Tokyo Swallows 6

Yomiuri Giants 3

Streak: Won 2  Last 5: WW—

(Tokyo Dome)

After last night’s strong pitching win, the bats came alive to cover for one shaky inning by Muranaka.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Swallows	0	0	0	0	0	2	3	1	0	6	8	0
Giants	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	7	1
W: Oshimoto (1-0) L: Sawamura (0-1) S: Barnette (S 2)

Both teams came out with the same lineup as yesterday, with sophomore Sawamura pitching for the Giants and Muranaka starting for the Birds.

	Giants		Swallows
1	SS Sakamoto	1	2B Tanaka
2	LF Bowker	2	CF Ueda
3	CF Chono	3	LF Milledge
4	C Abe	4	1B Hatakeyama
5	3B Murata	5	SS Kawabata
6	RF Takahashi	6	3B Miyamoto
7	1B Ogasawara	7	RF Balentien
8	2B Terauchi	8	C Aikawa
9	P Sawamura	9	P Muranaka

The Giants opened up the scoring in the third inning. Muranaka allowed a walk to Terauchi to start the inning. Sawamura bunted Terauchi over for out number 1. Sakamoto doubled hard to center to score Terauchi and drew first blood. 1-0 Giants Muranaka got Bowker to strikeout swinging for out number 2, and it looked like Muranaka would get out of the inning with minimal damage. Unfortunately Muranaka’s control remained shaky and he allowed a double to Chono that scored Sakamoto. 2-0 Giants The control issues continued, as Muranaka hit Abe in the wrist. With men on first and second with 2 out, Muranaka gave up his third double of the inning to Murata which allowed another run to score. 3-0 Giants Muranaka plunked Takahashi for good measure before finally getting Ogasawara to pop out to end the inning.

Muranaka settled down after that, and went through 2 more innings without too much issue. Meanwhile Sawamura managed to keep things in check through 5 innings, but the Swallows faithful were hopeful that Sawamura had not overcome his inability to finish games. Thankfully that blind faith was rewarded, and the comeback began in the top of the sixth. Yuhei (“you may remember me from such stints as a first round lefty pitcher named Takai”) made his redebut with the top team as a pinch hitter for Muranaka to lead off the sixth. His decision to switch seemed like a good idea as he got a clean hit to center. Hiroyasu followed with a no-doubt-about-it homer to the Swallows fans in the left field stands to get the team to within a run. 3-2 Giants

See what he can do when he's not bunting?

Momentum was slowly swinging back in the Swallows favor, as Sawamura opened the seventh with a walk to Kawabata. Miyamoto laid down a perfect bunt (if there could be such a thing) to advance Kawabata. The Giants obviously wanted to have no part of Balentien’s potential power and pitched to him half-heartedly for an IBB in everything but name. That ended the night of Sawamura and the Giants dipped into their mediocre bullpen and sent Kubo to the mound. Kubo proceeded to walk Aikawa on 4 pitches to load the bases. Yuhei was back to the plate and battled Kubo through 9 pitches but succumb to a low fast ball for the second out of the inning. Kubo couldn’t close the deal as he walked Hiroyasu on 6 pitches and let Kawabata touch home plate. 3-3 All Both teams reached into their respective benches, and the Giants pulled out Yamaguchi while the Swallows pulled out Iihara. The Swallows won the battle of the benches when Iihara smoked Yamaguchi’s second pitch down the left field line for a double to score 2 runs. 5-2 Swallows Yamaguchi did manage to end the embarrassment with a Milledge strikeout, but the damage was done.

Hatake added insult to injury in the eighth with a just barely over the wall homer to left to lead off the inning. 6-3 Swallows Miyamoto also got 1 more hit closer to 2000 (21 more to go) in the same inning. The bullpen relay of Oshimoto, Matsuoka, Masubuchi, and Barnette  locked it down and kept the Giants from even imagining a comeback was possible.

The Swallows will play for the sweep tomorrow, sending Akagawa to face the Giants’ newly acquired man-toy Toshiya Sugiuchi.

Blondes have more fun.

Swallows Present

• As mentioned in our most recent podcast, Balentien could start the year on the top team. Because he’s starting to show some life at the plate, mixed with Roman’s continued stability on the mound, and abetted by Lim’s tender throwing arm, Tokyo’s well-paid closer could start the year on the farm instead. Yet more evidence that a change in hairstyle works wonders for one’s career.
• Although we can’t be entirely sure that his hands are completely banned from meddling in team affairs, the guy who gave us his pal Takada as a manager for 2+ painful seasons, Tadashi Suzuki, has finally stepped down from his post as team advisor.
• Shingo Kawabata (wrist injury), whose rehab has not gone as smoothly as everyone had hoped, rejoined the first team today.
• The Tokyo Swallows, in cahoots with Yomiuri and Yokohama, have announced a stamp collection scheme (rubber, not postal) through which fans can attend games at all three stadiums and earn prizes such as a big button. I find this to be hilarious because it’s evidence of how far Yomiuri has fallen. Can anyone else think of another time when the Giants worked together with their CL enemies to put more bums in seats? Neither can I.
• To go along with rehabbing his throwing hand (off-season surgery to correct a “blood-flow problem”, Shohei Tateyama’s left leg (ankle?) disagreed with an injection he received last week. This is not the first time that this has happened to a Tokyo player in recent memory. Who is administering these injections, Tsubakurou?
• Masubuchi could start 2012 in the bullpen thanks to the potential starting depth that the team has at this point. This is good news for those of us that remember his breakout season in 2010 when he was first moved to the pen (2.69 ERA over 60.1 innings). With Barnette, Kyuko, Oshimoto, Matsuoka, and Masubuchi all waiting in the wings, there’s a little less pressure on Tokyo’s starters.

Swallows Past

• After a bit of a slump recently, brand new Brewer, Norichika Aoki, found some life against brand new Ranger, Yu Darvish. Disciples of Uecker feels that he needs to do a lot more of what he did during his 3-3 outing against the Rangers (video here) if he hopes to stay relevant and possibly graduate from being a backup player this year.
• Alex Ramirez, Yokohama’s prized acquisition from Yomiuri through free agency, has a leg injury that will probably keep him on the sidelines for the next couple of weeks.

Wannabe Swallows

• While nobody was looking, I wrote some poop about Watanabe and his Yomiuri Giants over at Tokyo Weekender. There’s a Cartman reference in there.

2012 Season

The season kicks off in exactly one week! The Tokyo Swallows will be travelling across town to Tokyo Dome for a 6PM date with the new-look Softbank Giants.

There will be sporadic updates during the opening series on our Twitter account. If you haven’t already, follow us now.

You can also find us on Facebook. Like us here.

After a couple of weeks of feeling like there wasn’t much to write about, we’re back with another Monday review! This week we’ll cover the major roster moves made this week, well as go over all the retirement announcements made recently, and we’ll also spend a lot of time going over the stretch run from multiple view points.

Looking Back

Roster Moves: Due to injury and ineffectiveness our roster has been in flux recently. Muranaka was taken off the active roster on September 28 citing tightness in his throwing shoulder after a string of ineffective starts. Shichijo took his place on the roster, but lost it a day later after an ineffective start against the Tigers. Meanwhile Ishikawa and Kyuko both reportedly had fevers. Kyuko was taken off the active roster with Shichijo to get some rest, while Ishikawa missed his scheduled start but remained on the active roster. LHP Okamoto was brought up with the Kyuko/Shichijo demotion, but lost his top team spot on the 2nd in a major roster shake up. Okamoto, Tetsuya Yamamoto, Takeuchi, and Miwa lost their spot on the active roster in favor of Hitoshi Yamamoto, Kato, Hashimoto, Fukuchi, and Yuichi. One day later, Keizo Kawashima was taken off the active roster. The Swallows’ active roster currently stands at 26 men, which means that 2 spots are open for a call up. Kyuko and Muranaka would be eligible to return this upcoming weekend. Yoshinori was rumored to be coming back during the Swallows’ 9 game stretch in September, but subsequent rumors have mentioned that he would not be able to return during the regular season. Tony Barnette was supposed to be shut down for 3 weeks at the beginning of September, so he may be coming back soon, but there is no news on Tony’s present condition.

While the moves on the offensive side are mostly cosmetic since our starting core has been fairly established, the moves on the pitching side point to a team in flux. We’re starting to run out of quality starters and we’ll have to hand the ball to a group of younger unproven relievers if the starters can’t go deep. The absence of Kyuko and Barnette also puts a lot of pressure on the shoulders of Matsuoka and Oshimoto late in the game in key situations. Our current rotation is Tateyama, Masubuchi, Akagawa, Hitoshi Yamamoto (?), and Ishikawa (assuming he returns tomorrow). Not quite the rotation that got us here.

Retirement News: We’ve already covered the retirement announcement of Aaron Guiel, but two more Swallows announced their intention to retire after the season. Hirotoshi Ishii and Osamu Hamanaka will be retiring after the season.

Hirotoshi Ishii

Hirotoshi Ishii is a life-long Swallow that was drafted in the 4th round of the 1995 draft. Starting in 1999, Ishii started getting regular playing time as a lefty arm out of the bullpen. He had a breakout season in 2002 in which he appeared in a league high 69 games, and posted a 1.51 ERA with a 0.84 WHIP, on his way to be named Most Valuable Reliever. Ishii and Ryota Igarashi made up the duo ‘Rocket Boys’ as the top lefty/righty pair out of the bullpen after the departure of Shingo Takatsu in 2004. Beyond his play with the Swallows, Ishii has played for Japan in the 2004 Olympics and the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006. Ishii had always expressed a strong desire to play in the Majors, but the team would not post him. The team initially promised to post him after the 2004 season, but reneged on the promise after the team changed managers in the off-season. The team finally promised to post Ishii after the 2006 season if he pitched one more full season. Unfortunately, Ishii injured his shoulder during that season and would not pitch at the top level again. Ishii has been rehabbing his shoulder ever since and has appeared in a handful of ni-gun games over the years. Ishii announced his decision to retire on the 29th and thanked the club for giving him the opportunity to try to return to baseball.

Osamu Hamanaka joined the Swallows prior to this season as a potential right handed bat off the bench. After a hot spring, Hamanaka was the team’s opening day stater in left field but lost the job to Hatakeyama after only 3 games. Hamanaka was drafted in 1996 by the Tigers and spent 11 years with the club before moving to the Orix Buffaloes in 2008. Since 2003, Hamanaka has been bothered by a right shoulder injury which has kept him out of the line up on and off for years. Hamanaka cited the injury and his inability to give it his all on the field as reasons for retiring after the season.

Quo Vadimus

The Schedule Up Ahead: The Swallows are about to start a stretch in which they will play 12 games in 12 days. Things will kick off at the Kyocera Dome tomorrow with a 3 game series against the Tigers, followed by a 3 game weekend series at Jingu. Then, the Swallows will travel to Nagoya for a critical 4 game series against the Dragons which may decide the pennant race. The marathon will cap off with a rain make up game against the Tigers at Jingu, followed by another make up game at Yokohama. After that insane stretch, the Swallows will get 2 days off before visiting Koshien for a game, and a game at Nagoya the next day. The Swallows will have 5 days rest before finally wrapping up their regular season with a home game at home.

Win Percentage Table: The final standing are calculated by winning percentage in which ties do not count, formula is W%=W/(144-T).. Therefore a team with 14 ties will have their winning percentage calculated out of 130 games, rather than 144 games.  Thus, with the season winding down, you can make a table of what the team’s win percentage will be depending on their record in the remaining games. Using the table you can see how you compare with other teams depending on their records. Thus we present the win percentage tables as of October 3rd for the top 4 teams in the Central League.

The first thing you may notice is that the Swallows have already guaranteed themselves a winning season. The table also illustrates the gulf that exists between the Swallows and the Tigers, meaning the Swallows’ place in the Climax series is quite safe. You can also use the table to figure out the minimum number of wins the team will need depending on how they do in a head to head. So if the Swallows take 4 out of 5 games from the Dragons, the Dragons would finish with a .5735 winning percentage if they win all their other games. Thus, the Swallows would need to go 5-5 in their other games to finish above the Dragons. Obviously, as games get played you can eliminate possible records and narrow the list of scenarios. If any teams tie the table will need to be reworked to lower the denominator.

Retirement Ceremony Scenarios: The team has traditionally used the last home game of the year to recall the retiring players to the top team to give them one last chance to play at Jingu and give the fans a chance to say goodbye. While imports have typically not received this kind of treatment, the team has hinted that they would try to work something out with Guiel in response to the outpouring of support by the fans. However, this year, depending on where we end up in the standings the team may not be able to afford removing an active player from the roster lest we lose their services for the beginning of the playoffs. Because players removed from the active roster cannot be re-added for 10 days, the team will have to know their playoff situation at least 10 days prior to their first Climax Series game (Oct. 29 for round 1, Nov. 2 for round 2).

Hoping for some more fun times!

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/2011/09/28/92811-%e2%80%93-hanshin-home/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=92811-%25e2%2580%2593-hanshin-home http://tokyoswallows.com/2011/09/28/92811-%e2%80%93-hanshin-home/#comments Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:35:58 +0000 Kozo http://tokyoswallows.com/?p=10725 September 28th, 2011

Hanshin Tigers 5

Tokyo Swallows 8

Streak: Won 3  Last 5: LLWWW

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Tigers	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	2	0	5	11	1
Swallows	0	2	0	0	0	6	0	0	X	8	6	2
WP: K. Matsui (3-0) LP: Akiyama (0-1) S: Lim (28)

The Swallows sent Shichijo to the mound after a 1 month stint in Toda, while the Tigers elected to send young Takumi Akiyama to the mound for his first start of the season. Akiyama had two strong starts against the Swallows last year, in his rookie season, and the Tigers were looking to use that mojo against the Swallows. The result was another strange game which saw the Swallows come back from a one run deficit in a big way.

	Tigers		Swallows
1	2B Hirano	1	CF Aoki
2	CF Shibata	2	2B Tanaka
3	SS Toritani	3	SS Kawabata
4	3B Arai	4	1B Hatakeyama
5	1B Brazell	5	RF Balentien
6	RF Murton	6	3B Miyamoto
7	LF Kanemoto	7	LF Takeuchi
8	C Fujii	8	C Aikawa
9	P Kubo	9	P Shichijo

Things started well enough in the first for both pitchers, but things got a little shaky in the second. Shichijo allowed a one out hit to Murton. He got Kanemoto to fly out to Aikawa for out number two, but loaded the bases by giving up back-to-back singles to Fujii and Akiyama (!). Shichijo managed to get out of the jam by getting Hirano to fly out to shortstop. However, giving up 3 hits in one inning was not inspiring confidence in the crowd.

Akiyama ran into his own jam in the second, allowing a lead off single to Hatakeyama and following that up with a walk to Balentien. Miyamoto bunted the men forward for the first out, and Takeuchi failed to score anyone by popping out to second. The Tigers elected to intentionally walk Aikawa to face Shichijo. This should have worked as Akiyama got Shichijo to sky the ball in front of home plate. But as it has been the case this season, the Swallows caught a hilariously lucky break as Fujii failed to catch the ball, and Hatakeyama and Balentien who were running because of the 2 out situation managed to score. 2-0 Swallows Akiyama loaded the bases again by walking Aoki, but Tanaka wasn’t able to further the damage.

The lead did nothing to settle Shichijo, and things went south right away. The rookie started off the third with a walk to Shibata, and Toritani quickly followed with a single to put 2 men on with no out. Just 2 pitches later, the Tigers had the lead via a Arai home run to left. 3-2 Tigers Shichijo subsequently walked Brazell to end his night. Yasuhiro Ichiba, making his first ichi-gun appearance in 2 years, was called in to hold things down for the Swallows. Ichiba got the rest of the Tigers order to go down 1-2-3, and kept the deficit to 1.

Akiyama settled down, and while he allowed single runners in the third and fourth, he got through the next 3 innings without much problem. On the Swallows’ side, Ichiba pitched one more inning of relatively uneventful ball before handing off to Kosuke Matsui. Matsui pitched the fifth and sixth inning and gave up only a single while striking out 3 to keep the game close.

Things turned in the bottom of the sixth, with Akiyama walking Hatakeyama to start the inning. Two pitches later, Balentien launched a monster home run to the Tiger fans in left field that words simply cannot describe. So just check the video…

4-3 Swallows Like Shichijo Akiyama was allowed to face one more batter. A hit by Miyamoto ended his night night, but the Swallows were just getting warmed up. The Tigers sent Fujihara up to the mound to face Takeuchi, who gifted the Tigers an out by bunting Miyamoto to second. Miyamoto came around after Aikawa doubled to left. 5-3 Swallows Keizo came in to bat in the pitcher’s spot and got a straight walk from Fujihara. With 1 out and men on first and second, Aoki took a 1-0 pitch from Fujihara and lined it over the shallow playing center fielder for a triple. 7-3 Swallows The Tigers pulled Fujihara for Nishimura, but Nishimura couldn’t stop Tanaka from launching a 0-2 pitch for a sac fly to finish the scoring. 8-3 Swallows

The Swallows handed the ball to Oshimoto to pitch the seventh, and he did his job by keeping the Tigers off the board. Tsutsui pitched a 3 K seventh for the Tigers. Matsuoka came into the game in the eighth, and things got weird. Matt Murton opened the inning with his third single of the night. Matsuoka got Kanemoto to line out to second for the first out, and it looked like Matsuoka got the pinch hitting Lin to ground into a double play to second. Unfortunately the usually sure-handed Tanaka fumbled the ball towards second, and all men were safe. The second out came via a Hiyama fly out to right, but things got hairier when an infield single by Hirano loaded the bases. Matsuoka got 2 strikes on Shibata, and it looked like things were headed towards another nerve-wracking, but ultimately harmless inning by Matsuoka. That thought was seemingly realized when Matsuoka got Shibata to swing at a pitch in the dirt for strike three. Unfortunately Aikawa let the ball get past him, and the runners were in motion. Aikawa decided to throw the ball from a weird angle to first and hit Shibata with the ball instead. The deflected ball allowed another runner to cross home, and the Tigers suddenly had 2 runs on the board. 8-5 Swallows Matsuoka got Toritani to fly out harmlessly to Tanaka for the final out of the inning.

Kojima pitched a perfect eighth for the Tigers, and Lim got his 28th save in the ninth to close out the game for their 28th come from behind victory of the year. The Tigers’ faithful quickly lined the path the Tigers’ players and coaches pass to get out of the stadium and their verbal abuse towards Mayumi and the players almost overshadowed Balentien and Tsubakuro’s good time.

Another fun night at Jingu for the Swallows!!!

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2

Chunichi Dragons 3

Streak: Lost 4  Last 5: TLLLL

(Nagoya Dome)

Another day, another heart-breakingly close loss to the Dragons in Nagoya.

The Swallows got their points early as Kawabata managed a two out single off Soto, which Hatake followed with his 21st home run of the season. 2-0 Swallows Apparently Hatakeyama’s home run was the 45,000th in Central League history, a number that is ultimately meaningless and arbitrary. Those back-to-back hits would account for 40% of the team’s hits tonight, and 33% of the team’s baserunners. With offensive numbers like that, it falls on the pitching to win the game.

Masubuchi managed to limit the damage caused by his 4 hits and 4 walks allowed in the night. However, Masubuchi did allow a run after Oshima made Masubuchi pay for issuing two walks, with a double to score one. 2-1 Swallows Yet despite the constant stream of baserunners, Masubuchi managed to hand off the game to Kyuko with 2 outs in the sixth having only given up 1 run. Kyuko did his job by getting the final out in the sixth by picking off Morino on second to preserve the Swallows’ razor thin margin.

However, the next cog in the reliever relay failed the Swallows, as Kosuke Matsui allowed a lead off homer to a pinch hitting Hirata to open the seventh. 2-2 All Matsui made things even hairier by allowing 2 more hits to go with 2 outs. Hidaka wasn’t much relief as he walked Morino to load the bases. Matsuoka took over for Hidaka and got the final out to preserve the tie. Matsuoka proceeded to pitch a cardiac eighth as he allowed two base runners, but managed to clean up his own mess to keep the score tied for Lim in the ninth.

With the top of the Dragons’ order batting to start the ninth, it was incumbent on the Swallows’ highest paid player to preserve the tie to give the Swallows some semblance of dignity. To that end Lim allowed an infield single to Araki, who moved to second on an Ibata bunt for out number 1. The Swallows elected to intentionally walk Morino to get the double play in order and face Blanco. Lim managed to retire Blanco on a fly to center to get within an out of preserving the tie. But all it took was one pitch and one swing of the bat by Tanishige to ruin the night for the Swallows. Tanishige got a line drive single to left that scored Araki for the Dragons’ 6th sayonara victory of the year. Iihara had a chance to throw Araki out, but his throw wasn’t even close. 3-2 Dragons It was only the Swallows’ second sayonara loss of the year.

With 3 straight losses to the Dragons the Swallows saw their league lead shrink to just 1.5 games.

The Dragons celebrate their win. Hopefully the Swallows would like to celebrate their own wins again.

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2

Chunichi Dragons 3

Streak: Lost 2  Last 5: WWTLL

(Nagoya Dome)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Swallows	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	11	0
Chunichi	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	X	3	5	1
W: Yoshimi (15-3) L: Tateyama (10-3) S: Iwase (31)

The Swallows landed in Nagoya looking to create some distance between them and the second place Dragons. The Dragons, on the other hand, were playing their first game after learning of the impending departure of their strict but super successful manager. Both teams sent their ace to the mound with the Swallows starting Tateyama, and the Dragons starting Yoshimi.

	Swallows		Dragons
1	CF Aoki	1	2B Araki
2	2B Tanaka	2	SS Ibata
3	SS Kawabata	3	3B Morino
4	1B Hatakeyama	4	1B Blanco
5	LF Takeuchi	5	C Tanishige
6	3B Miyamoto	6	LF T. Donoue
7	RF Balentien	7	RF Hirata
8	C Aikawa	8	CF Oshima
9	P Tateyama	9	P Yoshimi

The Swallows started things off with an Aoki single, and a Tanaka bunt over to second. With 52 sac bunts Hiroyasu is slowly, but surely, approaching Miyamoto’s NPB record of 67 sac bunts in a season. Kawabata was walked to bring Hatakeyama up to bat with one out with men on first and second. Hatake did his job by working the count full by fouling off 7 pitches, getting a pitch to hit, and sending that pitch into left field to score Aoki for the go ahead run. 1-0 Swallows Takeuchi DIDN’T do his job grounding out to Yoshimi for a 1-6-3 after battling for 8 pitches.

The Swallows got another chance in the third after Tanaka, Kawabata, and Hatake got consecutive 2 out singles to load the bases. Unfortunately, Takeuchi wasn’t able to deliver the key blow and the Swallows couldn’t extend their lead.

Meanwhile, Tateyama was having an uncharacteristically shaky night on the mound. While the ace had a no hitter going through 5 innings, he had allowed a decidedly un-Tateyama like 3 walks through those innings. Things finally came to a head in the sixth inning. Things started ominously with a lead off walk to Araki on 4 straight pitches. Ibata bunted Araki over to second for the first out. It looked like Tateyama would be able to work his way out of the jam after he got Morino to pop out to Hiroyasu for out number 2. But after falling behind early to Blanco, the Dominican ended Tateyama’s no-hitter with a sharp line drive single to left to score Araki. 1-1 All Tanishige followed with a double off the center field wall to score Blanco and put the Dragons ahead. 2-1 Dragons The Dragons managed to end Tateyama’s night once Donoue followed Tanishige with a RBI single. 3-1 Swallows Oshimoto came in for Tateyama and ended up loading the bases with an infield hit by Hirata and a walk to Oshima, but he managed to get the job done against Yoshimi, inducing a ground out.

The Swallows got hits in both the seventh and eighth but couldn’t take back the lead. Matsuoka and Tetsuya Yamamoto pitched the seventh and eighth, respectively and managed to keep the Dragons off the board despite allowing multiple runners in their respective innings.

It came down to the ninth inning, with the Dragons sending out Iwase to close the game. Miyamoto struck out for out number 1. But Balentien and Aikawa hit back-to-back singles to give hope to the good guys. Keizo Kawashima wasn’t able to follow with a hit, but did manage to move Balentien to third with a fielder’s choice to first. Balentien scored after Aoki singled to center. 3-2 Dragons With two out and men on first and second Hiroyasu sent a 1-0 pitch to straight away center but Oshima was able to track the hit for the final out.

Notes

• The win puts the Dragons within 3.5 games of the Swallows with 3 more games left to play in the series.
• The Swallows outhit the Dragons 11-5, but allowed 8 total walks to the Dragons. The Dragons only allowed 1 walk.
• The Dragons have now won their last 3 games.

Tateyama had a rough night on the mound.

Yokohama BayStars 2

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2

Streak: Tied 1  Last 5: WWWWT

(Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
YB	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	10	1
TS	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	8	0

Well, it had to end sometime. After nine wins, Tokyo’s winning streak ended at the hands of Yokohama, of course, in a game with a lot of thwarted offense.

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

The scoring:
Kinjoh hit a solo home run in the top of the second. 1-0 Yokohama.

In the bottom of the third, with two outs and Aoki on second, Kawabata hit an RBI double. 1-1.

The BayStars immediately opened up a gap again. In the top of the fourth, with two outs, Kurobane hit a solo home run. 2-1 Yokohama.

In the bottom of the sixth, Tanaka led off with a single, which was followed by another Kawabata RBI double. 2-2, Final.

Ishikawa was pulled in the top of the seventh after giving one hit. Matsui took the mound, walked Murata to put runners on first and second, and was pulled in favor of Oshimoto. Oshimoto filled the bases with a walk and Matsumoto was brought in to get Harper to ground into a 6-6-3 double play to end the inning.

The bottom of the seventh was also exciting: Whitesell doubled, then reached third on a wild pitch to Aoki, who went on to walk, but no runs scored.

Matsuoka pitched the eighth; Kyuko pitched the first 2/3 of the ninth, but was pulled for Lim when he got into a bit of trouble.

More Yokohama action tomorrow.

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 7

Yokohama BayStars 3

Streak: Won 3  Last 5: WLWWW

(Yokohama Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Swallows	0	0	0	1	3	0	0	1	2	7	13	0
Tigers	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	3	13	1
WP: Muranaka (4-4) LP: Leach (1-6)

Don’t let the score fool you, this game was a lot closer and a lot uglier than plain numbers can describe.

	Swallows		BayStars
1	CF Aoki	1	2B Watanabe
2	2B Tanaka	2	SS Ishikawa
3	SS Kawabata	3	RF Shimozono
4	1B Hatakeyama	4	3B Murata
5	LF Iihara	5	LF Sledge
6	3B Miyamoto	6	1B Nakamura
7	RF Balentien	7	CF Yoshimura
8	C Aikawa	8	C Kurobane
9	P Muranaka	9	P Leach

Both starters looked good early on. Even as Muranaka gave up a solo homer to Murata to start the second inning, it seemed as if Muranaka had things under control. 1-0 BayStars

Muranaka did enough to dig himself out of jams and win the game.

The starters’ efficiency allowed the teams to get through 3 innings in under an hour, but things quickly descended into ridiculousness in the fourth inning. Leach started the inning by inducing a line out from Tanaka, after working the count full. Two pitches later, Kawabata managed to bloop a fastball into left field to put a man on. Hatakeyama worked a full count out of Leach before lining a hit into right field to put men on first and second. Iihara was also able to work a full count out of Leach, and got a walk to load the bases with only 1 out. Miyamoto was able to score Kawabata by grounding out to deep second. Tied 1-1 Leach loaded the bases again by giving up a full count walk to Balentien, but was let off the hook a hard fly out by Aikawa.

Shimozono started the bottom of the fourth with an infield single off a high chopper that Tanaka wasn’t able to field cleanly. After getting ahead in the count 2-0, Murata launched a high fly ball that bounced off the right field wall just inches from being a homerun. Balentien alertly threw to third to get Murata trying to take second, but with only one out the BayStars had a man on third. Sledge managed to draw a full count walk to put men on the corners. Old man Nakamura cashed in Shimozono with a hit to center. 2-1 BayStars Yoshimura loaded the bases one pitch later by blooping a hit into center. Kurobane worked a full count off Muranaka and launched the 7th pitch he saw into shallow right. Tanaka tried to chase the ball but misread the ball and wasn’t able to make the diving catch. Balentien bare-handed the high bounce and threw a laser to third to get the slow footed Nakamura out. The bizarre play goes down in the scorecard as a fielder’s choice on the right fielder that scored the runner from third. 3-2 BayStars Muranaka managed to stop the bleeding there, by striking out Leach.

Leach picked up right where he left off, getting the count full against Muranaka. But at least he finally managed to get the pitcher to strike out swinging on his sixth pitch. But Aoki got things going by by getting a hit to right, and Tanaka followed with his own hit to right shortly after. With one out and men on first and second, Kawabata tried to catch the defense napping by flashing a bunt. While Leach did look slow and ugly fielding the bunt, he got the sure out at first and the Swallows gave away their second out. Hatakeyama worked the count full against Leach, and drew a walk after 8 pitches to load the bases. Iihara quickly fell behind 0-2 but was able to take Leach’s lazy curveball in the zone and hit it hard into right to score both Aoki and Tanaka. Tied 3-3 Miyamoto took Leach’s next pitch and lined it down the third base line. Murata was positioning himself to field the ball behind the bag, but the ball hit the bag and bounced back into the infield. Miyamoto’s lucky hit allowed Hatakeyama to score easily from third to give the Swallows the lead for the first time. 4-3 Swallows Leach’s night was done after the Miyamoto hit.

The BayStars would not score any more runs in the game, but not for a lack of chances. Muranaka had 2 outs with men on first and second in the fifth, and bases loaded with only one out in the sixth. Muranaka got out of the fifth with a strikeout and the sixth with a double play. Looking at Muranaka’s line 9 hits and 3 walks allowed, it’s amazing that he lasted 6 inning and only gave up 3 runs. Things didn’t get any smoother as Kyuko found himself in a 2 out men on the corners situation in the seventh, which Matsuoka had to clean up.

In the top of eighth inning, the Swallows got a key insurance run. With one out, Whitesell managed to hit one into the gap in left and, despite stumbling a little going around first, beat the (bad) throw to second for a double. With Miwa running for Whitesell, Miwa was able to score on Aoki’s hard hit to the right-center gap. 5-3 Swallows In the bottom of the inning, the Swallows decided to take a page out of Furuta’s managing playbook by using a committee of young relievers (Kosuke Matsui, Okamoto, and Hashimoto) to do the work of a vet (Oshimoto). Matsui got his out, but Okamoto gave up 2 hits on just 3 pitches. Hashimoto did get the last two outs via foul outs to third, but not before loading the bases with a walk. With only a 2 run lead, the young guns got the job done but probably won’t be seeing anymore key innings for a while.

The Swallows added more breathing room for themselves after Iihara started the inning with a 4 pitch walk, Miyamoto followed with a bunt, and Balentien knocked his 26th homer into the right field stands. 7-3 Swallows Balentien’s almost obligatory homerun against the BayStars was only his second hit of the 3 game series.

Lim came in to to pitch the ninth, and despite giving up a hit, looked in control and secured the win for the Swallows.

Notes

• A total of 15 pitchers pitched in tonight’s game, which is a new Central League record for a 9 inning game.
• All the mid-inning pitching changes, the constant runners on base, and the seemingly continual deep counts lead to the game going 4 hours and 33 minutes. The longest game in NPB this season.
• Every Swallows’ starter. including Muranaka, got a hit in tonight’s game. Aoki collected 3 hits including 2 doubles, and Miyamoto got 2 hits.
• Elsewhere, the Tigers completed their sweep of the Carp to keep pace with the Swallows and retain second place in the CL, 4 games behind the Swallows. The Giants and Dragons played a 12 inning 0-0 tie and thus each team fell a half game behind the Swallows.
• Starting tomorrow, the Swallows will play a super important 3 game series against the Tigers at Jingu.

Hiroshima Carp  2

Tokyo Swallows  4

Streak: Won 1       Last 5: LLLLW

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

Today marked the beginning of a new month, and hopefully the start of the Swallows’ stretch run to the championships. While the result was a win, it remains to be see how the team will respond to the fall race.

Things did not start well for the young Akagawa as he gave up a single to Higashide to start the game. The Carp cashed in on the subsequent bunt with a Akamatsu single to take the lead. 1-0 Carp

Hatakeyama homers in 3 runs!

But the Swallows responded in the bottom of the first inning with runs of their own. After Aoki grounded out weakly to the pitcher for out number one, Keizo surprised the Carp infield with a bunt. The sudden bunt forced Shinoda to make a bad throw, allowing Keizo to get on via an error. Tanaka worked Shinoda and drew a walk to put men on first and second for Hatakeyama. Shinoda worked Hatakeyama inside, but Hatake made him pay by launching a homerun into the left field stands. 3-1 Swallows Incidentally, it started raining a bit hard after the homerun, leaving the Jingu faithful wondering if the game would actually become official. Luckily Mother Nature decided to take pity on the Swallows and the rain subsided after 5 minutes, and the game never even got delayed.

Things started well again in bottom of the second inning as Iihara blooped a single into center field. Kawamoto followed with a grounder to third that Barden couldn’t field cleanly to put men on first and second with no out. Akagawa did his job by bunting the men into scoring position for Aoki. Those who watched yesterday’s game may remember that Aoki lined into a double play in an identical situation in the third last night. Luckily, September Aoki had the decency to at least ground out on a high chopper to short to allow both men to advance, and score an extra run. 4-1 Swallows

Akagawa held things in check until the fourth inning when he allowed a single up the middle to the lead batter, Kurihara. Akagawa followed with a walk to Maru. With Barden up to bat, the Carp elected not bunt and Akagawa was able to induce a double play ground ball from the American. With 2 outs and a man on third, Akagawa wasn’t able to quite shut the door on the Carp as he allowed a hit to Kura to score the man from third. 4-2 Swallows

The Carp would threaten again in the fifth. Akagawa got 2 hard-earned outs to start the inning, but gave up a walk to Iyo and a hit to Akamatsu to put a man in scoring position for Kurihara, the Carp’s hottest hitter. With Akagawa’s pitch count already at 98, and our record as it was, Ogawa elected not to mess around and called Oshimoto in from the bullpen. Oshimoto came in and easily induced a pop up to second to preserve the lead.

Shinoda completely shut down the Swallows after the second inning, as he pitched perfectly until he left the mound for a pinch hitter after the sixth inning. The Swallows got their final scoring opportunity in the seventh after Miyamoto lead off the inning with a single. Iihara bunted Miyamoto over to second, and the old man showed his craft as he took third one pitch later on a steal. With one out and a man on third, the Carp pitched out to Kawamoto on the next pitch fearing a squeeze play. Kawamoto did attempt a squeeze bunt on a slider way outside two pitches later, but managed to keep Miyamoto alive by getting a foul. Unfortunately, Kawamoto popped up weakly to the infield wasting a golden opportunity. Whitesell would end up stranding Miyamoto as he couldn’t quite get the barrel of the bat on a hanging breaking ball, which lead to a pop up to center.

Kawamoto makes a diving attempt at a squeeze.

The Swallows kept the Carp off the board with 2 perfect innings from Matsuoka, followed by a perfect 3K inning from Barnette. Lim made the crowd sweat by walking the leadoff better on 4 pitches but the settled down enough to get the next 3 batters out to seal the win.That’s right, A WIN!

Notes

• The Swallows managed to get 4 runs despite only getting 3 hits and drawing 1 walk.
• Weather permitting, the Swallows will host the Giants for 3 games at Jingu starting tomorrow.
• The Giants did not play tonight, and Hanshin and Chunichi tied. Which means the Swallows gained a half game against those teams, and a full game over the Carp.

Hopefully this becomes a familiar sight again.