Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3

Hanshin Tigers 4

Streak: Lost 1   Last 5: WWWWL

(Osaka Kyocera Dome)

With the struggling Nakazawa down at the farm, the Swallows decided to give the young Katsuki Akagawa the start. Akagawa, of the low-80s fastball, slider, and not much else, threw valiantly against the Tigers but wasn’t quite able to slow them down. The Tigers started Jason Standridge who pitched a good game when he last saw the Swallows in early July.

Aikawa and Miyamoto returned to the lineup which looked like this:

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

(Ishikawa was announced as the starting right fielder, but was replaced by Takeuchi before the Swallows took the field.)

Akagawa took the loss tonight.

The Tigers threatened early when a Murton hit, Hirano sac-bunt, and a Toritani infield single put runners on the corners with 1 out. An Arai ground out to short brought Murton around to score. Akagawa put Brazell on via a HBP, but got Kanemoto to ground out to end the threat with minimal damage. 1-0 Tigers

Things didn’t go as smoothly in the third when the Tigers lead off the inning when Murton lead off with another single, and Hirano executed another sac bunt. Toritani followed with a walk, putting runners on first and second with 1 out. Arai and Brazell hit back-to-back singles to bring in one run apiece. 3-0 Tigers Things could have gotten worse but Kanemoto lined out to Whitesell, who managed to tag out Brazell to complete the double play.

Akagawa settled down and pitched clean fourth and fifth innings. His night came to an end, however, when after getting Brazell to ground out, he conceded a double to Kanemoto in the sixth. Kanemoto came around to score when Johjima took the first offering off Akagawa’s replacement, Yoshikawa, into right for a single. 4-0 Tigers Once again, the Tigers killed any chance of widening the lead when Johjima was caught trying to steal second, and Sakurai flied out to second.

Standridge began to feel the effects of fatigue in the top of the seventh. He lead off the inning by giving up a hit to Aikawa, and a walk to Miyamoto. The Tigers decided that 124 pitches were enough for Standridge, and pulled him in favor of the lefty Kawasaki. Ogawa responded by bringing out D’Antona to hit in place of Kawabata. The move worked perfectly as D’Antona deposited the third pitch he saw into left for a double. 4-1 Tigers Onizaki took D’Antona’s spot on the basepaths, and Kawasaki was pulled in favor of Nishimura for the Tigers. Nishimura loaded the bases by walking Iihara, who was pinch hitting in the pitcher’s slot. With no outs and the bases loaded, Aoki could only manage to fly out to shallow center. Tanaka would do slightly better, by flying out to deep left to bring home Miyamoto from third. 4-2 Tigers Takeuchi wasn’t able to get the Swallows any closer, ending the inning with a fly out to right.

Masubuchi came in to pitch the bottom of the seventh and made quick work of the Tigers. The Tigers brought in Kubota to work the eighth. Whitesell battled Kubota a bit before he took a 2-2 offering into the rightfield stands. 4-3 Tigers The rest of the order weren’t able to do anything as they went down 1-2-3.

Watanabe worked a perfect bottom of the eighth to keep the score as it was. In order to extend their winning streak and get back to .500, the Swallows needed to break Kyuji Fujikawa, arguably the best closer in the Central League. The Swallows came close after Iihara drew a one out walk, and Aoki followed with an infield single, to make it 1 out with men on first and second. Unfortunately the game ended when Tanaka swung at the first pitch he saw and grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.

A tough loss, but there’s no reason to panic. The Swallows battled the Tigers hard while starting their worst pitcher. Every team loses in baseball occasionally, and I certainly don’t feel that we were over matched by the Tigers, the way I felt earlier in the season. The Swallows will look to win the series and start a new winning streak at 18:00 JST at the Kyocera Dome.

Standings & Results – Player Stats

He has been impressive on the farm, however, hitting .307 in 43 games. And in this, his second, foray on the top team, he has made a good second impression by notching four hits in 11 at-bats (including a solo homer and a double).

Morioka has been starting in place of Kawashima who was benched for that costly error during the Yomiuri series last weekend.

Headed down to the farm in his place was young starting pitcher, Yoshinori. The kid has had to deal with blisters on his throwing hand no less than four times this season, and his current demotion is more of the same.

Yoshinori’s ERA has dropped to 3.26 while his record remains an unenviable 5-8. Hopefully he can develop some solid calluses on his fingers so that a repeat of this dilemma can be avoided from here on out.

Also  joining the festivities on the top team yesterday were pitchers Hidehiro Okamoto (no. 26) and Masao Kida (no. 42).

Okamoto made one appearance last season, his rookie year, and was shelled mercilessly. So far this year on the farm team, the lefty reliever is 1-1 in 17 appearances with a rather scary 5.40 ERA. His promotion appears to be further acknowledgment by the managerial staff that there aren’t enough southpaws hanging out in the bullpen.

I have lost count of how many times Masao Kida has been promoted and demoted this season. His current top team numbers aren’t particularly appetizing, but he can come through on occasion. In 28 games, Kida has pitched 46 2/3 innings while putting together a 5.59 ERA.

Headed down are pitcher Katsuki Akagawa, yet another example of why a teenage rookie should not be put in to pitch in a professional baseball game, and outfielder Yuuichi who continues to be surplus to needs (.205 batting average in 39 at-bats so far this season).

Here is the 28-man roster as of game time yesterday:

Pitchers: Ishikawa, Kamada, Matsuoka, Tateyama, Okamoto, Yuki, Kida, Matsui, Lee, Takagi, Oshimoto, Yoshikawa

Catchers: Aikawa, Kawamoto, Kinugawa

Infielders: Kawashima, D’Antona, Miyamoto, Tanaka, Hatakeyama, Yoshimoto, Noguchi, Morioka

Outfielders: Fukuchi, Takeuchi, Aoki, Guiel, Iihara

Hiroshima Toyo Carp 9

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 0

Streak: Lost 4     Last : DLLLL

(Jingu Stadium)

Two-word game report: shit sandwich.

Pertinent game facts:

Hits: Hiroshima 15, Tokyo 5

Hitless Tokyo innings: 6

Winning Pitcher: Colby Lewis 113 pitch complete game shutout with 9K, 0BB.

No. of pitchers to throw a complete game shutout of Tokyo this week: 2

Losing Pitcher: Masanori Ishikawa. 6 innings, 6 runs, 12 hits (2HR), 4K, 0BB , 1HBP. Record now at 10-7/3.63.

Tokyo players that managed to hit: Aoki (2), Fukuchi, D’Antona, Miyamoto.

Number of rookie pitchers to make their pro-debuts tonight: 1. Nineteen year old Katsuki Akagawa. 4 batters faced in the 9th inning. 3 hits (1HR), 3 runs, 2 wild pitches, 0 outs.

Other Relievers involved: Kamada (5.25) worked scoreless 7th and 8th innings. Yoshikawa (0.00) mopped the mess left by Akagawa in the 9th with three straight outs.

Any stained sheets/dodgy umpires calls involved tonight?: Nope. Only ourselves to blame for this one.

Distance to chasing pack: With Hanshin winning tonight they’re just 1.5 games back with Hiroshima a further game behind.

Any hope for some kind of change in fortunes?: Erm…………anyone know a good witchdoctor?

Consecutive series lost: 11

Next game: Tomorrow. With our only two consistently decent starters (Tateyama and Ishikawa) both losing in the first two games of this series, and the bullpen in disarray who knows who will take the mound for that game.

Things are looking: Bad. Real bad.

On August 14th against the Lions, Akagawa carried a no hitter into the eighth inning. That jump in form is undoubtedly related to his current call-up.

Headed back to the farm is pitcher Tatsuyoshi Masubuchi whose loss on Wednesday, and the resulting 12.60 ERA, doomed his chances of sticking around for a while.

Whoever is in charge of the call-ups and send-downs should probably start putting a little bit more thought into them. It’s difficult to understand the reasoning behind bringing a starter up to the top team, whether he’s ready to make a start in the pros or not, and then deprive the team of the chance to have that pitcher practice under the watchful eye of the pitching coach, Mr. Araki.

What Masubuchi needs is more game experience and top-level coaching. Sending him back down to the farm team might satisfy the former but doesn’t address the latter.

Anyway, here’s the top team roster as of yesterday’s game versus Yomiuri:

Pitchers: Yoshinori, Tateyama, Ishikawa, Yuuki,  Matsui, Takagi, Lee, Yoshikawa, Oshimoto, Akagawa, Kamada

Catchers: Aikawa, Kawamoto, Kinugawa

Infielders: Kawashima, Miyamoto, Yoshimoto, Tanaka, Hatakeyama, Noguchi, D’Antona

Outfielders: Fukuchi, Guiel, Takeuchi, Iihara, Aoki, Yuichi

SoftBank Hawks 10

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3

Streak: Lost 3     Last 5: LWLLL

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

The bats were a bit anemic again today. Tokyo managed only six hits, two better than the game yesterday versus Hanshin.

The birds got waxed early and often. Tokyo newbie pitcher (read: straight out of high school), Katsuki Akagawa, gave up nine earned runs in one and two-thirds innings. He issued seven walks (no K’s), and allowed six hits (two of which left the park). Isn’t preseason just the perfect chance to ruin a 19 year-old’s confidence?

Oshimoto then came in to finish up the inning and pitch another three. He allowed one run off of three hits.

Hagiwara, Barrett and Takai also made appearances. Barrett had a balk, but other than that, nothing really exciting happened.

On offense, only Takeuchi had more than one hit, and former Softbank bit-player, Ryou Yoshimoto (IF) was responsible for all three of Tokyo’s runs. He hit a three-run dinger in the seventh.

Akagawa took the loss for Tokyo in the team’s first home game of the preseason schedule.

Tokyo 1st-round pick, lefty Katsuki Akagawa.

The amateur draft took place last night, but the media only picked up the fact that Yomiuri landed a big-hitting kid by the name of Taishi Ota out of Tokaidai Sagami High School as their first pick.

Anyway, while it may come as a surprise to the media that 11 other teams were present at the event, we here at tsubamegun would like to take this opportunity to let you know who Tokyo came away with.

1st pick:

Tokyo opted for a left-handed high school pitcher by the name of Katsuki Akagawa. The 184cm tall 18 year-old has a fastball in the 140′s.

2nd pick:

Ryousuke Yagi, another left-handed pitcher fresh out of high school, was Tokyo’s second pick. He apparently has a decent fastball-slider combo.

3rd pick:

Tokyo used its third pick of the draft to select Ryuuhei Nakamura. Nakamura is a right-handed catcher with a decent arm. Like the two guys picked before him, he is 18 years old.

4th pick:

Ryou Hidaka was the third (and final) 18 year-old, left-handed pitcher that Tokyo selected last night. He is said to have good balance with a fastball that can reach the 140′s.

5th pick:

Tokyo crowded the bullpen just a little more by picking its second catcher of the night. Genki Nitta (yes, you read his first name correctly) is the only guy out of the five that is old enough to drink (in Japan). For the record, he turned 26 in August. Nitta went to Chuo University and then spent time with Panasonic in the Industrial League. Hopefully he’ll be able to kick one of our many useless catchers back down to the farm team by the end of March 2009.

Ikusei (?? – supplementary) Draft

1st pick:

Rafael Miranda Fernandes (22 years old) is a right-handed pitcher with a fastball that is in the high 140′s.

2nd pick:

Kouji Tsukamoto (26 years old) is a right-handed submarine style pitcher.

And there you have it! I can tell you right now that Garrett will not be impressed with these picks. He’s been predicting that this would happen since last season when they decided to combine the two drafts–18 year-olds being picked over everyone else.

Young pitchers tend to get snagged early on; with pitching being so vital to a team’s success, many teams (on both sides of the Pacific) are willing to take their chances on relatively unproven (read: high school) arms.

However, it seems that Takada is trying desperately to find a left-handed version of Yuu Darvish. Perhaps that’s part of the reason why he chose to waste use his first four picks on high school players.

A few teams, namely Yokohama, Hanshin, Hokkaido and Chiba, were smart enough to use their first three picks to claim negotiating rights with university/corporate players.

Which, of course, is not to say that there aren’t at least a few fantastic players at the high school level right now. It would just be nice if people would learn from their own (and other’s) mistakes every once in a while.

Well, for a good rundown of all 12 team’s picks in English, check Deanna’s blog.