May 12th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3 Chunichi Dragons 6 Streak: Lost 1   Last 5: WWLWL (Nagaragawa Stadium) A pretty horrible three innings from starter Ichiba gave Tokyo a mountain to climb early on, and though they did their best to fight back they came up short on a rainy evening in Gifu. Yakult [...]

May 4th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Hiroshima Toyo Carp 3 Streak: Won 2    Last 5: WWLWW (Mazda Stadium) Another day, another new starter on the mound for Tokyo. This time it was the turn of Korean Lee Hye-Cheon to make his Swallows debut against the Carp. And he lasted just 2 and 1/3 [...]

April 12th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3 Yokohama BayStars 5 Streak: Lost 1  Last 5: WWLWL (Yokohama Stadium) Tokyo dropped game three to concede its first series of the season to a resurgent Yokohama BayStars. Ryo Kawashima (1-1) pitched four and two-thirds innings while taking the loss for Tokyo. Four runs scored from seven hits [...]

April 10th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1 Yokohama BayStars 9 Streak: Lost 1   Last 5: WLWWL (Yokohama Stadium)   This was always going to happen, it’s just the Yakult way. The Swallows travelled to Yokohama in a healthy state with two series wins to open the season with a 4-2 record. The BayStars on [...]

April 3rd, 2009 Tokyo Swallows 2 Hanshin Tigers 5 Streak: Lost 1     Last 1:  L (Kyocera Dome) First of all, the home plate umpire was crap. The strike zone changed every inning. Pitchers from both teams were confused to the brink of tears by some of the calls. Second, there are some pretty shocking TV [...]

March 29th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6 Saitama Seibu Lions 9 Streak: Lost 1       Last 5: WWWWL (Seibu Dome) Saitama scored six runs off of seven hits in the bottom of the third to build a lead that they would not relinquish. Tokyo starter Hye-cheon Lee would leave the game after that inning having [...]

March 24th, 2009 Yomiuri Giants 4 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Streak: Won 3  Last 5: WLWWW (Jingu Stadium) Aaron Guiel came up with the late-inning heroics in this one by roping the game winning single to right field with the bases loaded.

March 21st, 2009 Orix Buffaloes  6 Tokyo Swallows 13 Streak: Won 1   Last 5: WWWLW (Jingu Stadium) Tokyo scored two runs in the bottom of the second inning to get on the board first, but this game would quickly turn into a bit of a see-saw contest, and a high scoring one at that. [...]

March 7th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4 Orix Buffaloes  6 Streak: Lost 1   Last 5: WWLWL (Kyocera Dome) Tokyo played catch-up the entire game today. With Tateyama on the mound for the birds, Orix plated two runs in the bottom of the second. Tateyama pitched four innings with just the two runs surrendered (four [...]

March 4th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows  4  Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters  5 Streak: Lost 1   Last 3: WWL (Sapporo Dome) The highlight of this game, from our perspective anyway, was Ishikawa. He started, threw only 41 pitches and retired all 12 batters he faced. Guiel provided the only offense of the game to that point with a [...]