Tokyo
1	Takahashi (RF)	1	Tanaka (2B)
2	Fujimura (2B)	2	Ueda (CF)
3	Sakamoto (SS)	3	Milledge (LF)
4	Abe (C)	4	Balentien (RF)
5	Chono (CF)	5	Kawabata (SS)
6	Murata (3B)	6	Miyamoto (3B)
7	Bowker (LF)	7	Hatakeyama (1B)
8	Ishii (1B)	8	Nakamura (C)
9	Miyaguni (P)	9	Roman (P)

Despite the rain, this was another enjoyable game to watch for the Swallows fans in attendance. The published figure for tickets sold is 13,986, but there probably weren’t more than eight or nine thousand in the stands. It never rained hard, but the drizzle was pretty much constant. It made for a cakey mound towards the end of the game.

Roman looked good early on. He got through the first three innings on only 36 pitches and one hit.

And he got some run support in the bottom of the second. Balentien cranked an 0-1 slider into the seats in left-center to put the birds ahead.

Roman got just enough run support today.ahead.

1-0 Swallows

Kawabata followed with a single to center, and Miyamoto added a walk, just his second of the season.

Hatakeyama then grounded out to third, but fortunately both runners moved over in the process.

Nakamura then chipped in with a sac fly to right that was just deep enough to let Kawabata slide in safely ahead of the tag.

2-0 Tokyo

Roman was able to establish his heater the first time through the Yomiuri lineup, and then he started to mix in more sliders the second time through. He ran into a little bit of a rough spot in the form of a Sakamoto-Abe one-two punch in the top of the fourth though. Sakamoto doubled with one out to help make Yomiuri look threatening for the first time since the first inning on Friday. And Abe got the better part of Roman’s 1-0 pitch for a homer that just barely skirted the fence in right.

Tokyo 2-2 Yomiuri

But the Swallows regrouped and put some offense together soon after. After stranding three runners in the fourth, Tokyo put it’s starter back in the lead in the fifth. Tanaka led things off with a grounder up the middle, and he moved over to second on Ueda’s Tak-bunt. Milledge then ripped a 1-1 cutter off the base of the fence in left to score Tanaka easily from second. Milledge was in safely for a stand-up double.

3-2 Tokyo

Yomiuri looked like they might answer in the top of the sixth. A leadoff walk and then a Nakamura throwing error on a bunt meant that Yomiuri had runners on second and third with no outs. Roman recorded his final out of the game on a fly ball to center, and then he was told to walk Abe which loaded the bases.

And that was the end of Roman’s night. Masubuchi took the mound in his stead.

Masubuchi fell behind against Chono, but he then got him to swing and miss at three consecutive sinkers near the outside corner of the plate. Two outs.

Tanaka then brought the Tokyo faithful to their feet when he robbed Murata of an RBI or two when he launched himself in the air and snared a rocket that was headed towards Ueda’s neck of the woods. Crisis averted.

Milledge's reply? "I love you, Coco."

That was Tanaka’s second inning-ending, he-saved-our-asses play of this series.

Tokyo put a couple of runners on in the seventh, but that was it as far as offense was concerned.

More importantly, after Masubuchi’s two outs in the sixth, Tokyo’s trio of Hidaka, Oshimoto, and Barnette were perfect through the final three frames.

Barnette buttoned things up in the ninth for his seventh save of the year and third this week.

Pitching:

Roman’s final line was 5.1 IP, 65 NP, 3 H (1 HR), 1 K, 2 BB, 2 R (both earned). He’s now 1-3 with a 3.57 ERA.

Masubuchi, Hidaka, and Oshimoto all earned holds for their combined 2.2 innings of perfect baseball. Masubuchi was able to lower his ERA to 4.32 today.

Barnette faced three batters and threw 14 pitches today. He worked his heater, cutter, and sinker to good effect against the middle of Yomiuri’s lineup and was able to induce three harmless pop-ups for his third save this week.

Offense:

Only Ueda had a multi-hit game today, but Tanaka, Kawabata, and Miyamoto also reach base twice. Milledge and Nakamura deserve praise for coming through with runners in scoring position.

Tokyo has tomorrow off before hosting the first-place Chunichi Dragons Tuesday-Thursday. Tuesday’s games starts at 6PM. See you there.

Notes:

The Tokyo 3-2 Yomiuri scoreline condemned the Giants to their fifth consecutive defeat.

Tokyo are still in second place, one game behind the Chunichi Dragons. After Hanshin’s pummeling of Yokohama this afternoon, the top three in the Central League remained the same.

Tokyo’s record is now 11-7-1.

Today’s game was over in just two hours and 31 minutes. I was home well before 10 PM which is rare.

All four of Tokyo’s top team imported players had a significant impact on today’s game. Balentien was responsible for Tokyo’s first run thanks to his fourth homer of the season. Milledge scored the game-winner with his RBI double. Roman got the win after 5.1 innings in nasty conditions, and Barnette sealed the deal in the ninth. Can’t remember the last time anything similar happened.

Balentien relinquished the lead league in average and OBP, but he’s now tied with Chunichi’s Hirata and Hanshin’s Brazell for the lead in homers (4).

Nakamura now leads the league in sac flies (2).

Miyamoto needs just nine more hits to join the Meikyukai.

Roman and Milledge both were awarded for today’s performances with their first NPB hero interviews.

Balentien made sure to keep things light by shoving a towel-full of shaving cream into Milledge’s face during the interview. To his credit, Milledge laughed it off and was very appreciative of his teammates and positive about the team’s chances when he was finally able to see and talk again.

Milledge had five hits and two RBI this week--his second was a game-winner.

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  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.

Kawakami back with the Dragons this year

Chunichi Dragons

• Sold backup catcher, Keiji Oyama (31) to Tohoku. 2011 was Oyama’s best season so far, offensively-speaking. He hit .280/.394/.390 in 102 plate appearances.
• It sounds like Araki and Ibata could be reverting to their old positions, second and short, respectively.
• Victor Diaz is all but certain to be wearing a Chunichi uniform this season. He has experience playing all over the field, so he should give the Dragons several options in terms of where they can put him.
• The team lured the team’s former starter, Kenshin Kawakami, back from MLB. The last time he played in a Dragons uniform was the 2008 season when he recorded a 9-5 record and a 2.30 ERA. He moved to the Atlanta Braves as a free agent after that. Kawakami pitched well in 2009, but is now regarded as a bust in MLB. He spent most of last season at AA and ended the season with an ERA well above eight. Six million dollars for a crappy year at double A? Yikes.

Yomiuri Giants

• First year players Scott Mathieson (P) and John Bowker (OF) were unveiled to the media on Friday.

Hanshin Tigers

• Much like Tokyo, Hanshin has yet to figure out who will be manning center field this season. A number of names have been floated, including Ryo Asai, Shunsuke, Wei-Chu Lin and rookie Hayata Ito.
• Matt Murton’s wife has still not given birth to the couple’s third child, so there’s a very good chance that he will miss the beginning of spring camp.
• It looks like pitcher Yasutomo Kubo will re-sign with the team some time this week, but infielder Keiichi Hirano is still holding out.

Hiroshima Carp

• Brand new Carp pitcher, Cam Mickolio, and right-handed bat, Nick Stavinoha, were formally introduced to the media on Friday.

Yokohama Baystars

• The new Baystar uniforms are apparently due to be unveiled this weekend. Alex Ramirez may be one of the guys modeling the new kit.

Pacific League Notes

• Kiko Arai, daughter of Orix Buffaloes farm team manager, Hiromasa Arai, is highly attractive. Exhibit A, she was recently crowned Miss Japan.
• Hokkaido received the posting bid money (more than US$50 million for Yu Darvish) from the Rangers. Unfortunately for Hokkaido, however, investors are still guaranteeing the relative strength of the yen over the dollar and euro, so the amount received was basically the equivalent of a couple thousand dollars at today’s exchange rate.

Let's get this deal done already.

• The talk of Araki and Ibata switching back to their original positions, 2nd and short, respectively, continues. Not that anyone cares.
• Victor Diaz might be on the team’s radar. Diaz played in Korea in 2009.

Yomiuri Giants

• Hayato Sakamoto, Yomiuri’s prized homegrown shortstop, has been reaping the benefits of Shinya Miyamoto’s guidance this month. Hey, aren’t those trade secrets? You little git, give us those notes!

Hanshin Tigers

• New Hanshin manager, Yutaka Wada, has given in to Takuya Asao lust and is now babbling about having Fujikawa pitch the 7th inning. If…IF!… he has another top notch closer on hand. Which he doesn’t. And by the way, Mr. Wada, Fujikawa will continue to blow it in the playoffs no matter when you plug him into the game. Sorry.

Hiroshima Carp

• Hiroki Kuroda signed with the Yankees (one-year US$11 million deal). No word yet on whether or not Hiroshima plans to keep waiting.

Yokohama Baystars

• GM Shigeru Takada has injected some young blood into his wing of the building by hiring former Bobby Valentine (Chiba era) front office brain, Shun Kakazu. The 30-year-old has some MLB experience under his belt in the form of serving as San Francisco’s point man on talent in Japan. He has no pro playing experience, however, which makes him rare in front office operations as Patrick Newman pointed out.

Around the Pacific League

• The big news on Yu Darvish will be arriving with in the next few days. The deadline for an agreement is 5PM EST on the 18th (7AM Japan Standard Time on Thursday the 19th). That’s precisely 24 hours after the deadline for a decision on the Norichika Aoki situation.