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.

Fresh off a two year stint with the Elephants, welcome to the Swallows, Mr. Roman.

It’s official. The rumors that we reported earlier this month were the real deal. The Swallows now have a little extra competition brewing in the starting rotation.

Meet Orlando Roman.

The 33-year-old RHP has significant minor league experience in North America with the New York Mets, Baltimore, and Toronto. He has also spent time in Mexico and, for the past two years, Taiwan.

Here’s the team’s official Japanese-language press release, and Yakyu Baka’s English-language summary.

It’s an incentive-laden one-year deal starting at a reported 25 million yen (roughly US$325,000).

So what does the competition for the starting rotation look like at this point?

Ishikawa, Muranaka, Akagawa, and Masubuchi appear to be healthy right now. Tateyama is coming back from surgery, and there’s still a big question mark hanging over Yoshinori’s delicate cabeza. Hopefully we’ll hear some noise from a resurgent Nakazawa, Shichijo, and the cast aside Mikinori Katoh.

Roman enters the fray with a shot at the fifth or sixth starter’s slot. He’ll need to be steady early on and learn to communicate his preferences with Aikawa before May roles around.

We hope he does well. It would be nice to give the kids an extra kick in the pants and finally discover a modicum of reliable depth after the team’s third starter.

He’ll be wearing number 53, Josh Whitesell and Ryota Igarashi’s old number.

They're multiplying as you read this.

Happy Coming-of-Age Day to all of the 20-year-olds out there who are celebrating today. Be sure to post a photo of yourself in the comments all decked out in your old-enough-to-vote garb. And don’t drink too much tonight.

This website has been very preoccupied with Norichika Aoki news as of late, and Lastings Milledge has been getting plenty of attention as well. But there hasn’t been a whole lot Swallows news, even as we’ve tried to keep everyone updated on what’s happening Around the Central League.

Of course, that’s not always the easiest thing to do as there isn’t exactly a ton of Tokyo news coming out of the NPB paparazzi.

But here’s a few tidbits from the past week or so:

• The team announced today that farm team outfielder Jun Matsui (24) filed marriage papers with a woman named Kayoko (25) on December 27, 2011.
• Miyamoto doesn’t seem to think that the Swallows did enough during the off-season to improve the team. This Japanese-language report doesn’t contain anything more than a one line quote, and I mostly agree with him (I would love to see a bold multi-player trade to bring in a decent starting pitcher), but you have to wonder if Miyamoto has heard anything about new import Lastings Milledge other than the fact that he last played AAA ball for the White Sox. Milledge has spent even more time in the big leagues than Matt Murton had before he signed with Hanshin two years ago. And Murton was a legit big leaguer with the Cubs. I’m not saying that Milledge will deal with the culture shock he experiences as well as Murton did, but he’s definitely a solid all-around player and better than all of the players we platooned in left last year combined.
• Speaking about Miyamoto, it sounds like he’s more than willing to step out of the way once he’s reached the 2,000 hit milestone. Seeing as how he only has 25 hits to go, it’s likely that he’ll reach his desired tally some time in May as long as he doesn’t slump as hard as he did during the playoffs last year. As I said in this post, I wouldn’t mind seeing some other folks getting time at third base, but if Miyamoto has another regular season like 2011, then I’d prefer that he keep his spot in the lineup. Even if he is 150 years old.
• New recruit, Yuji Nakane, will miss the 2011 season after having ACL surgery on his right knee.
• It’s not a great improvement, but the top team will add one more trainer/physio to its staff for the upcoming season, bringing the total to four. Hopefully another gets added for the 2013 season.
• Sounds like the team might have signed another non-Japanese pitcher who could compete for a starting role. However, if reliever Tony Barnette has another good season, then look for Orlando Roman to spend the majority of 2012 up in Toda on the farm team.
• The number of cheerleaders at Swallows home games is expected to double because Tokyo’s squad was the smallest in the league, and the young ladies will apparently be wearing ‘sexier’ outfits. Draw your own conclusions on that one.

Wladimir Ramon Balentien was born on July 2nd, 1984 in Willemstad, Curaçao. He is often referred to by his nickname, Coco.

He played on the Dutch national team in the 2004 Olympics which finished in sixth place.

Balentien is best known for his incredible power at the plate. He hit the longest home run of the 2009 Major League season off of Pittsburgh’s RHP McCutchen in the seventh inning with one out. Click play in the video below to watch that enormous home run.

According to Hit Tracker, the ball landed 495 ft. from home plate.

Balentien also has a strong arm, so he has been known to give runners pause before pursuing an extra base.

Professional Baseball

In 2000, and at the age of 16, Balentien signed with the Seattle Mariners as an undrafted free agent. He did not debut in the minors until 2003 when he played in 50 games for Seattle’s rookie ball team, the Arizona League Mariners. He spent the next four seasons rising through the Mariners’ minor league system and had a standout 2007 at AAA Tacoma where he hit .291/.362/.509 in 124 games for the Rainiers.

Balentien was finally granted his major league debut at the end of the 2007 season and collected his first hit in his first at-bat while pinch-hitting in a game against the Yankees. He collected four RBI and six total bases in just four plate appearances at the end of 2007.

He signed his first big league contract, a one-year deal, before the start of the 2008 season, but ended up beginning the season once again with AAA Tacoma. However, about a month later Balentien was called back up to the big leagues when the starting right fielder, Brad Wilkerson, was demoted (Ichiro was starting in center at the time). Balentien logged 243 at-bats in 71 games for the Mariners that season, and he hit just .202/.250/.342 while turning 25 in the process.

With big league numbers that were just slightly better in 2009 than those he put up a year earlier, Balentien was traded to Cincinnati for right-handed reliever, Robert Manuel. Cincinnati got the better end of that trade, as Balentien hit .264/.352/.427 in 110 at-bats while Manuel never made it past Tacoma.

Balentien spent all of the 2010 season at Cincinnati’s AAA affiliate, Louisville and hit .282/.337/.536 while hitting 25 home runs.

He was released by the Reds following the 2010 season so that he could sign a contract with the Tokyo Swallows.

Welcome to Japan!

Balentien signed with the Swallows in November, 2010.

Balentien had an immediate impact with the Swallows.

Following the tsunami-delayed start to the 2011 NPB season, Balentien quickly raced out to the front of the home run race in the Central League, a lead that he would not relinquish. His strong first half of the 2011 season earned him All-Star honors.

However, he faded badly during the second half of the season. Balentien played slightly better in the playoffs going six-for-24 with one RBI and two runs scored against some of the best pitchers in the Central League. However, he had no extra-base hits and he struck out nine times.

He finished the 2011 season as the Central League home run king (31) and was top in slugging percentage (.469).

However, the overall adjustment to Japanese baseball was not an easy one as can be seen by comparing his 2010 AAA slash line of .282/.337/.536 (113 hits; 78 RBI; 85 K) with his 2011 NPB stats: .228/.314/.469 (111 hits; 76 RBI; 131 K).

For the record, Balentien played in 116 AAA games in 2010 (452 plate appearances) and 140 games in 2011 (555 plate appearances).

Stats

MLB Statistics

 

Year	Team	G	AB	H	R	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	Avg.	OBP	Slg.
2007	SEA	3	3	2	1	4	1	0	1	0	0	.667	.500	2.000
2008	SEA	71	243	49	23	24	13	0	7	16	79	.202	.250	.342
2009	SEA	56	155	33	18	13	10	0	4	13	43	.213	.271	.355
2009	CIN	40	110	29	12	11	7	1	3	15	27	.264	.352	.427
Total		170	511	113	54	52	31	1	15	44	149	.221	.281	.374

NPB Statistics

Year	Team	G	AB	H	R	RBI	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	Avg.	OBP	Slg.
2011	TOK	140	486	111	63	76	22	1	31	61	131	.228	.314	.469

A lot has happened since the end of the season a little over a month ago.

Happy holidays everyone! Hope that everyone out there has had a chance to spend some time with loved ones.

This is the first of what will likely be an on-again, off-again column detailing what’s going on with Tokyo’s competition in the Central League.

Chunichi Dragons

• Morimichi Takagi took over as Chunichi’s new coach following the team’s defeat in the Japan Series last month. Apparently he wants everyone to refer to him by his first name as part of his kinder, gentler, more lovable Dragons approach to running the team.
• RHP Maximo Nelson re-signed with the club for one year (roughly 80 million yen).
• After four seasons of mostly second string service, Masaaki Koike (31) declared free agency and rejoined his former team, Yokohama.
• Signed free agent Takeshi Yamasaki (43) to a one year deal reportedly worth 30 million yen. 2012 will be Yamasaki’s 26th season of professional baseball in Japan.
• Reliever Takuya Asao re-signed with the team for 260 million yen. He was the first ever league MVP who hadn’t started a single game.
• RHP Wei-Ying Chen is now a free agent and is looking for an opportunity to play in the majors.
• First baseman re-signed for 130 million yen.
• Starting pitcher Enyelbert Soto re-signed for approximately 39 million yen.

Yomiuri Giants

• The team saw it’s season ended by crosstown rival, Tokyo!
• Former Yomiuri General Manager, Hidetoshi Kiyotake, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the Yomiuri Giants, Yomiuri Newpaper Holdings, and Yomiuri’s chairman and chief asshole, Tsuneo Watanabe. This came after Kiyotake was sued by the team and the newspaper about 10 days earlier.
• Free agent Alex Ramirez decided to leave the team in search of a better long-term playing time situation. He eventually signed with Yokohama.
• Tatsunori Hara re-signed as the team’s manager. It was a two-year deal.
• Backup catcher, Kazunari Tsuruoka, declared free agency.
• Saburo Omura also declared free agency and returned to his former team, Chiba. Only two players before him left the Giants after only one year.
• Signed RHP Scott Mathieson to a one-year deal worth a reported one million dollars.
• Signed free agent infielder Shuichi Murata from Yokohama. The two-year deal was worth around 500 million yen.
• Lured starting pitcher D.J. Houlton away from Fukuoka Softbank with a two-year 375 million yen deal.
• Re-signed pitchers Romero and Gonzalez.
• Hired former NPB player, Fernando Seguignol, as the team’s scout in North America.
• Signed free agent starter Toshiya Sugiuchi away from Fukuoka Softbank.

Hanshin Tigers

• Akinobu Mayumi stepped aside as manager of the club.
• Yutaka Wada signed a contract at the beginning of December to manage the Tigers for the next three seasons.
• Decided to keep Robert Zarate on an ikusei contract for next season.
• Re-signed overpriced infielder Takahiro Arai for three years at around 250 million yen per year.
• Closer Fujikawa decided not to exercise his right to domestic free agency and opted for a one-year deal. He apparently wants to play in the majors after next season.
• Shortstop Toritani also decided to stay with the team and is looking forward to earning his international free agency next season. He has not ruled out a move to the majors in 2013.
• Starter Randy Messenger re-signed with the team. It was a one-year deal worth roughly 1.5 million dollars. The team apparently has a club option for 2013.
• Re-signed Matt Murton to a one-year deal worth around three million dollars. It was reported that the contract includes a club option for a second year.
• Brazell is owed two million dollars for next season, the last year of his two-year contract.
• Secured Jason Standridge’s services for another year and it will cost the team 1.5 million dollars.
• Traded 27 year-old pitcher Keiji Uezono to Tohoku for 28 year-old pitcher Shingo Matsuzaki.
• The team is requiring Brazell to check in with regular training updates. He showed up at spring training this year nearly 30 pounds overweight, so they decided to tighten the screws on him during the off-season this time around.
• Mizuno will be designing Hanshin’s new uniforms, and it was reported that they will be shown to the public in late January.

Hiroshima Carp

• Back in November, both Kenta Kurihara and Jun Hirose decided not to declare free agency.
• Kurihara signed a one-year deal for 160 million yen that is ass-heavy with production-related incentives. He can reportedly earn a 400 million yen bonus if he drives in at least 110 runs. He signed a one-year deal because he’s interested in earning his international free agency option. There is a chance that he’ll test the MLB waters after the 2012 season.
• Hirose signed a three-year deal worth 60 million yen a year.
• The Carp signed OF Nick Stavinoha (29 years old) to a one-year deal. He has spent his entire pro career in the St. Louis Cardinals organization.
• They also signed RHP Kam Mickolio who had been released by the Diamondbacks following the 2011 season. He signed a one-year deal.
• Ikusei pitcher, Wilfreiser Guerrero, was released.
• Pitchers Giancarlo Alvarada and Mike Schultz were released.
• Announced that veteran Takuro Ishii will be a player/coach next season.
• Starting pitcher Bryan Bullington re-signed with the team for 133.75 million yen. It’s a one-year deal.
• Closer Dennis Sarfate also signed a one-year contract worth 90 million yen.
• Infielder Brian Barden re-signed for 65 million yen.
• The Carp are REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hoping that Hiroki Kuroda will come back from MLB and pitch for them next season.

Yokohama BayStars

• The Yokohama Bay Stars were purchased by DeNA and named former Tokyo manager, Takada, as their GM.
• Manager Takao Obana was sent packing.
• The team flirted with 500 year-old pitcher, Kimiyasu Kudo, for a while and actually offered him a job as a player-manager. But then Takada was given the GM job and put the kibosh on the whole thing.
• Kiyoshi Nakahata was announced as the club’s first manager under the DeNA banner. He signed a two-year deal.
• Signed outfielder, and former Tokyo Swallow, Alex Ramirez who just finished up his fourth year as a Yomiuri Giant. It’s a two-year deal worth at least 350 million yen per year.
• Lost third baseman, Shuichi Murata, to the Yomiuri Giants.
• Brent Leach was released.
• Pitcher Clayton Hamilton was retained despite his 7.18 ERA over 36.1 innings for the top team.
• Pitcher Brandon Mann also had his contract renewed.
• Yokohama shipped 27 year-old catcher, Shingo Takeyama, to Saitama in exchange for infielder Taketoshi Goto (31).
• Yokohama posted workhorse reliever Hiroki Sanada, but he wasn’t bid on by anyone in MLB (because he isn’t really that good).
• Brett Harper was also let go despite putting up OK numbers in 2011.
• Big-hitting Termel Sledge was released.
• The new Baystars logo looks horrible. The worst part is that ‘DeNA’ is written in a bigger font than ‘Yokohama’. UPDATE: These newer ones are a little better.
• Yomiuri free agent, Kazunari Tsuruoka, re-signed with his former team, the Yokohama BayStars. He signed a two-year deal worth a total of 90 million yen.
• Signed Chunichi free agent and former BayStar, Masaaki Koike, to a two-year contract worth 40 million yen per year.
• The team is planning on debuting new uniforms next season.

Milledge had his longest stint at Pittsburgh.

Bio

Born April 5th, 1985 in Bradenton, Florida, Lastings Darnell Milledge was a standout baseball player from a young age and hit the national stage in elementary school when he helped his Little League team, Manatee East, reach the finals of the national tournament in 1997.

Manatee East lost in the finals when Milledge was 12 years old, but he soon made an impact at the international level when he helped the US beat Venezuela for the gold medal in the IBAF’s U16 Baseball World Championship four years later.

Milledge graduated from Lakewood Ranch High School in 2003 after the school’s baseball team was crowned Florida 5A champions.

Professional Baseball

Even though he was touted as the top junior prospect in the nation when he was in 11th grade, his transition to professional baseball was not a smooth one. News that he had been expelled from Northside Christian High School at the age of 17 dogged him and largely prevented him from being selected in the top five after his senior year.

Milledge was drafted in the first round (12th overall) of the 2003 draft by the New York Mets. However,

Milledge started his MLB career in New York.

additional details about his high school expulsion slowed contract negotiations, and he was only able to play in a few games at the tail-end of the 2003 minor league season.

Milledge worked his way through the New York Mets minor league system during the 2004 through 2006 seasons. In 2006, just before his 21st birthday Milledge was the starting right fielder for New York’s triple A affiliate, the Norfolk Tides of the International League.

He was awarded his major league debut on May 30th, 2006 a little less than two months after his 21st birthday. That made him the youngest player in the National League that season, and he would go on to play both left and right field in 56 games while batting .241/.310/.380 for the Mets that season.

His top team action was limited somewhat in 2007 due to a foot injury, and he was traded to the Washington Nationals at the end of the season.

It was with Washington in 2008 that Milledge appeared in a career-best 138 games. He hit .268/.330/.402 that season while working as the team’s everyday center fielder. His strong performance that year was in spite of the fact that he spent a month on the DL due to a groin injury that season.

A slow start to the 2009 season plus an injury while at AAA Syracuse helped convince Washington to trade the 24 year old outfielder to Pittsburgh along with pitcher Joel Hanrahan in exchange for outfielder Nyjer Morgan and pitcher Sean Burnett.

In 2009 he played in only 65 major league games, seven with Washington and 58 for the Pirates after overcoming his injury.

In 2010, Milledge appeared in 113 games for Pittsburgh and played both left (63 games) and right (45 games). However, after hitting .277/.332/.380, the Pirates decided not to extend his contract, and he signed a minor league deal with the Chicago White Sox in February of 2011.

He only appeared in two games for the Sox though, and he spent the remainder of 2011 with the team’s AAA affiliate in Charlotte where he hit .295/.364/.441 in 123 games (444 at-bats). He had 12 homers and 27 stolen bases for the Charlotte Knights in 2011, and he was in the middle of a solid winter league campaign with the Aragua Tigres in Venezuela when he signed with the Tokyo Swallows.

Wecome to Tokyo!

The Tokyo Swallows announced on Tuesday December 27th, 2011 that they had signed 26 year old Lastings Milledge to a two-year contract. It seems like a basic agreement was reached on the seventh of that month, and the Swallows first publicly acknowledged interest in Millege at the beginning of November.

Milledge was brought in to help soften the offensive and defensive blow of losing Norichika Aoki to the Milwaukee Brewers via the posting system.

According to reports at the end of 2011, the Swallows were planning to use him in left field.

Milledge was assigned the number 85 which is the same number that he wore while playing for the Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates. First base coach Tetsuya Iida gave up the number so that Milledge could have it. Iida switched to the number 88 which was last worn by Tokyo’s former manager and Tsubamegun favorite, Shigeru Takada.

Stats

MLB Offensive Statistics

Key:
NYM = New York Mets
PIT = Pittsburgh Pirates
G = Games
AB = At-bats
R = Runs
H = Hits
2B = Doubles
3B = Triples
HR = Home Runs
RBI = Runs Batted In
SB = Stolen Bases
BB = Walks
HBP = Hit By Pitch
K = Strikeouts
Avg. = Batting Average
OBP = On-Base Percentage
Slg. = Slugging Percentage

Other Milledge News and Notes

Lastings Milledge invited some controversy early in his pro career with the Mets when he was featured in a friend’s rap song involving typical hip hop lyrics. Mets GM Omar Minaya was quite unhappy with the negative PR that ensued, and Milledge was traded following the 2007 season.

The song was produced by one of Milledge’s companies, Soulja Boi Records. However, it doesn’t look like the company has done anything of interest since the controversy in 2007. The company’s website, as of the end of 2011, was still inactive.

In the second half of 2011 Milledge started an LLC with Deon Troupe called Pro Live Connect that attempts to give professional sports fans a chance to interact with their favorite athletes.

Milledge also played 145 games for the Nationals.

Tokyo Swallows 4

Yokohama BayStars 3

Streak: Won 1   Last 5: WWLLW

(Yokohama Stadium)

After watching its young pitchers get knocked about the park for the past two days, Tokyo looked to salvage a bit of pride against the recently very feisty BayStars.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	0	1	1	2	0	0	0	4	12	1
Yokohama	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	3	10	0
W: Hidaka (2-0) L: Takasaki (5-14) S: Lim (30)

	Tokyo		Yokohama
1	Aoki CF	1	Shimozono LF
2	Fukuchi LF	2	Watanabe SS
3	Kawabata SS	3	Tsutsugoh 1B
4	Hatakeyama 1B	4	Murata 3B
5	Balentien RF	5	Naito RF
6	Miyamoto 3B	6	Matsumoto CF
7	Tanaka 2B	7	Fujita 2B
8	Aikawa C	8	Hosoyamada C
9	Yamamoto P	9	Takasaki P

Tokyo opened the scoring on a solo Hatakeyama effort into the very top of the bleachers in left in the top of the fourth. His 23rd homer of the year made it 1-0 Tokyo.

But Yokohama answered in the bottom of the inning in the form of a Murata bomb into the visitor’s section. 1-1.

Straight pudding.

Then it was Tokyo’s turn. Aikawa’s second single in as many at-bats was followed by a Yamamoto sac bunt and an Aoki RBI double to put the Swallows back in front. 2-1 Tokyo.

But the home side replied once again. Watanabe’s two out infield single was later rewarded with an Aikawa throwing error when Watanabe was in the process of swiping second. Tsutsugoh then lofted one high off the wall in left for a double and the satisfaction of again leveling the score. 2-2.

Tokyo up again in the top of the sixth. After two outs from Hatakeyama and Balentien, Miyamoto, Tanaka and Aikawa showered left field with a double, a single and another double to plate two more runs and put the Swallows back in the lead. 4-2 Tokyo.

Yokohama didn’t answer for a while, but things got hairy in the bottom of the ninth with Lim on the mound trying to protecting the two run lead. After getting the first out on a pop fly to short, pinch-hitter, Aranami, fouled off most of what he saw and finally poked a grounder through the gap between short and third.

That was promptly followed by a soft Ide grounder to short that was a little too slow to be picked up and turned into an out. Shimozono then hit a fielder’s choice to short that very nearly became a game-ending 6-4-3 double play, but the throw to first didn’t make it in time, and the result was runners on the corners with two outs. Very unlucky for Lim, and bad news for Tokyo.

Watanabe then came to the plate representing the winning run. The 3-1 pitch is when he finally came through for the home team with a tricky one-hopper to Kawabata’s left. He got a glove on it, but couldn’t keep it in front of him, and Aranami scored from third. 3-2 Tokyo.

Runners on first and second, and Tsutsugoh at the plate. Tsutsugoh, who had already doubled twice off the wall in left, took a heavy swipe at the first high fastball he saw, and he  swung again at the next heater which was low and away. Both were fouled off behind him to temporarily put Lim in the driver’s seat.

But it wasn’t until Tsutsugoh had worked the count to 2-2 that Lim finally got a batter to swing at something in the dirt. This time it was a forkball, and the win was preserved. 3-2 Final.

Yamamoto (1-6; 3.96 ERA) didn’t figure in the final scoreline after throwing 90 pitches through four and two-thirds innings. He gave up two earned runs off of five hits and mixed in two strikeouts, four walks and a single wild pitch.

Instead, Hidaka got the win for his third of an inning and six pitches of work. It was his second win of the season, and his ERA budged slightly to 7.04.

Oshimoto (2.83 ERA) just barely held things together in the sixth before pitching a much more confident seventh, and Matsuoka (2.56) came through with a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth.

Lim recorded his 30th save of the 2011 season, and the one earned run pushed his ERA up to 2.25 through 59 appearances.

Tanaka, who was batting seventh for the first time in a long time, was selected as the hero of the game for his three hits and one RBI (the go-ahead run in the sixth). Aikawa had a similar day at the plate going 3-4 with an RBI of his own. Aoki and Kawabata also had multi-hit games with the former adding an RBI in the top of the fifth.

Tokyo have the day off tomorrow and will take on the Hanshin Tigers at Koshien from Tuesday to Thursday. They’ll be back at Jingu on Friday through Sunday for a three game series against the fifth place Hiroshima Carp.

Notes:

Thankfully the Swallows didn’t face pitching of the caliber that they saw on Friday. Yokohama’s Miura was his old self during that game. In this afternoon’s game, however, Tokyo faced friendlier pitching and outhit Yokohama 12-10.

Hatakeyama leads the league in RBIs (82) and walks (69).

Lim has reached the 30 save mark for the third time since joining Tokyo for the 2008 season.

Tanaka can be a good hitter when he doesn't have to bunt all the time.

]]> http://tokyoswallows.com/2011/10/02/10211-yokohama-away/feed/ 0 http://tokyoswallows.com/2011/05/15/51511-yokohama-away/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=51511-yokohama-away http://tokyoswallows.com/2011/05/15/51511-yokohama-away/#comments Sun, 15 May 2011 08:39:12 +0000 Christopher Pellegrini http://tokyoswallows.com/?p=8974 May 15th, 2011

Tokyo Swallows 5

Yokohama BayStars 3

Streak: Won 3    Last 5: LDWWW

(Yokohama)

After two wins to start the series in Yokohama, the Swallows were led onto the field by Masubuchi (1-0, 3.81 ERA). The 23-year-old righty has been throwing well so far this year in his first season back as a starter after a successful spell as a set-up pitcher in 2010 (2.69 ERA in 60.1 innings off relief). Something you probably didn’t know: Masubuchi leads the Central League with an opposing team batting average of only .198!

Masubuchi’s weakness? You guessed it, walks. He leads the Central in that department as well with 14 free bases issued in his first four starts of 2011.

Yokohama

Masubuchi gets the manager's support

1. Ishikawa SS
2. Kinjoh CF
3. Sledge LF
4. Murata 3B
5. Harper 1B
6. Yoshimura RF
7. Watanabe 2B
8. Hosoyamada C
9. Makka P

Tokyo

1. Aoki CF
2. Tanaka 2B
3. Whitesell 1B
4. Hatakeyama LF
5. Balentien RF
6. Miyamoto 3B
7. Aikawa C
8. Kawabata SS
9. Masubuchi P

Tokyo gave Masubuchi a little bit of a cushion before he even entered the game. Aoki drew a walk to get things started, and then luckily (perhaps) Tanaka fouled off his first two bunt attempts. He was forced to swing away, and the result was a single that left runners safe on both first and second.

Whitesell then grounded into a 3-6-1 double play which left Aoki safely on third. Hatakeyama then drew an inexplicable four-pitch walk, which left Makka to deal with the red-hot Balentien. Balentien, as you’ll remember, already has four home runs in this series against the BayStars.

And he came through again with a grounder past Ishikawa at short to score Aoki from third. 1-0 Tokyo.

Masubuchi then took the mound and quickly got behind  in the count and wound up with a full count situation to start things off against Yokohama’s leadoff hitter, Ishikawa. But on the seventh pitch, a belt-high fastball, Ishikawa went down swinging for the first out. Masubuchi then got out of the inning three pitches later when Kinjoh and Sledge both hit early-count pitches right at the Tokyo defense.

All in all, it was a very tidy first inning for Masubuchi, and it was quickly Tokyo’s turn to pick up the bats again.

Aikawa kept the pressure on Yokohama’s young southpaw by hitting a fastball over Sledge’s head in left. With Aikawa on second, Kawabata worked a walk, and both runners moved into scoring position on Masubuchi’s perfectly placed sacrifice bunt. Aoki then plunked a forkball into the gap between center and right to plate both Aikawa and Kawabata. 3-0 Tokyo.

Yokohama’s bats woke up a little bit in the second inning with a couple of hits. Harper’s fifth homer of the season, a solo shot to right, did a bit of damage. 3-1 Swallows.

Yokohama’s starter, Makka, had his afternoon cut short by his manager who felt that he wasn’t sharp enough to deserve any more time on the mound. Atori took his place and quickly retired the middle of Tokyo’s lineup in 1-2-3 fashion.

Through three innings, Masubuchi had thrown 42 pitches, given up two hits, and struck out four. And while he wasn’t having a difficult time locating his pitches, the fourth inning saw him get behind in the count against Sledge, Murata and Harper. It goes without saying that playing catch-up against those three hitters is not an enviable position to be in. The first two made him pay with singles before Harper popped up to Kawabata in shallow left.

Yoshimura was able to move Sledge over to third on a check-swing bouncer back to the pitcher. It was hit slowly enough though that he was able beat the double-play throw to first. And he would score one batter later when Hatakeyama failed to shift into the proper gear to get to Fujita’s fly ball at the warning track in left. Yokohama 3-3 Tokyo.

And Atori was perfect through his first three innings in the game. His forkball and inside  fastball were used to great effect against the Tokyo bats.

Masubuchi looked sharp facing the first three batters of the fifth. He started throwing first-pitch strikes, and didn’t experience a base runner until Kinjoh gently patted a single to center. And although he got behind 3-0 to Sledge, he eventually struck him out looking with a heater right down the middle.

Hatakeyama did a little bit to make amends for his allowing those two runners to cross home plate earlier in the game by leading things off with a base-hit to center. He was swiftly taken off that base to make way for Fukuchi.

Miyamoto bats in the winning run.

During Balentien’s at-bat, Fukuchi attempted to collect his league-leading ninth stolen base, but Balentien kept swinging away. The second time that he took off for second, Balentien shaped a low-and-away pitch into left-center that allowed Fukuchi to reach third.

Miyamoto then improved on his league-leading .550 batting average with runners in scoring position with a single to left that easily plated Fukuchi from third. 4-3 Tokyo.

Aikawa then moved both runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt for the first out and another Yokohama pitching change.

Shinohara, a lefty, was brought in to face Tokyo’s Kawabata. The Swallows would have had another run on Shinohara’s 2-1 pitch, but the pitch was far lower than expected, and Kawabata’s squeeze attempt bounced foul.

It didn’t matter though because he was able to club a sacrifice fly deep enough into center that Balentien had plenty of time to make his way home. 5-3 Tokyo.

Masubuchi made it through six innings on 90 pitches and gave up three runs on seven hits. His five strikeouts looked very good against a zero in the walks column. Oshimoto took the mound in his place for the start of the seventh. Ogawa also made a defensive switch by switching Takeuchi for Whitesell at first.

Oshimoto worked a 1-2-3 with two strikeouts to bring on the eighth.

Another inning, another pitching change. Sanada was brought in to deal with Balentien who already had two base-hits prior to his at-bat in the eighth. His third hit of the day was a stand-up double down the line in left. He then moved over to third on Miyamoto’s sacrifice bunt.

I have no idea why the league’s best hitter with runners in scoring position would be bunting when runners are indeed in scoring position, but maybe that’s just me. At any rate, Balentien never made it home, and the lead remained at two.

Barnette came in for the bottom of the eighth in his 12th appearance of the 2011 season. He got Kinjoh to ground out to first, struck out Sledge swinging, and denied Murata his 1000th career hit by getting him to fly out to center.

Ejiri took the mound for the BayStars in the top of the ninth. Today was his 20th appearance so far this season. That’s quite an impressive feat considering that today was Yokohama’s 29th game of 2011.

As expected, Lim came in to try to close things up for the Swallows and complete the three-game sweep over the last-placed BayStars. Today was his third appearance in as many days. Getting through the inning without giving up more than one run would be his third consecutive save as well and seventh of the season.

Harper struck out swinging for the first out. But Yoshimura got on base care of a full count walk. Fujita then popped out to shallow left causing a rather scary collision between Kawabata and Fukuchi. Both were able to regain their feet and finish out the game, but hopefully nobody needs to take time off as a result of the miscommunication on that play. The final out of the game came on pinch-hitter Naito’s grounder to second. 5-3 Final.

Tokyo outhit the BayStars 9-7 in this contest and saw valuable contributions from Aoki (BB, 2 RBI double, G6, single, G1) and Balentien (RBI single, F8, single, double).

Tokyo’s late-inning trio of Oshimoto (3.00 ERA), Barnette (1.42) and Lim (1.46) completely shut down any hopes of a Yokohama comeback. The only Yokohama runner during the final three innings came on a walk with one out in the ninth. A beautiful thing indeed.

The Swallows head into the interleague portion of the season on a high note and in first place in the Central League. With Hiroshima’s loss to Yomiuri earlier this afternoon, Tokyo is now in possession of 2.5 game lead over the second place Carp.

Tokyo’s interleague campaign kicks off against Hokkaido at Sapporo Dome on Tuesday and Wednesday. They’ll then play a two-game series versus Tohoku in Sendai on Friday and Saturday before hosting their first home series against the Fukuoka Hawks on Monday and Tuesday of next week.

High Fives for the Sweep

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2

Yokohama BayStars 0

Streak: Won 2    Last 5: LLDWW

(Yokohama)

Everyone, please put your hands together for the Tokyo Swallows’ fifth ever 100-game winner, Masanori Ishikawa! He’s also the second fastest to the milestone in club history (259 starts) with only the venerable Masaichi Kaneda getting there faster (250 starts).

Yokohama

Job well done!

1. Ishikawa SS
2. Watanabe 2B
3. Sledge LF
4. Murata 3B
5. Harper 1B
6. Yoshimura CF
7. Ide RF
8. Hosoyamada C
9. Takasaki P

Tokyo

1. Aoki CF
2. Tanaka 2B
3. Whitesell 1B
4. Hatakeyama LF
5. Balentien RF
6. Miyamoto 3B
7. Aikawa C
8. Kawabata SS
9. Ishikawa P

The birds weren’t exactly overpowering at the plate this afternoon, but at least they got on the board first this time around.

Tokyo was able to get a runner on second in each of the first three frames, but nothing came of it. The top of the fifth started out with a strikeout for Ishikawa, his second of the evening. But an error at short during Aoki’s ensuing at bat got things rolling for the Swallows. Tanaka followed with a double to put runners on first and third, and Whitesell complied with a sacrifice fly to right that brought in the first run of the game. 1-0 Tokyo.

On the mound, Ishikawa was far more effective. Naturally. He made up for his own four strikeouts at the plate with seven Ks through eight and two-thirds excellent innings. He only allowed four base runners (all singles) through eight innings. The ninth started off a bit ugly with two men reaching base, but he proceeded to strike out both Watanabe and Sledge to get to within one out of his 100th win.

And with Murata at the plate, Lim was called in to finish the job. It only took one pitch. Murata decided to go after the first pitch he was offered (a fastball low and away), and the result was a very satisfactory 6-4 groundout.

Lim earned his 6th save of the season with that one pitch, but the story of the night was clearly Ishikawa’s domination of the Yokohama lineup. The home team was only able to get a runner into scoring position twice in this game, and only six hits were yielded off of Ishikawa’s 107 pitches. His ERA improved to 1.87, and his record now sits at 3-1 on the season.

Tokyo’s second run came in the eighth care of Balentien’s club. After three homers last night, Coco racked up his league-leading 13th of the year on a one-out, first-pitch slider from Takasaki. 2-0 Tokyo.

Balentien had another stellar day at the plate going 2-3 with a walk. Tanaka chipped in with a pair of doubles, and Aoki reached base in each of his final four at-bats (single, E6, BB, HBP). Aikawa also reached base twice care of a walk and a single.

So Tokyo wins its first series since the Golden Week home set against Chunichi. An attempt at a sweep will take place tomorrow at Yokohama Stadium at 2PM.

Notes:

• Balentien is slugging a very sick .911 as of today’s game. For those that care, his OPS is 1.385.
• Six of Tokyo’s regular starters are batting over .300 at the moment. More importantly, the weakest OBP of the lot is April’s MVP, Miyamoto, at .359. Hatakeayama (.414 OBP), Aoki (.426), Whitesell (.431) and Balentien (.474) are leading the way where it really counts. Kawabata slides in there just above Miyamoto at .382 OBP.
• Aikawa has yet to find his stride at the plate. He’s the only clear weakness aside from the pitcher. His vitals read a blush-worthy .207/.235/.244.
• Whitesell’s vitals, on the other hand, look fantastic now. Read ‘em and weep: .319/.431/.596.

Beam me up, Scotty.