Tokyo Swallows 1

Chunichi Dragons 5

Series: Chunichi 3-2 Tokyo

(Nagoya Dome)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	5	2
Chunichi	4	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	X	5	8	1
W: Kawai (1-0) L: Akagawa (1-1)

The Swallows’ thin starting “rotation” was finally exposed tonight as Akagawa was forced to start on 4 days rest. The Dragons countered with lefty Yudai Kawai.

The Swallows elected to continue starting rookie Yamada at shortstop batting leadoff. The rookie has been solid on defense and had been managing to get some solid contact on pitches despite not actually getting a hit. Unfortunately Yamada ended up being the both the goat and lone bright spot for the Swallows in this game.

Things started off badly with an Araki single. The Swallows got their first out via an Ibata bunt to advance Araki to second. Things were starting to look up as Morino grounded a ball to short on the first pitch. Yamada fielded the ball cleanly but double clutched on the throw. He still would have had plenty of time to get the ball to first after the hesitation, but his throw was off and forced Hatake off the bag. The result of the play was 1 out with men on the corners, rather than 2 outs and a man on third. Akagawa faced Blanco and seemed to have some trouble locating his pitches despite getting Blanco to swing through a couple of sub-par fastballs. Despite getting Blanco to a 2-2 count, Akagawa ended up giving up a single to right which scored Araki from third. 1-0 Dragons Next up was Wada, who despite getting ahead 3-0, managed to foul out to third. The inning should have been over, but instead Akagawa had to face Tanishige. Akagawa also started off Tanishige’s at bat with 3 straight balls. Unfortunately, unlike Wada, Tanishige stayed patient and walked 2 pitches later to load the bases. Hirata was up with 2 out and the bases load, Akagawa managed to get ahead 2-1 in the count but a few fouls and a couple of balls brought the count full after 7 pitches. HIarata finally got a pitch he liked and launched it deep into right field to clear the bases and put himself on second. 4-0 Dragons Oshima followed with an infield single, and Akagawa finally got out of the inning with a strike out of the pitcher.

Akagawa did not look good on 4 days rest.

Kawai got Swallows after Swallows to ground out and seemed to be in top form tonight. Meanwhile Akagawa looked shaky despite not giving up any more runs. The Swallows got on the board in the third inning. Morioka got on first on a 1 out misplay by Araki at short, and Akagawa bunted him over to second for the 2nd out of the inning. Yamada got solid contact on a high outside pitch by Kawai and got it into right for a double to score Morioka. 4-1 Dragons

The Swallows lone bright spot?

That was as close as the Swallows got the rest of the night. Akagawa left the mound for a pinch hitter after 4 innings pitched. Tetsuya Yamamoto, the freshest arm in the Swallows’ pen, was the next up for the Swallows. Yamamoto would give up a solo home run to Blanco to start the fifth, and would give up 2 more runners before getting the final out in the fifth. 5-1 Dragons

While the Swallows got some runners in subsequent innings, including back-to-back lead off singles to start the eighth off Asao, it never felt that the Birds had a chance to get back into the game. The Swallows now find themselves 1 loss away from elimination, and must win 2 in a row to advance to the Japan Series. The Swallows’ pitching situation is nebulous, Data Stadium is predicting a Tateyama start, while the Dragons are likely to start Enyelbert Soto.

Yomiuri Giants 1

Tokyo Swallows  3

Series: Swallows Win 2-1

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Yomiuri	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	6	2
Tokyo	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	X	3	7	0
W: Akagawa (1-0) L: Gonzalez (0-1) S: Muranaka (1)

Based on the comments received in yesterday’s game report, you don’t need to read this report to find out that the Swallows won game 3 of their series against the hated Giants. The raw details of what happened and the sequence of events that lead to the victory are available elsewhere. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to offer a game report with my own personal insights watching as a fan from the right field stands of Jingu…

	Yomiuri		Tokyo
1	SS Sakamoto	1	CF Aoki
2	2B Terauchi	2	2B Tanaka
3	CF Chono	3	LF Whitesell
4	C Abe	4	1B Hatakeyama
5	LF Ramirez	5	3B Miyamoto
6	1B Ogasawara	6	RF Balentien
7	RF Tani	7	SS Morioka
8	3B Furuki	8	C Aikawa
9	P Gonzalez	9	P Akagawa

No matter how well I had tried to mentally justify our position prior to the game, I did not come into tonight’s game cofortable with the idea that we could win. Call it pessimism or realism, I did go to the game tonight mentally preparing for the possibility that our season would end. The negatives (injuries, lack of offense throughout the series, losing momentum after game 2, starting a young pitcher in a pressure game, etc.) had piled higher in my mind than the positives (Akagawa has been effective, Dicky Gonzalez is not the second coming, we’ve come back from a lot of bad positions all year, etc.)

The Monday night crowd was less than that of the 2 weekend games, with an announced attendance of 31,687. But with clear skies and the moon in the sky I knew it would be a beautiful night for baseball even if the crowd was a touch smaller. Akagawa allayed my fears that he would buckle under the pressure with consecutive 1-2-3 innings culminating with strikeouts to start the game. On offense, our inability to score runs right away let the doubt monster creep into my head, but the fact that we managed to get the first hit of the game in the first (Whitesell infield single no less) helped keep the paranoia from taking over.

Doubt began to manifest again when the Giants got their first hit from Furuki with 1 out in the top of the third. The Giants gave us a free out by bunting Furuki over to second, and Akagawa got Sakamoto to ground out to third for the final out. When Aikawa started the bottom of the inning with a solo homerun down the left field line, and drew first blood for the Swallows for the first time in the series, I started to believe that we could win. 1-0 Swallows

That belief would get tested in subsequent innings, as Akagawa allowed consecutive 2 out walks (on 8 pitches no less) in the fourth, consecutive 1 out hits to put on the corners (to the pitcher no less) in the fifth, and a lead off single to start the sixth. But each time, Akagawa regrouped and managed to get the Giants to end the inning without any damage. While Akagawa continued to put up zeros on the top of the scoreboard, the Swallows were unfortunately doing the same thing.

When Akagawa’s night came to an end with 2 outs and a man on second in the seventh, another thought of uncertainty crossed my mind as Oshimoto made his way to the mound. Would we see the reliable Oshimoto or the tired and overworked Oshimoto? These toxic thoughts weren’t able to take root as Oshimoto struck out Sakamoto on just 4 pitches to end the threat.

Things got wild in the bottom of the inning. Miyamoto got on base via a 1 out infield single, but it looked like Balentien had ended the inning with a double play when he grounded out to short. Fortunately, Terauchi wasn’t able to turn the play as his throw missed first base by a mile. Balentien, who had ran hard to try to beat the throw, was half way into right field before he turned to take second base. Ueda came in to run for Balentien, and Morioka came up to bat. Morioka fell behind 0-2, but managed to lace a liner into left field while Ueda was running on contact. Ueda ran towards home and dove in head first, narrowly avoiding the tag, to score the insurance run. 2-0 Swallows

Muranaka came into the game and shut down Giants in the eighth on just 7 pitches. While it seemed like the Swallows were getting closer to closing out the series, there was palpable nervousness in the air as the lead was still relatively small. The Swallows offense gave us a chance to forget about failure as a wild series of events further extended our lead. Aoki started things off with a 1 out double down the left field line that most of us in right assumed was a foul ball. Hiroyasu followed with a hard hit to second that Terauchi let get past him for an error. Aoki turned the corner and headed to home but his barrel roll of a slide into home apparently did not avoid Abe’s tag. (It was too far for us to really determine.) Hiroyasu advanced to second on the throw, and Fukuchi was up with 2 outs. Before any thoughts of changing of momentum could take root, Fukuchi took the first pitch he saw and hit it into right. This time the runner was able to score from second without problem. 3-0 Swallows

So it was up to Muranaka to close out the game and prevent us all from having an aneurism. Things started off nicely with a 3 pitch strikeout of Ramirez. At this point I was huddled shoulder-to-shoulder with my fellow Tsubamegun friends. Unfortunately Ogasawara had to add some drama to the proceedings with a solo shot to right field. 3-1 Swallows But unlike Saturday, Muranaka would stay in the game even as Tateyama could be seen warming up in the pen. Despite the home run, the Swallows crowd did not lose any energy. Muranaka battled Tani and got a ground out to third to make it 1 out from the win. The Giants sent Yoshinobu Takahashi to the plate and he got ahead 2-1. Then we channeled nervous energy to start a Muranaka chant that was quickly picked up by our section and then propagated by the ouendan. The sight of half the stadium chanting for Muranaka and drowning out the Giants cheers was moving and can’t be adequately described in words. Muranaka responded by getting a foul ball, and a massive wiff from Takahashi to end the game and the series.

The next few moments were a flurry of high fives and hugs. I’ll be honest, I cried a little. Not as much as Ishii’s retirement, but the feeling of unity with my friends and thousands of strangers tugged at my heart strings. While the Swallows will move onto Nagoya, I will have to remain in Tokyo. Regardless of what happens at Nagoya, those games won’t be able to beat the emotion I felt in the packed crowd tonight. I hope to see the Swallows bring the action back to Jingu for the Japan Series. Even if they can’t bring it back, I will always have tonight’s game to remember… I feel lucky to have been able to share this moment with many great people of various backgrounds, and I thank the Swallows and this site for that opportunity.

Post Game Celebrations. It wasn't the prettiest win, but a memorable night because of it. (Photo taken by Chris Pellegrini)

By all accounts, it looks like it will be Akagawa pitching for Tokyo and former Tokyo import Dicky Gonzalez throwing for Yomiuri.

Gonzalez hasn’t pitched much this season, but he has been solid for the Giants recently. He’s a fastball/slider pitcher who mixes in the occasional changeup.

Neither team has seen much of the other’s starter this season with Akagawa only throwing four innings against Yomiuri and Gonzalez getting just a third of an inning more than that against Tokyo.

But by looking at some numbers from last season, we might be able to scrounge a little bit more detail.

One thing that becomes very clear is that Gonzalez hasn’t pitched at Jingu Stadium for at least a few seasons.

Also of interest, there were two Tokyo players that hit pretty well against Gonzalez last season, Iihara (.600) and Aoki (.400).

Think we might see Iihara starting in left tonite? Don’t be too surprised.

In 2009, it was Miyamoto and Tanaka that shared the highest batting average against Gonzalez at .667, and Aoki also did well at .333.

However, even though Tokyo have a far longer history with Gonzalez than Yomiuri does with Akagawa, neither team has spent a lot of time at the plate against the opposing pitcher.

Who has the advantage in this case? I’d say that Tokyo does.

My prediction: Yomiuri 3 – 5 Tokyo

With only one game left to go in the regular season, hosts David Watkins and Christopher Pellegrini look ahead to the first stage of the playoffs which will be played at Jingu next weekend.

After talking briefly about why the Swallows finished second in the Central League, David and Christopher move on to probable pitching matchups against Yomiuri and throw a few predictions out there just for fun.

Just like last time, Dave came equipped with some of his noise-making toys.

As always, thank you very much for listening!

PS. If you have subscribed to our podcasts through iTunes, please give us a nice review and lots of stars.

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1

Chunichi Dragons 4

Streak: Lost 1  Last 5: LLWWL

(Nagoya Dome)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	5	0
Chunichi	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	X	4	6	3
W: Yoshimi (18-3) L: Akagawa (6-3)

“It’s over folks,” was how Kozo opened his post after Tokyo’s last loss to Chunichi, six days ago. He was very right. Let us hope that whatever kept the Swallows in the lead for so much of the season is being secretly stored up for the postseason.

	Tokyo		Chunichi
1	Aoki (CF)	1	Ohshima (CF)
2	Ueda (LF)	2	Iwasaki (SS)
3	Tanaka (2B)	3	Fukuda (3B)
4	Hatakeyama (1B)	4	Hirata (RF)
5	Balentien (RF)	5	Saeki (1B)
6	Morioka (SS)	6	Donoue N. (2B)
7	Noguchi (3B)	7	Donoue T. (LF)
8	Nakamura (C)	8	Oyama (C)
9	Akagawa (P)	9	Kawai (P)

.293. Aoki's existential crisis is most other pros' dream.

The first two innings flew by like the stamina of our ailing club, then the scoring started in the third. I trust I needn’t point out which half of the third.

The first pitch went for a single to Donoue the Elder and was followed by an Oyama RBI triple. A bit later, an Ohshima ground out brought Oyama home, too. 2-0 Chunichi.

In the fourth, Aoki sat down, his batting average dropping below .300 at the end of a season for the first time in seven years; Ueda moved to center, Noguchi to left, and Araki came in to play third. Why not give the young guys a shot to play the field? Kyuko also took the mound in the fourth for Tokyo, but it didn’t help a whole lot. He started off by giving up a single to Fukuda, who was immediately (first pitch) brought in by a Hirata triple to the right field fence. Saeki then put the third pitch in almost exactly the same location into deep left for an RBI single. 4-0 Chunichi.

The Dragons continued to supremely suck in the field (seriously, go get drunk and do fungoes in your living room and you’ll be ready to take the field in Nagoya), but Tokyo didn’t even come close to capitalizing on any of the three errors.

Yamamoto pitched the fifth and sixth 1-2-3 for the Swallows, but was left hanging out like David’s dirty underwear on a rainy day. Hidaka traded a hit for a K in the seventh for no damage.

In the seventh, Suzuki took over for Chunichi. In the eighth, he gave up a single to the speedy Noguchi. Ohshima then avoided an E, but fumbled a Fukukawa hit to center, which moved Noguchi to third. Takeuchi was then in for Balentien and sac-flied Noguchi home. Araki GIDPed. 4-1 Chunichi, Final.

Fukuchi got an AB, and got out. Nothing could have counted anyway.

The Birds’ last game of the season will be at home against Hiroshima on the 25th. Here’s how it goes: Cheer for Ogawa, he’s still our man; cheer for the retiring players. Be nice to the Carp.

The Climax Series begins, at Jingu, on Saturday the 29th. Get your Giant-Hater T-shirt now and get to your ticket agent of choice to get your tickets ASAP.

Now take a deep breath and say it with me, Tokyo fans. F”#$%&’())(‘&%&’()=)(‘&%&’())(‘&%$#$%&’!

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 0

Chunichi Dragons 2

Streak: Lost 4   Last 5: WLLLL

(Nagoya Dome)

It’s over folks. The Swallows lost 4 straight to the Dragons to fall 4.5 games behind the Dragons and saw the Dragons’ magic number shrink to 2. This game saw the Swallows’ send their only hot pitcher Akagawa to face the Dragons hottest pitcher.

Akagawa got into trouble early in the game giving up back-to-back two out doubles to Hirata and Blanco to give up the early lead. 1-0 Dragons

Akagawa settled down and induced a ton of ground balls to short and third base and seemed to be in control. Meanwhile, the Swallows’ offensive ineptness continued as they only managed 3 hits off Yoshimi. The Swallows’ first “chance” came in the third when Ueda got a 2 out hit and stole second base. Tanaka couldn’t bring Ueda home as he popped up to second to end the threat. The second and only other chance of the night came after Ueda got a 1 out single in the sixth. After Tanaka’s grounder got Ueda to second, Aoki got an infield single to put men on first and second with 2 outs. Unfortunately the best Hatakeyama could do was fly out to center to end the threat.

It was around this time that Akagawa started to show signs of fatigue. After getting Hirata to foul out to begin the bottom of the sixth, Akagawa gave up a walk to Blanco. Tanishige followed with a hard line drive single to left, but luckily Blanco attempted to take third and was thrown out quite easily for the inning’s second out. Unfortunately Wada followed with a towering double off the centerfield wall that a jumping Aoki wasn’t able to catch to easily score Tanishige. 2-0 Dragons The Swallows then decided to intentionally walk Donoue, and Akagawa pitched around Oshima for another walk to face Yoshimi with 2 outs and the bases loaded. Akagawa struck out Oshima on 3 pitches to avoid any further damage.

Things got dicey again in the bottom of the seventh for Akagawa. After getting one out from Araki, Ibata singled to put a man on. Hirata bunted Ibata to second. The Swallows then intentionally walked Blanco, and called in Lim (yes, that Lim) to face Tanishige. The move surprised Tanishige, and his face after the ump reported the change to the scorer was perhaps the only highlight for the night. Lim got Tanishige to strike out to end the threat, and it was up to the Swallows offense to crack Yoshimi.

Needless to say, the Swallows’ offense did not rise to meet that challenge. Yoshimi got the Swallows to go down 1-2-3 in the eighth, and after Lim held things down for the Swallows in the bottom of the eight, Yoshimi got another 1-2-3 inning off Swallows to end the game.

Notes

• The Swallows were outscored 12-4 over the four game series and never once had a lead over the Dragons.
• The Dragons evened the season series to 10-10-3 with one more game to be played at Nagoya Dome.
• With a magic number of 2, the Swallows essentially need to count on the Dragons winning no more than 1 more of their 6 remaining games, while at the same time winning their remaining 5 to get the pennant. A fairly tall order the way things are going.
• I outlined our clinch scenarios for second place in the comments section of yesterday’s report. With a Tigers’ win tonight, those scenarios remain the same after tonight’s games. (Giants had the night off.)
• The Swallows will return home to face the Tigers in a one-off game tomorrow.

The Swallows have a lot to think about...

Hiroshima Carp 0

Tokyo Swallows  1

Streak: Won 1  Last 5: WLLLW

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

After reluctantly relinquishing their lead in the CL standings, the Swallows return home to squeak out a win.

Yeah, that was more like it.

In tonight’s game, I was interested in seeing how Akagawa would do after his no decision against Yokohama last weekend. Surprise, surprise. He came out and got his 6th win. There was not much action on the bases for either team tonight, as they combined for 5 hits.

After quite a few 1-2-3 innings for both sides and a couple of double-plays, the Birds finally did enough to scrape out a win in the seventh. After a lead-off walk by Boo, Whitesell hit into a fielders choice and was replaced on the bases by Tanaka. With one out, Balentein grounded out to third. Tanaka moved to second on the play. That was followed by another walk, this time to Morioka. Aikawa was next up at the dish. He delivered in the clutch, unlike a few Yankees the previous night!

Guess what, I don't just catch the ball. I can smack the s@#t out of it too!!

He hit a nice “timely hit” to left to score the speedy Tanaka. 1 – 0 Tokyo

When I get on base, all I do is score. Yeah, baby!!

Akagawa ended the inning with a ground out  to second.

As Garrett’s favorite role model Porky Pig would say, “bibiba.. That’s all folks!”

The game would end two innings later after a throwing error by Morioka (playing in place of the pneumonia-strickened Morimoto), sent Akagawa to the bench 2 outs away from a complete game. Lim came in to finish the ninth inning and the game. However, there is never a dull moment with Lim. Inheriting a runner on second, Lim induced a ground out before walking Kurihara to put runners on the corners. A pass ball would allow Kurihara to move to second. Lim, one of the few people in Japan who can sweat more than this writer, wiped away the sweat from his brow one more time. He buckled down and threw one more fastball to get Matsuyama to fly out to end the game. Phew!!

Notes

• Akagawa is now 6 – 1
• The Dragons drew with the Rabbits of the Tokyo Dome to stay atop the table.
• Tomorrow will see the Carp battle the Birds again. Potential starters will be Ootake for Toyo and Hirai for Yakult.
• 16576 witnessed this pitching gem.

MLB Note:

• Although, I am not a fan of the Detroit Tigers, I look forward to seeing this happen to the Yankees every year:

Another rip-off performance by A-fraud.

What does $200 million get us? Nothing but overplayed players with over-priced tattoos. The Yankees lose! THAAAAAAAAA Yankees loooooooosssssseeee!

Tokyo Swallows 3

Yokohama BayStars 10

Streak: Lost 2   Last 5: WWWLL

(Yokohama Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Swallows	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	3	10	0
BayStars	0	0	0	1	2	3	1	3	X	10	14	0
WP: S. Ohara (4-1) LP: T. Yamamoto (0-1)

Things were not pretty as the Swallows’ young bullpen arms were exposed to the BayStars’ bats.

	Swallows		BayStars
1	CF Aoki	1	LF Shimozono
2	2B Tanaka	2	SS Watanabe
3	SS Kawabata	3	1B Tsutsugo
4	1B Hatakeyama	4	3B Murata
5	RF Balentien	5	RF Ikki
6	3B Miyamoto	6	CF Ide
7	LF Iihara	7	2B Fujita
8	C Aikawa	8	C Kurobane
9	P Akagawa	9	P Kobayashi

Akagawa seemed to have a handle of things in the early going. Even the solo homerun he gave up to Tsutsugo to open the bottom of the fourth didn’t seem too bad, as he followed up with back-to-back strikeouts and a quick fly out to end the inning. 1-0 BayStars What was more worrying was that the Swallows’ offense had been held hitless through 4 innings.

However just one inning later things went crazy for Akagawa. After getting a quick fly out from Fujita, Akagawa allowed a single to Kurobane to put men on base. The BayStars elected to bunt with their pitcher to make it 2 out with a man on second. The nightmare would begin as Akagawa lost a 8 pitch battle with Shimozono and walked the left fielder. Akagawa would then load the bases by plunking Watanabe after only 3 pitches. Akagawa’s day ended 4 pitches later after he walked Tsutsugo to push home a run. 2-0 BayStars Oshimoto came in for Akagawa, and couldn’t do much better than Akagawa, allowing a 5 pitch walk to Murata to bring home another run. 3-0 BayStars Oshimoto did manage to get the final out of the inning, but the damage was done.

The Swallows roared back the next inning with a rally. Aoki stated things off with a hard liner straight at the third baseman, but certainly made Kobayashi seem hittable. Hiroyasu followed with a single over the second baseman’s head. Kawabata dropped a single in front of the left fielder to make it 1 out with men on first and second. Kobayashi battled Hatakeyama for 8 pitches but lost as he walked Hatake to load the bases. After falling behind 2-1 to Balentien, the Curaçaoan punished a low fastball and sent it scorching to left field for a single that scored Tanaka and Kawabata. 3-2 BayStars Thus ended Kobayashi’s night and the BayStars sent Ejiri to the mound. Ejiri managed to jam Miyamoto on 2 pitches, but the veteran’s ball managed to bloop into right for a single to load the bases. Iihara followed with a high chopper to that the shortstop had no choice but to throw to first. Iihara managed to beat the throw despite sliding head-first into the bag. Meanwhile, Hatakeyama scored easily from third. 3-3 All Ejiri struck out Aikawa for out number 2, and the Swallows elected to send out Whitesell to the plate. The BayStars elected to send lefty Shinji Ohara to the plate, and the Swallows responded by replacing Whitesell with Fukukawa. While Whitesell’s .207 average against left-handers is low, Fukukawa did not seem like the ideal replacement. Looking through the available bench players and their lefty/righty split it would seem like left hander Morioka may have been the best choice, if we were intent on replacing Whitesell. Fukukawa struck out looking to end the inning and the threat for the Swallows.

The BayStars responded immediately with a surge of their own as Ide and Fujita opened the bottom of the inning with back-to-back singles against Tetsuya Yamamoto. A Kurobane bunt, and a Nakamura strikeout made it 2 out with men in scoring position for the ever dangerous Shimozono. Shimozono smoked a 1-1 offering down the right field line to score 2, and put himself on second. 5-3 BayStars Watanabe followed with a fly ball over the head of Aoki, who was playing shallow, to score Shimozono. 6-3 BayStars Hidaka came in and got the final out.

The Swallows got multiple runners in the seventh, eighth, and ninth but could not get them around to score. Meanwhile the BayStars got 1 extra run in the seventh off Kosuke Matsui, and 3 extra runs in the eighth off Okamoto and Ichiba. The details are not too relevant, the only thing you should know is that Hidaka’s one batter appearance was the only one of the night which did not allow an earned run or an inherited runner to score. Overall the Swallows pitchers allowed 20 H+BB+HBP, not a sexy night… 10-3 Baystars FINAL

The Dragons won their game against the Tigers to shrink the CL pennant race gap to 2 games. No word on the condition of Ishikawa, but Data Stadium is projecting a Hitoshi Yamamoto start from the Swallows in game 3 of this BayStars series in Yokohama. One can only hope that the pitching will get better or that the Swallows offense will better capitalize on the chances that the BayStars pitchers tend to give up.

Not a great day to be a Swallows' pitcher.

Tokyo Swallows 6

Chunichi Dragons 1

Streak: Won 1  Last 5: LLLLW

(Nagoya Dome)

After losing four straight, and three in a row to the second place Chunichi Dragons, the birds saw their lead at the top of the Central shrink to a paltry one-and-a-half games. The big question, of course, was whether or not they could score more than two runs–a feat they had only accomplished once since the 17th of this month.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Tokyo	4	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	6	8	0
Chunichi	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	5	1
W: Akagawa (5-1) L: Chen (7-8)

	Tokyo		Chunichi
1	Aoki CF	1	Araki SS
2	Tanaka 2B	2	Ibata 2B
3	Kawabata SS	3	Morino 3B
4	Hatakeyama 1B	4	Blanco 1B
5	Balentien RF	5	Tanishige C
6	Miyamoto 3B	6	Hirata RF
7	Iihara LF	7	Matsui LF
8	Aikawa C	8	Oshima CF
9	Akagawa P	9	Chen P

The Swallows got on the board first, and they had some help in the process (thank you, Mr. Morino).

Aoki singled and then was Tak-bunted over to second to start the game off. Kawabata then grounded one to Chen on the mound who was in turn able to catch Aoki being a little bit too aggressive. But Morino threw the ball into shallow center field during the ensuing rundown, and both Kawabata and Aoki were safe on second and third, respectively.

With two on and one out, Hatakeyama fouled off the first fastball he saw, but then watched four straight balls which loaded the bases for Tokyo.

Batting coach, Isei (81), and manager, Ogawa (80), give some love.

Balentien then swung at and missed three straight pitches for the second out, but luckily veteran Miyamoto was coming to the plate. He may have sensed that Chen had regained some confidence in his control and would try again with his heater after having so much success with it against Balentien. He guessed correctly, and knocked the first pitch he saw down the line in right to plate two unearned runs for the Swallows. And Iihara followed with a double of his own down the left field line for another two RBIs. 4-0 Tokyo.

And that was basically the whole game right there.

Akagawa continued his winning ways with another surprisingly good effort. He had a perfect game going through four and a third, and a no-hitter through just over five full innings.

The Swallows, meanwhile, got two more runs in the sixth to put the game completely out of reach. Miyamoto again doubled, and Aikawa reached on a one-out single which put Miyamoto on third. Akagawa bunted Aikawa over over, and then they both came home thanks to a little bit of good luck when Aoki grounded one sharply just to Araki’s side of second. To be fair, Araki did excellently to even get near the ball, and he almost gloved it. He couldn’t hold onto it, however, and the ball squirted into no-man’s-land in shallow center which allowed enough time for both Miyamoto and Aikawa to score. 6-0 Tokyo.

With Akagawa looking to secure his first career complete game shutout, the Dragons finally got one back. And it was the recently-fire-hot Tanishige that drove in the run with two outs and a man on in the bottom of the ninth. 6-1 Final.

At any rate, Akagawa got the complete game win, and the Swallows salvaged a modicum of pride with the relatively easy win. Akagawa threw 131 pitches, gave up five hits, struck out three and walked three. His ERA improved to 1.83 after giving up the solo earned run over nine innings of work, and his record now stands at 5-1.

Akagawa gets some love of his own for not requiring the assistance of the bullpen.

Aoki, Iihara and Miyamoto all had two hits and two RBIs each today, and Hatakeyama deserves credit for drawing two walks and scoring once.

The Tokyo Swallows have Monday off to prepare for a three game series against the fourth place Hanshin Tigers who are currently eight games behind Tokyo in the Central League standings and two games adrift of the third and final playoff spot which is currently occupied by Yomiuri.

Tokyo now has a 2.5 game lead over the second place Chunichi Dragons. They next head to Hiroshima for a three game set against the Carp.

Yokohama BayStars 1

Tokyo Swallows 3

Streak: Won 1  Last 5: WWTLW

(Jingu Stadium)

Tokyo are the first team in the Central League to 60 wins.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
YB	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	10	1
TS	0	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	3	7	1
W: Akagawa (4-1) L: Fukuyama (0-1) S: Lim (27)

	Yokohama		Tokyo
1	Watanabe (2B)	1	Aoki (CF)
2	Aranami (CF)	2	Tanaka (2B)
3	Ishikawa (SS)	3	Kawabata (SS)
4	Murata (3B)	4	Hatakeyama (1B)
5	Tsutsugo (1B)	5	Takeuchi (LF)
6	Shimozono (LF)	6	Miyamoto (3B)
7	Yoshimura (RF)	7	Balentien (RF)
8	Kurobane (SC)	8	Aikawa (C)
9	Kuniyoshi (P)	9	Akagawa (P)

After a bit of a wobble last night, the birds looked to take advantage of Yokohama’s 6′ 5″ (195 cm) second year right-hander, Kuniyoshi, who has yet to claim his first NPB win.

Yokohama struck first. In the second inning, Murata singled off of Tokyo starter, Akagawa, to get things started. Yokohama’s third baseman then showed some impressive wheels as he scored on Tsutsugo’s double into the gap in left-center. 1-0 Yokohama.

Despite getting two runners on base in both the first and second innings, Tokyo wasn’t able to capitalize. But Aoki drew the game level in the bottom of the third when he clubbed an elevated heater high off the foul pole in right. 1-1.

It was Aoki’s third homer of the year and his second hard hit to right field of the game.

Akagawa was perfect in the third and fourth, but he caused some concern in the fifth and sixth innings. After recording the first two outs in the sixth, he gave up a double and then walked the next two batters to juice the bases. He finally got out of the inning when Nakamura (the guy who used to play for the Kintetsu Buffaloes, LA Dodgers, Orix Buffaloes, Chunichi Dragons and Tohoku Eagles) grounded out (6-4).

But Tokyo’s resilient starter would end up getting the win with a little help from Yokohama and it’s oversized-59-50-wearing baby-faced rookie reliever, Fukuyama. Hatakeyama led off with a single to center and was then bunted over to second by Takeuchi. Miyamoto managed to get Hatakeyama over to third with a tricky 4-3 groundout which brought Balentien to the plate.

At one point during the at-bat, Fukuyama leaned forward to read the catcher’s sign, stood up slightly, then went back to his forward learning position. His body language and facial expression made it seem like he had missed something. Fortunately for the Swallows, the umpire decided that Fukuyama had stopped and then restarted his pitching motion without properly disengaging his foot from the pitching rubber which constitutes a balk. So Hatakeyama was awarded a base. 2-1 Tokyo.

Yokohama threatened to score in the top of the seventh with Oshimoto on the mound for Tokyo. Watanabe’s leadoff single to left would have been a double if Hatakeyama had been in the area, but Takeuchi fielded, pivoted and threw the ball so quickly that the fleet-footed Watanabe was nailed sliding head-first into second base. Oshimoto allowed two more base-runners after that, but the inning ended with Tsutsugo’s grounder to third.

Tsutsugo. That’s a fun name to say.

Aikawa added an insurance run in the seventh when he hit his first homer of the season into the reserved seats in left. 3-1 Final.

With a broken thumb, no less!

After Matsuoka threw a perfect eighth to defend the two-run lead (three batters, nine pitches), Lim came on to try and secure his 27th save of the season. He looked very sharp through the first two batters but then lost the ceiling on his control and started leaving a lot of pitches up. An Aranami triple later (the outfield was drawn in a bit too far) and Lim was facing the tying run in the form of Ishikawa who had struck out three times against Arakawa but singled against Oshimoto.

Lim hit his spots spots only three times during that at-bat, but it was all that he needed as Ishikawa went down looking and the Swallows celebrated their 13th win of September.

Tokyo will travel a few stations down the Chuo Sobu train line for tomorrow night’s game against Yomiuri. It is their last regular season game against their rivals in 2011.

Weather-permitting, the Swallows will be back at Jingu again on Wednesday for a game against Hiroshima.

Notes:

• The Tokyo Swallows have amassed 13 wins against two losses and one tie during the month of September.
• Akagawa and Aoki took the podium for the post-game hero’s interview.
• Akagawa, despite his occasional control issues, has been a very nice surprise for the Swallows during the second half of this season. He is now 4-1 with a 1.96 ERA.
• Aoki leads the team with a .331 batting average this month. Kawabata had been leading the team in September up until this game. He’s now in second behind Aoki after a one-for-four evening at the plate.
• Aoki had to climb the fence in right to retrieve one of his signature red towels that he had attempted to throw into the crowd after the game. The towel unraveled mid-flight and got lodged in the netting above the blue padded wall. Tokyo’s center-fielder avoided a freak injury with a clean dismount despite Tsubakuro’s best attempts to get in the way.