Tokyo Swallows 0

Chunichi Dragons 1

Streak: Lost 2  Last 5: LWWLL

(Toyohashi Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1
Chunichi	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	0
W: Yamai (1-3; 1.69 ERA) L: Ishikawa (2-4; 2.91) S: Asao (1S; 1.59)

Chunichi leapfrogged Tokyo back up to the top of the CL as they edged an ultra-tight affair in Aichi.

	Tokyo		Chunichi
1	Tanaka 2B	1	Oshima CF
2	Fukuchi CF	2	Araki 2B
3	Milledge LF	3	Ibata SS
4	Balentien RF	4	Wada LF
5	Kawabata SS	5	Blanco 1B
6	Miyamoto 3B	6	Tanishige C
7	Hatakeyama 1B	7	Hirata RF
8	Nakamura C	8	N.Donoue 3B
9	Ishikawa P	9	Yamai P

Yamai proved too much for Tokyo to handle

Dragons’ starter Yamai was attempting his third start of the season against the Swallows, after racking up two losses and an ERA of 6.00 in his prior two efforts. Ishikawa faired much better in his only previous start against the Dragons this year, giving up just the one run over seven innings in what would end up as a tie.  In tonight’s game however one pitcher would maintain that prior form, while the other would not.

Yes it was Yamai, who I previously described as distinctly average (yeah, sorry about that) who would break the mould and pitch a gem, pitching eight shutout innings, giving up just the three hits while fanning seven (three of those seven being Balentien) with no walks. The Swallows bats could find no solution to his stuff, and only managing to get a man past first in the 8th, when Miyamoto, who had reached via his second single of the game, found himself at third with two outs on the board, only for the pinch-hitting Fujimoto to line-out to second.

After that the Swallows got another man to third in the 9th with Asao on the mound (Miwa, pinch-running for Tanaka who had led off the inning with a walk), but Balentien struck out swinging to end the game.

Ishikawa was okay, giving up just the one run (unearned) in his seven innings off six hits with two Ks and a walk. That solitary run came in the 3rd: Yamai doubled his annoyance factor by singling to left to start the inning before he was bunted to second by Oshima for out number one. An uber-rare Miyamoto error allowed Araki’s grounder to escape into the outfield to put men on the corners for Ibata. He hit a grounder to Miyamoto, who threw to home whereupon Nakamura easily ran down Yamai who was hopelessly stuck in no-man’s land between third and home (he is a pitcher after all) which left men on first and second with two outs for Wada. And the veteran outfielder hit a grounder that just evaded the dive of Kawabata and Araki was home from second to make it 1-0 Chunichi.

Things could have got much worse as Blanco drew a walk to load the bases for Tanishige, but Ishikawa struck him out to keep the deficit at one.

Chunichi only really threatened again with Oshimoto on the mound in relief of Ishikawa in the 8th. A flyout-walk-walk-strikeout-walk combo loaded the bases for Donoue, but after battling seven pitches, he flew out to left to prevent a trademark sweaty-cap meltdown from Oshimoto.

Notes:

• Milledge was ejected from the game in the 7th, after arguing a called third strike with the home plate umpire. He thought the pitch was high/outside, and communicated this matter to the ump, and Lastings appeared to be okay until he shouted something along the lines of, if my memory and lip-reading skills serve me well, “That’s a fucking joke”, as he headed back to the bench. And we all know that that any variant of fuck is the “magic word” in Japan that will see you ejected from the game regardless (as a non-Japanese), and so it proved to be as he was given his marching orders. Cue Lastings getting in the face of  the ump (see above) and getting in a few more choice “magic words” before Balentien pulled him back and sent him on his way back to the bench. Ogawa then argued Lastings’ case for a minute or so, to of course no avail.
• And before we get any of the “That’s Lastings finally showing his true colours” schtick, I remember being present to witness Aaron Guiel getting ejected in the exact same way at Koshien a few years back, so no biggie in showing a bit of passion for the cause, no matter how futile it may ultimately be. And lets also not forget this is Lastings first mis-step in what has been a pretty impeccable start to his Japanese career.
• It was around that inning that Yamai appeared to start smirking after every out, tripling his annoyance rating for the evening.
• Ishikawa was the only non-Meikyukai member to hit, with a one-out single in the 6th. He would be stranded at first.
• Chunichi are extremely annoying.
• Thankfully Morino (back trouble) and his inflatable face weren’t involved in this game which would have increased the Chunichi annoyance factor immeasurably.
• 10154 folks spent 2 hours 34 minutes watching the annoyance that is the Chunichi Dragons baseball team.
• The CD logo on the Dragon’s cap shouldn’t be red. I can only conclude that it was designed by a colour blind person.
• I’m struggling to find much else to write about this game.
• Can you tell?
• Oh, hold on……
• Tokyo still lead the season series against Chunichi 4-2 with 1 tie.
• The two teams will travel to Gifu for game two of this series, with Muranaka taking on Nakata on the mound.

Now to leave you with some positive news. Earlier today, it should surprise no one to learn that Coco Balentien was named the CL MVP for March/April, making it a Tokyo double, with Shohei Tateyama also taking the pitching honour. Congratulations gentlemen!

MVP!!

And another!!

]]> http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/08/5812-chunichi-away/feed/ 4 http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/07/tokyo-swallows-snapshot-may-7th-2012/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tokyo-swallows-snapshot-may-7th-2012 http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/07/tokyo-swallows-snapshot-may-7th-2012/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 05:44:01 +0000 Christopher Pellegrini http://tokyoswallows.com/?p=12514 Hello, all you Swallowers! Here’s something to read while claiming your shark repellent spray refund.

Miyamoto’s Meikyukai Induction

Miyamoto became the 40th batter to reach the 2,000 hit milestone with a single in his first at-bat against Hiroshima starter, Yuya Fukui on Friday. The game was immediately halted as Miyamoto’s teammates came onto the field to congratulate him.

The team has decided to designate May 30th Miyamoto Milestone Memorial Day when Hokkaido will be in town for a two-game series (May 30th and 31st). Former Tokyo Swallow and teammate, Atsunori Inaba, who became the 39th hitter to enter the Meikyukai just a short while ago, will be playing for the Fighters in that game, and it is likely that Inaba will also be honored by the team in some way.

For more information, including stats and lots of trivial information, check these two posts (here and here) on Yakyu Baka.

In case you missed it, here’s a video replay:

Many congrats to Miyamoto and his family from everyone at Tsubamegun!

Swallows of the Week

Week 5

The Tsubamegun community voted on the outstanding performances by the following five players: Wladimir Balentien (RF), Tony Barnette (P), Kazuhiro Hatakeyama (1B), Lastings Milledge (LF), and Shohei Tateyama (P). There were 35 official votes this week, and here’s how the numbers added up:

Player	Votes	%
Lastings Milledge	20	57
Wladimir Balentien	6	17
Tony Barnette	5	14
Kazuhiro Hatakeyama	2	6
Shohei Tateyama	2	6

Congratulations, Thrilledge! The man has been an impact player at the plate, and he has shown hustle and determination both on the field and the basepaths. All the best to Milledge from the Tsubamegun community as he continues to transition to the pitching and style of play here in Japan.

Week 6

The Swallows played five games last week which completed a eight-games-in-nine-days marathon against Central League competition. The first two were in Yokohama, and after romping in the first game thanks to Balentien’s three bombs, the offense was quieted in game two due to some decent pitching from the home team.

The second series was at home against the Hiroshima Carp. The first two games were both monumental and enjoyable to watch for Tokyo fans as Miyamoto eclipsed the 2,000 hit mark on Friday, and the team churned out an impressive performance both on offense and defense to clinch the series. Yesterday’s game, however, was a bit of a mess thanks mostly to the fact that Tokyo wasn’t able to get anyone on base for most of the game.

Coco made this pose many times this week. They must've thought it was hailing in the left field stands.

May 1st at Yokohama 7-0 W
May 2nd cancelled (rain)
May 3rd at Yokohama 1-3 L
May 4th vs Hiroshima 8-4 W
May 5th vs Hiroshima 4-1 W
May 6th vs Hiroshima 0-6 L

Several players put up impressive numbers last week, and here are the names for you to choose from:

Wladimir Balentien (RF) had a crazy week 6 at the plate. He was 8-17 with six homers, four walks, eight RBI, and 27 total bases. Here’s his slash line for the week: .471/.571/1.588.

Masanori Ishikawa (P) recorded his first complete game shutout in a couple of seasons at Yokohama on Tuesday. He threw 145 pitches through nine innings of work and gave up five hits, one walk, and one beanball while striking out five on his way to helping his team secure a 7-0 victory.

Orlando Roman (P) had his longest outing of the year on Saturday when he subdued a very aggressive Carp team with only 95 pitches through eight innings of work. He gave up only five hits, three walks, and one earned run while striking out three. The Swallows went on to win that contest 4-1.

Hiroyasu Tanaka (2B) was solid both at the plate and on defense. He was one of only two players to hit safely in all five games last week and was 7-21 at the plate. He mixed in a couple of doubles, two walks, and four RBI to help reward Hatakeyama and Nakamura for their solid offense in the bottom third of the lineup. Slash line: .333/.391/.429.

Tick the box next to the player you think most deserves SOW honors for week 6.

Roster Updates

On Wednesday May 2nd, Genki Nitta (C) and Yuhei (OF) were demoted, and on Thursday veterans Atsushi Fujimoto (IF) and Kazuki Fukuchi (OF) were brought up. Fujimoto had his first hit of the season that same day. Fukuchi had his first hit on Friday and recorded his first sac fly of the season on Saturday.

Ueda (CF) was dropped to the farm on Saturday after banging up his right shoulder on a herculean effort to prevent a home run in Friday’s game. He was 1-2 at the plate with a double before being removed from the game. Hopefully his rehab stint doesn’t take too long.

Rookie Hiyane (OF) was brought back up on the same day to serve as cover/competition for Kazuki Fukuchi in center field.

Takeuchi was dropped to the farm on Sunday for reasons that were not immediately clear. Hopefully it’s nothing more than an attempt to keep him fresh by seeing live pitching on a regular basis on the farm.

That leaves 27 players on the top team roster as of this morning:

Pitchers
Muranaka, Ishikawa, Masubuchi, Tateyama, Barnette, Hidaka, Akagawa, Watanabe, Roman, Abe, Oshimoto, Hirai

Catchers
Fukukawa, Nakamura

Infielders
Kawabata, Miyamoto, Tanaka, Fujimoto, Hatakeyama, Noguchi, Miwa, Morioka

Outfielders
Hiyane, Fukuchi, Balentien, Iihara, Yuhei, Milledge

From the Farm

Tokyo’s minor league team dropped two of their three games against Tohoku up in Sendai. Depressingly, they lost both of the first two games in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the 10th inning. But there were definitely some bright spots tucked in there.

The Swallows won the third game thanks largely to a fourth inning, two out grand slam care of Yuichi which put a previously tied ballgame at 6-2 in Tokyo’s favor. The team eventually won the game 6-4 with rookie Hugo Kanabushi getting the ‘W’ thanks to his six innings of  eight hit, three run baseball.

Chikara Onodera continues to pitch effectively from the bullpen. He made two appearances last week and kept the opposition off the board. In 15 appearances so far (farm team high), he’s pitched 15.1 innings and has an ERA of 0.59.

Kyuko has also seen his workload increase, which is another great sign for the team as he was a phenomenal left-handed option out of the pen last year. He made two appearances last week and didn’t allow any runs.

Recently demoted center fielder, Yuhei, started all three games last weekend and was 5-15 at the plate.

Kawamoto (C) appears to be back in action and both caught and DH’d last weekend. Nitta did the same and appears to be having a bit more success at the plate so far.

Tokyo’s little birds will play six home games up in Toda starting tomorrow. The first three are against the little Giants, and the second set is against the little Marines. All six games are scheduled to start at 1PM.

Around the Central League

Tokyo finished the week with three wins and two losses which leaves them in sole possession of first place in the Central League with an overall record of 18-10-2. After splitting a rain-shortened series with Yokohama, the birds returned to Jingu and took 2-3 from the visiting Hiroshima Carp. They enjoy a mere half-game lead over second place Chunichi.

Chunichi finished the week with two wins, two losses, and two ties. Those two losses came over the weekend when they were visiting Yokohama who are now in possession of a semi-healthy Tsutsugoh at third base. The boy has been hitting the ball hard, and if memory serves, he’s eligible for ROY voting this season. The Chunichi Dragons finished the week in second place, half a game behind the Tokyo Swallows.

Staff ace, Kazuki Yoshimi, was taken off the active roster due to a gammy hammy on May 2nd. That’s good news for the Swallows because it means that they won’t have to face him next week when they travel to play Chunichi.

Hanshin finished the week with one win, four losses, and one draw. In fact, they finished the Golden Week nine-game stretch with a league worst 1-6-2 record. They only scored five runs in their six games last week, and they were shut out three times. They’re still in third place though, 4.5 games behind Tokyo and just a half game ahead of the surging Yomiuri Giants.

The scoreless draw against Yomiuri at Tokyo Dome on April 30th was the first time in 69 years (link in Japanese) that such a result has happened between those two clubs.

Looking for some depth at catcher due to injuries to Johjima and Fujii, Hanshin traded pitcher Ryuji Wakatake to Hokkaido for backup catcher, Kenta Imanari. 24-year-old Imanari appeared in 22 games for the Fighters last year and hit .115 with three hits.

Yomiuri finished the week with four wins and two losses. They took 2-3 from the visiting Hiroshima Carp at Tokyo Dome and then did the same against Hanshin when they played there this past weekend. Yomiuri finished the GW stretch with a Japan-best .750 winning percentage which is terrible news for those who value what is just and right in the world. Yomiuri still has a losing record, but they’re just a half game behind the faltering Hanshin Tigers.

Yomiuri is apparently going to be welcoming 33-year-old Edgar Gonzalez back into the fold. You may recall that Gonzalez played for the Giants back in 2010. He had 327 plate appearances in 100 games for Yomiuri that year, hitting .263/.342/.457 with 76 hits (12 HR) and 44 RBI. Last year he hit .315/.378/.457 with 159 hits (30 2B, 14 HR) and 82 RBI in 137 games for AAA Fresno (San Francisco Giants).

Hiroshima finished the week with two wins and four losses. They dropped all three of their GW series, and critically four of their six games with the first place Tokyo Swallows. They are now in fifth place in the Central League, one game behind Yomiuri and just two games ahead of the improving Yokohama Baystars.

Yokohama finished the week with three wins, one loss, and one draw. The biggest thrill for them was undoubtedly winning their weekend series against the defending Central League champs, Chunichi. They outscored the Dragons 19-6 in those three games, and it should be fun to see if they can keep this momentum going into the Interleague block of the season which begins on the 16th. Yokohama are still in last place, but they’re finally showing some signs of life. If Yoshimura, Ramirez, Nakamura, and Tsutsugoh all get on track at the same time, then they should be able to produce quite a few runs.

Yokohama apparently has some kind of ticketing scheme worked out whereby fans can get a refund if they were unhappy with the game that they watched. According to reports, there have been some long lines at the ticket windows following several of the games.

The Week Ahead

Tokyo has a slightly abbreviated schedule this week, the last before Interleague games begin on May 16 with a two game home series against 2011 Japan Series Champs, Fukuoka.

This week also features quite a bit of running around for the team. The first series is against the Dragons May 8th-10th, and even though it’s an ‘away’ series for the birds, only one of those games will be played at Nagoya Dome. Game 1 is in Toyohashi, game 2 is to be played in Gifu, and the final game will see the teams play a game in the cavernous dome that Chunichi calls home.

Friday the 11th is a travel day as the birds head north to Akita for a two-game “home” series against Yomiuri.

Games on the 8th-10th and 12th start at 6PM. The game on the 13th is scheduled to begin at 3PM. Check the calendar at the bottom of this site’s homepage if you need more detail.

Former Swallows

Seth Greisinger continues to be unhittable for the Chiba Marines. He leads the Pacific League in ERA (0.31), winning percentage (perfect), opposing team’s batting average (.165), and K/9 (8.59).

Norichika Aoki only has 34 at-bats in the 22 games that he’s appeared in (usually as a pinch hitter), and his slash line is currently: .235/.316/.353. It will be fun to see what he can do if/when he gets to start regularly for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Alex Ramirez continues to struggle at the plate in his new home of Yokohama (.198/.217/.284). He finally hit his first homer of the season on Friday when Chunichi came to town.

Standing ovation for Tokyo's legendary third baseman.

Alright, that’s all for this week. Please excuse me because I have fallen woefully behind on my meat consumption.

Drink up.

Tokyo Swallows 7

Yokohama BayStars  0

Streak: Won 2    Last 5: WWLWW

(Yokohama Stadium)

The last time the birds played the stars, they lost two on the trot. That ugly set of events transpired  April 10th, 11th, and 12th, and it was the first time this season that  any club dropped two in a row to the team from Yokohama. Hanshin has since repeated Tokyo’s performance at Yokohama Stadium, and the Swallows traveled a bit south of the Yamanote Line today hoping not to relive that embarrassment.

The Baystars are coming off a week in which they dropped four straight–overall they’ve lost five in a row following their glorious back-to-back wins over the Tigers. Also, they didn’t score more than three runs in any of those five games, and they were blanked in two of their last three games at Nagoya Dome.

In case you missed it, this week’s Snapshot has a complete summary of what’s been going on recently in the Central League.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tokyo	0	1	0	3	1	0	0	2	0	7	15	1
Yokohama	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	1
W: Ishikawa (2-3, 3.43 ERA) L: Yamamoto (1-3, 4.64 ERA)

Tokyo, on the other hand, are coming off of a week in which run production was less of a concern than it had been during the first weeks of April. The birds plated at least four runs in four of their last six games and are 10-3-1 since last meeting the Baystars.

Tokyo	Order	Yokohama
Tanaka (2B)	1	Ikki (RF)
Ueda (CF)	2	Morimoto (CF)
Milledge (LF)	3	Nakamura (3B)
Balentien (RF)	4	Ramirez (LF)
Kawabata (SS)	5	Yoshimura (1B)
Miyamoto (3B)	6	Watanabe (SS)
Hatakeyama (1B)	7	Yamazaki (2B)
Nakamura (C)	8	Tsuruoka (C)
Ishikawa (P)	9	Yamamoto (P)

Also in Tokyo’s favor was the fact that Yokohama finished the month of April with a team batting average of .192–worst in Japan by quite some margin.

On to the game report.

After Yamamoto pitched a perfect first, Balentien opened the scoring for Tokyo with a home run on a full count pitch that eventually landed in the bleachers in left. It was his seventh of the season.

1-0 Tokyo.

Kawabata hit a double down the line in right immediately after that, but nothing came of it when he was caught in a rundown between second and third on Miyamoto’s come-backer to the mound.

The Swallows threatened again in the top of the third thanks to Tanaka drawing a walk, getting bunted over to second, and advanced to third on Milledge’s grounder to short.

Balentien came out swinging and managed to drill the first pitch he saw right at Shiroishi in the third base coach’s box. It appeared to get him in the leg, but Shiroishi bounced back up. Balentien worked a walk after getting behind early 0-2.

With runners on the corners and two outs, Kawabata got tricked on an inside pitch and struck out swinging as he half hopped out of the way.

So the highlight of that inning was Shiroishi getting cracked in the leg.

In the top of the fouth, Miyamoto and Hatakeyama opened with back-to-back singles to left to make things interesting, but then Ogawa had another brain fart and asked Nakamura to bunt with the pitcher waiting in the on deck circle. To make matters worse, Nakamura’s bunt didn’t wander far enough from home plate, so Tsuruoka was able to pick it up and gun Miyamoto down at third.

Ishikawa was asked to bunt as well, and while he was successful at moving the runners over, a second red lamp was illuminated on the board.

After a 3-hit night, Miyamoto is just one hit shy of 2,000.

But everything turned out OK as Tanaka was there to save the day. He did well to protect the  plate and stay alive at 2-2, and he eventually pounced on a fastball, sending it over the head of former Swallow, Alex Ramirez, to clear the bases and leave Beavis standing safely on second.

3-0 Tokyo.

And just for good measure, Ueda followed with a stand-up triple for Tokyo’s fourth run.

4-0 Tokyo.

One more would have scored on Milledge’s hit to left center, but unfortunately he was robbed by Morimoto with a nice sliding catch the like’s of which once broke Hideki Matsui’s wrist back when he played for the Yankees.

The scoring resumed in the top of the fifth when Balentien blasted home run number eight into the very top of the bleachers in left center just a few feet shy of the picnic area at the top.

5-0 Tokyo.

And before the travelling Swallows fan could even pick up their plastic bangers after putting down their mini umbrellas, Miyamoto and Hatakeyama had once again strung together back-to-back hits which left runners on the corners for Nakamura. No more runs scored, but Miyamoto’s second hit of the game means that he’s only two away from induction into the Meikyukai.

The big question now becomes whether he’ll reach the milestone in Yokohama or when the team returns too Jingu this weekend.

There has been talk of keeping him out of the lineup if he looks likely to reach 2,000 hits away from Jingu. Normally I’m against putting individual accolades ahead of the everyday business of winning baseball games, but we’re currently dicking on Yokohama, so I’m willing to listen to other opinions today.

Kobayashi replaced Yamamoto on the mound for Yokohama in the sixth, and Tanaka quickly welcomed him to the game by slapping a single into left.

Nothing else of consequence happened during the inning, but the Swallows continue to look pretty confident at the plate.

The big question going forward is whether or not Ishikawa can keep the ball in the park. He nearly gave up a huge home run to Yoshimura earlier (drifted foul) on a ball left up in the zone.

But since I’m typing this as I watch the game, I must admit that Ishikawa made the bottom of the sixth look pretty easy. It only took six pitches.

Miyamoto was at the plate for his scheduled at-bat in the top of the seventh with Fujie now pitching for the Baystars. He once again grounded past the diving Watanabe at short (Nakamura’s defensive range is just slightly wider than the circumference of his generous gut), leaving him just one hit shy of 2,000 career hits.

This also marked his second three-hit game of the 2012 season.

Our Nakamura also singled, but with two outs on the board and Ishikawa at the plate, there wasn’t much else that we could ask for.

The first time that Yokohama got two runners on base was in the bottom of the seventh when Nakamura (Yokohama’s pudgy third baseman, not our fantastically talented catcher) singled for his second hit of the game, and then Ishikawa beaned Watanabe to put runners on first and second.

But Ishikawa worked his way out of trouble as he always does and joined his teammates on the bench having thrown 113 pitches through seven shutout innings.

Shinohara took the mound for Yokohama in the top of the eighth and gave up a one out single to Ueda, his second hit of the evening. Milledge flew out in foul territory over by the wall behind first base, but Balentien decided to leave a parting shot. 1-2 fastball, BANG. Round-tripper number three of the game for Coco.

7-0 Swallows.

Shinohara retaliated by pegging Kawabata in the ribs (he tried to hit him on the first pitch, but it wasn’t far enough inside). The second pitch got him. But that didn’t dampen the party for the contingent of Swallows fans in the left field stands.

Yamaguchi took the mound for the Baystars in the top of the ninth, and allowed Hatakeyama’s third hit of the game, a single to right.

Is it just me, or is Hatakeyama hitting almost exclusively to the opposite field so far this season? Two of his three hits tonight were to right field. Can someone check on that and get back to me?

Anyway, no runs scored in the top of the ninth, and Ishikawa again took the mound in the bottom of the ninth to try and go for a complete game shutout.

Moirioka and Noguchi came in as defensive replacements at third and first, respectively.

Unfortunately, Yokohama’s Nakamura was the first man up, and he smacked his second double of the game off the wall in right. Of Yokohama’s five hits tonight, Nakamura had three of them.

Two outs later, Watanabe drew a rare Ishikawa walk (ie. sorry for hitting you in your last at-bat), but it wasn’t enough as Yamazaki popped up harmlessly to Noguchi at first to end the game.

It was Ishikawa’s first complete game shutout since September 28th of 2010. That game also took place at Yokohama Stadium.

Pitching:
Ishikawa threw a gargantuan 145 pitches today while going the full nine innings in his strongest showing since opening day against Yomiuri.

He gave up five hits, struck out five, gave Watanabe two free trips to first (HBP and BB) while shutting out Yokohama. His record improved to 2-3 and his ERA dropped significantly from 4.45 to 3.43.

Hitting:
OK, Balentien was the obvious standout here, but there are several players worthy of praise here. After all, the birds banged out a season high 15 hits today.

Balentien – three home runs (7th, 8th, and 9th of the season), four RBI, one walk. Crazy.

Hatakeyama – three hits, four total bases.

Miyamoto – three hits, just one more until he makes it into the Meikyukai.

Tanaka – two hits from five plate appearances today, one walk, two RBI. Plus a nice catch in shallow right field early in the game.

Ueda – also 2-5 with a run-scoring triple.

Notes:

In 12 games at Yokohama Stadium last year, Balentien hit .372 (16-43 at the plate) with seven homers and 16 RBI. Judging by today’s game, it’s perhaps fair to think that last year’s numbers were not an anomaly.

Interestingly, as soon as the game was over, Balentien grabbed all of his gear in the dugout and hurried out of sight so as not to be called back onto the field to crowd Ishikawa’s hero interview. Respect.

If the next two games go ahead as planned, and Miyamoto starts both of them, he will likely reach 2,000 hits in Yokohama. Not that that’s a bad thing.

Yokohama is apparently on pace to lose 100 games this year.

Chunichi beat Hanshin 1-0 tonight, so the birds and blue dragons are still tied at the top, eight games above five hundred.

Tomorrow’s game, if it doesn’t get rained out, will feature Yokohama’s Brandon (0-3, 3.98 ERA) versus Tokyo’s Muranaka (3-0, 2.18 ERA).

Tokyo tied the season series with the Baystars 2-2 with tonight’s win. Game five of the series is tomorrow night in Yokohama, and if it doesn’t rain too hard then the game will start at 6 PM.

Tokyo Swallows  3

Hanshin Tigers  4

Streak: Lost 1   Last 5: WWLWL

(Koshien Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Swallows	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	3	9	0
Tigers	0	2	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	4	8	0
W: Ando (2-0) L: Ishikawa (1-3) S: Fujikawa (6)

Ishikawa and the Swallows lose a back-and-forth affair at a windy Koshien.

	Swallows		Tigers
1	Tanaka (2B)	1	Hirano (2B)
2	Ueda (CF)	2	Yamato (CF)
3	Milledge (LF)	3	Toritani (SS)
4	Hatakeyama (1B)	4	Arai (3B)
5	Kawabata (SS)	5	Brazell (1B)
6	Miyamoto (3B)	6	Murton (RF)
7	Balentien (RF)	7	Kanemoto (LF)
8	Nakamura (C)	8	Komiyama (C)
9	Ishikawa (P)	9	Ando (P)

The Swallows struck first in this game in the second. After Kawabata walked to lead off the inning, Miyamoto got career hit number 1987 to put men on the corners with no outs. Balentien took the first pitch he saw and hit it deep enough into center field to cash Kawabata in on a sacrifice fly. 1-0 Swallows Unfortunately, the inning ended 2 pitches later as Nakamura grounded out into a double play.

The lead didn’t last long as the heart of the Tigers’ lineup got hot to start the bottom of the inning. Arai started the inning off with a single. Brazell followed with a double off the left field wall, to put men in scoring position with no outs. It looked like Ishikawa jammed Murton on a 1-1 pitch, but a strong wind pushed a ball that normally would have sailed comfortably into Balentien’s glove back into shallow right field for a run-scoring single. 1-1 All With no out and men on the corners, Kanemoto killed the Tigers’ momentum by grounding into a 6-5-3 double play, but not before scoring Brazell for the lead. 2-1 Tigers

The Swallows came back in the fifth. Balentien and Nakamura opened the inning with back-to-back singles, and Ishikawa bunted them both into scoring position. Tanaka hit a high fastball that Toritani just managed to snag on a dive, and throw to first. The ground outallowed both runners to advance, scoring Balentien and putting Nakamura on third. 2-2 All Ando walked Ueda on just 5 pitches to put the Swallows’ hopes on Milledge’s bat. He answered with a single to right to score Nakamura and put the Swallows back in the lead. 3-2 Swallows

Unfortunately Ishikawa wasn’t able to hold the lead in the sixth. Ishikawa started the inning off with a strike out off Yamato, but things started to go awry with a single up the middle by Toritani. Ishikawa walked Arai to put 2 men on, but did manage to induce a fly out from Brazell despite getting behind 3-1 in the count. But Ishikawa’s lack of control got to him as Murton cashed in both runners with a 1-0 double to retake the lead for the Tigers. 4-3 Tigers Kanemoto ended the inning with a fly out, but the damage was done and Ishikawa’s night ended there.

The Swallows had a chance in the eighth when Iihara, pinch hitting for Ueda, started the inning off with a double and Milledge bunted him over to third (?). Neither Hatake or Kawabata could bring him home. The Swallows also got their lead man on in the ninth against Tigers’ closer Fujikawa. But Miyamoto’s 1988th career hit was for naught, as his pinch runner, Hiyane, got picked off of first and Fujikawa struck out Balentien and Takeuchi to end the night.

The only other highlight for the Swallows in the latter third of the game came in the bottom of the eighth with Hidaka in to face the heart of the Tigers’ order. Hidaka managed to get Toritani, Arai, and Brazell all to go down swinging. Hopefully a confidence boost for the young pitcher, and a sign that the Swallows have another option out of the pen.

Ishikawa pitched 6 inning on 94 pitches, got 4 strikeout, and gave up 7 hits, 2 walks, and all Tigers 4 runs. His Tigers’ counterpart, Ando, had similar numbers giving up the same number of hits and walks, and getting 1 less strikeout.

The Swallows travel back home to face the Giants and Dragons for a 6 game homestand. Muranaka is the announced started for the Swallows, while the Giants will open the series with Utsumi.

Ishikawa doesn't quite get the night he wanted.

A couple of very small changes have occurred on the homepage of this fair website. We moved the Central League standings plugin to the footer area and added a Pacific League widget as well.

We also started a Swallows of the Week list down in the footer. The winner of week one voting was Masanori Ishikawa!

Swallows of the Week

Milledge hit his first NPB round-tripper this week, but it wasn't quite enough to get him on the weekly MVP ballot.

Week 1

There were 22 votes during the few days following the publication of the first Tokyo Swallows Snapshot, and voters were asked to select an MVP from a list of four strong week one contributors: Tony Barnette, Masanori Ishikawa, Shinya Miyamoto, and Hiroyasu Tanaka.

Here’s how many votes each player received:

Player	Votes	%
Masanori Ishikawa	11	50
Shinya Miyamoto	5	22
Hiroyasu Tanaka	3	14
Tony Barnette	3	14

Congratulations to Mr. Ishikawa! Your imaginary trophy is in the mail.

Week 2

Your Tokyo Swallows played five games last week, two against the visiting Hanshin Tigers (Tuesday’s game was erased by gale-force winds) and three at Nagoya Dome against 2011 CL champ, Chunichi.

The week didn’t start particularly well, but the ending was just what the doctor ordered for a fanbase that is still licking its wounds after being overtaken for the CL Pennant and later beaten in the second stage of the Climax Series by one of the most boring teams in all of professional baseball.

At any rate, the birds finished the week with two wins, two losses, and one tie. That’s good enough for fourth place in the very young 2012 Central League pennant race.

And here are week number two’s key contributors:

Shingo Kawabata
Tokyo’s shortstop has not endured the slow start that many of us envisioned given his injury issues and abbreviated top team stint during spring training. But he’s been solid both on defense and at the plate, and he looks to be every bit as good as he was last summer. He was 8-18 at the plate last week with two RBI and one walk. That’s a .444 batting average during week two, and his current slash line is .379/.419/.379.

Orlando Roman
In his first start for the Swallows, Roman easily exceeded expectations. He ended up being tagged with the loss, but he gave up only one run during his six and one-third innings of work while striking out six and walking two. He was very unfortunate to be facing Chunichi’s ace, Yoshimi, who limited the Tokyo offense to just three hits during his time in the game. A very promising start by anyone’s standards.

Wladimir Balentien
Indifferent fielding aside, Coco had a decent week at the plate. He went 7-17 with a solo home run against both Hanshin and Chunichi. He also had two RBI against Hanshin on Wednesday which gave him four for the week. His .412 batting average last week made him a very difficult out considering the fact that he was batting seventh. His current slash line is .320/.433/.560.

Tony Barnette
Three more appearances this week led to Tony tabulating his third save and first win of the 2012 season. He still sports a goose egg filled ERA, allowed just one hit, and sports a RIP of just 0.64. He’s currently tied for second in the league in appearances (5), tied for fourth in wins (1), and tied for first in saves (3).

Takehiko Oshimoto
With another four appearances under his belt, Oshimoto still boasts a 0.00 ERA. He allowed three walks and three hits last week, but he struck out three batters as well.

Spits or Swallows

I’m still unsure about this part of the column. I kind of like the idea of picking players that are on fire or sucking pretty hard, but I don’t like the limited scope of just one week’s worth of games. Maybe the column itself should be called “Spits or Swallows” since we tend to revel in both the positive and negative here at Tsubamegun?

Feedback on this point would be very much appreciated, even if it’s just to let us know who you think had a good/bad week.

Community Opinion Poll

You may or may not remember that back on March 29th we asked for your opinions on a variety of Tokyo-related areas. 18 of you took the time to fill out the eight-question survey, and here’s what we found:

With Lim on the farm team, who would you like to see pitching the ninth inning?
Tony Barnette 15 (83% of respondents)

In what place do you think Tokyo will finish the regular season?

• CL Champs – 6 votes (33% of respondents)
• 2nd place – 6 votes (33%)
• 3rd place – 3 votes (17%)
• 4th place – 3 votes (17%)
• 5th place – 0 votes (0%)
• 6th place – 0 votes (0%)

How many wins do you think the Swallows will finish the regular season with?

• 56-65 – 1 vote (6%)
• 66-75 – 5 votes (28%)
• 76-85 – 12 votes (67%)

Do you agree with the team’s decision to start Lim on the farm so that he has more time to make sure that his arm is ready for top team pitching?

• Yes – 13 votes (72%)
• No – 3 votes (17%)
• Undecided – 2 votes (11%)

Do you agree with the team’s decision to try and move Masubuchi back to the bullpen?

• Yes – 13 votes (72%)
• No – 3 votes (17%)
• Undecided – 2 votes (11%)

Do you agree with the team’s decision to start Yoshinori on the farm team so that he has more time to work on his control?

• Yes – 11 votes (61%)
• No – 5 votes (28%)
• Undecided – 2 votes (11 %)

Who should be the everyday starting shortstop?

• Shingo Kawabata – 14 votes (78%)
• Tetsuto Yamada – 4 votes (22%)

When will Shinya Miyamoto record his 2,000th career hit?

• Before May 1st – 7 votes (39%)
• On/After May 1st – 11 votes (61%)

The Week Ahead

Tokyo play host to Yokohama tomorrow through Thursday, and they will hopefully take at least two of three from the last-placed Baystars who have only managed to win one game so far this season.

Then after a travel day on Friday, the Swallows will take on Hiroshima in Matsuyama on Saturday and Sunday.

Tokyo was 15-5 (4 ties) against Yokohama last year, and 13-9 (2 ties) against Hiroshima.

Kamei took one right in the face.

Around the Central League

Yomiuri’s Kamei had his nose broken by a pitch during yesterday’s game against Hanshin. The nose-breaker was courtesy of Tatsuya Kojima (video here).

Yomiuri and Yokohama continued having a difficult time scoring runs this past week. Many franchise records were set or equaled by both teams for general ineptitude.

Hanshin starting pitcher, Jason Standridge, looked very sharp in his win over the Giants on Saturday.

Hiroshima currently lead the Central League with a 6-2-1 record.

Former Swallows

After striking out in his first MLB at-bat, Norichika Aoki recorded his first hit (pinch-hitter) during Milwaukee’s 3-9 loss to St. Louis.

Through seven games, Josh Whitesell has 27 at-bats and is hitting .259/.310/.296. He leads Chiba in strikeouts with 11.

Whitesell’s teammate, Seth Greisinger, was the starting pitcher on Wednesday versus Saitama and went seven innings while earning the win and striking out nine. He gave up four hits and no runs off of only 94 pitches in a very commanding performance.

Alex Ramirez is currently hitting .250/.286/.250 for Yokohama. He’s currently tied for the team lead in HBP (1).

***

OK, that’s it for this week. Please chime in with your thoughts and don’t forget to vote in this week’s poll. It is very obvious that the vast majority of the visitor’s here are refraining from participating in any way, shape, or form. I can totally sympathize with not wanting to comment, but refusing to take part in an anonymous poll?

Lame dot com.

Alright folks, keep on swallowing. Or drink up. Whichever you prefer.

Hanshin Tigers 3 

Tokyo Swallows 1

Streak: Lost 1   Last 5: WWLDL

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Craig Brazell	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	0	3	3	0
Swallows	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	8	0
W: Ando (1-0) L: Ishikawa (1-1) S: Fujikawa (2)

Only 2 Tigers showed up with their A game tonight, unfortunately only 1 Swallow could say the same and the result was a frustrating 3-1 loss to the Tigers.

	Hanshin		Tokyo
1	Hirano (2B)	1	Tanaka (2B)
2	Yamato (CF)	2	Ueda (CF)
3	Toritani (SS)	3	Milledge (RF)
4	Arai (3B)	4	Hatakeyama (1B)
5	Brazell (1B)	5	Kawabata (SS)
6	Murton (RF)	6	Miyamoto (3B)
7	Kanemoto (LF)	7	Balentien (RF)
8	Fujii (C)	8	Aikawa (C)
9	Ando (P)	9	Ishikawa (P)

Coming off the near no-hitter against the Giants to open the season, Ishikawa looked strong and in control giving up only 3 hits in 7 innings of work. Unfortunately Ishikawa was made to pay for every hit, as Craig Brazell solo homered in the 5th and homered again in the 7th to cash in a hit from earlier in the inning.

On the other side of things, the Swallows offense was facing Yuya Ando who was looking for his first win since 2010. Ando, who only made 1 appearance last year, allowed a runner to get on first base each inning he pitched. But he never allowed a baserunner to advance past that position and the Swallows never looked threatening.

The Swallows finally sort of threatened in the eighth after Ando was replaced by Enokida, managing to get men on first and second with no out. Unfortunately Iihara, Milledge, and Hatake weren’t able to cash in and fell 1-2-3. Balentien managed to smash a no doubt about it homer with 2 outs in the ninth to cap off a 3 hit night for him, but it was too little too late for the Swallows. 3-1 Tigers

(Not much else to write really…)

The Swallows now travel to Nagoya to face the Dragons who have been busy beating up the Carp and BayStars on route to an early 4-0-1 record in which they have only allowed 4 earned runs. The Dragons will send out their ace Yoshimi for the opener, while Orlando Roman will make his Swallows debut.

He's only 19 hits away...

The season has started and your birds are off to a decent start. This past weekend they largely embarrassed crosstown rivals, Yomiuri, in a three-game series at the stain-dome, and they’re now looking ahead to an infestation of Hanshin maniacs starting tomorrow night at Jingu Stadium.

But before I forget, here are the game reports from the first series of the 2012 season:

Game 1: Yomiuri 0-4 Tokyo
Game 2: Yomiuri 3-6 Tokyo
Game 3: Yomiuri 4-2 Tokyo

Oh, and welcome to our new column! Actually, this is more like a testing ground for a new column. So…welcome to the creative process, I guess. Sorry if we get anything on you.

Last season Kozo kept us up to speed on everything that was going on in and around the Swallows with his tirelessly-researched and hugely-insightful Monday Reviews. But he’s busier than most of us here at Tsubamegun (word has it that he works in some skyscraper in downtown Tokyo), so we’re hoping to create a column that can easily incorporate input from a variety of sources and writers and not drive any one contributor into the ground.

So what follow are a couple of ideas that could become mainstays of this column depending on how useful/popular they turn out to be.

However, nothing is sacred. Including the title. Your input is expected and appreciated.

Tokyo Player of the Week

We’ve only seen three games, but I feel that it’s time for another vote. As mentioned earlier, the Friday-Sunday series at the dome was a decent one for the birds, and there was no shortage of solid play. I propose that we elect a player of the week, based on input from the Tsubamegun community. Wait, should this be renamed “Swallow of the Week”?

The rules are simple. We’ll propose a few different players who went above and beyond during the previous week’s games, and you’ll have a few days to select your favorite before we close the polls.

Below are the Tokyo players that stood out in the team’s three-game series at Yomiuri’s stain-dome. Just so you know, they’re listed in alphabetical order. We’re thinking about creating a list of the Players of the Week in the sidebar, so be sure to cast your vote below. Don’t worry, no personal information is collected, and please vote only once.

The nominees:

Tony Barnette
Filling in for Chang-yong Lim as Tokyo’s closer, Barnette quickly and quietly sealed the deal on both of Tokyo’s wins last weekend. He pitched one and two-thirds innings, allowed only one hit, struck out one, surrendered no walks or runs, and earned two saves.

Masanori Ishikawa
Ishikawa took a no-hit bid into the ninth inning in Friday’s game and managed to help deal the Giants a first ever shutout on opening day. He ended up getting the win. Final line: 8 1/3 innings, two hits, one walk, three Ks, 0 ER, .071 opposition batting avg.

Shinya Miyamoto
Mr. Timeless just keeps on ticking. He started the season 25 hits short of induction into the prestigious Meikyukai (at least 2,000 career hits minimum), and he ripped it up during Tokyo’s opening series. He went 3-4 with an RBI on Friday,  1-3 on Saturday, and 2-3 with an HBP on Sunday. He’s now just 19 hits away from the goal, and he hit .600/.636/.700 during those three games.

Hiroyasu Tanaka
For the first time since anyone can remember, Tanaka wasn’t forced to spend his time at the plate bunting someone else into scoring position. And the team was rewarded for it. Tanaka led off in all three games and posted a slash line of .357/.400/.643 with five hits, one double, one HR, two runs scored, three RBI, nine total bases, and one walk.

**Voting has concluded and Masanori Ishikawa won the balloting. Details here.**

And if you haven’t done so already, go vote here, too. You lazy poophead.

Spits or Swallows?

Sorry. Couldn’t resist. Maybe it should be the name of the column, no?

Actually, we were kind of leaning towards having a section that mentions the hottest and coldest players from the previous series/week. Obviously, this would involve elements of the just-mentioned Player of the Week, plus info on a couple of players who hope to quickly forget what we just endured.

Layouts ‘n Stuff

Other things are bound to change as well. We’re currently trying to figure out how to most effectively categorize posts on this bad boy, and there is also talk of adding a sidebar to the left side of the homepage. As always, your input is welcome, as are your essays, story proposals, and rants. E-mail us at admin[at]tokyoswallows.com. We’re currently looking for someone who spends some time going to minor league games in Japan. If that’s you, drop us a line.

At any rate, expect some changes during the coming weeks. We don’t plan on introducing anything as revolutionary and polarizing as the new Facebook Timeline, so please stick with us and offer your feedback with our feelings in mind.

The Week Ahead

Hanshin is in town for a Tuesday-Thursday series starting April 3rd at 6PM.

And although things could easily change, it’s likely that Tateyama Roman will take the mound against the Tigers on Tuesday. And while neither of them are currently on the top team, don’t be surprised to see Roman, Yoshinori, and perhaps one other pitcher get traded up to the pro team over the next couple of days.

If things continue to go according to the order established last weekend, then look for Ishikawa to start the first game against Chunichi in a mini replay of last year’s Climax Series second stage on Friday April 6th.

While you’re contemplating the six games that will be played over the next six days, go ahead and give this article about Tony Barnette a read.

Around the Central League

After winning last year’s Central League pennant, Chunichi is back with a new manager (Takagi in, Ochiai out) and has resumed its position at the front of the pack. Starters Yoshimi and Kawakami put in very solid performances versus last year’s fifth placed team, Hiroshima. Expect to hear a lot more from Yoshimi this season. The jury is still out on MLB-reject Kawakami. The Chunichi Dragons are currently in first place in the Central League, half of a game ahead of the Tokyo Swallows.

Dave and I have Chunichi dropping off a bit this year, but these asshats went a different way with their predictions, so who knows…

Hanshin split its series with Yokohama down the middle by going 1-1-1 this past weekend.

Hiroshima is the only team in the Central League that didn’t win a game last weekend. Sixth place belongs to the team that went 0-2-1 against Chunichi.

Former Swallows

After a shaky spring training with Pittsburgh, former Tokyo closer, Ryota Igarashi, was cut from the top team roster and then traded to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Norichika Aoki continues to keep his name in the mix with the Milwaukee Brewers. He’s not a shoe-in for a starting job, but he continues to show that he can hit, run the bases, and play defense.

Josh Whitesell, Chiba’s new DH, currently leads the Pacific League with four RBI, is second on the team for hits (5), and his slash line isn’t too shabby either: .357/.357/.429.

***

Anyways, thanks for joining us for the first installment of this column. Hopefully we’ll see this thing grow into something entertaining and sustainable.

Go, Go Swallows!!

And in case you prefer not to take that suggestion literally, allow me to rephrase it in a way that might provide more universal accessibility.

Drink up.

(HT to Kyle Lobner for the bookends of this article.)

Tokyo Swallows 

Yomiuri Giants 

Streak: Won 1  Last 5: W—-

(MLB STADIUM JAPAN; aka TOKYO DOME)

Opening Night in Japan…and two outs away from a no-hitter

After two of the AL West teams opened their season in Japan, Tokyo was anxious to see their two teams open the season. Loyal supporters of this site and the Swallows will recall that the last time these two teams faced each other, the Swallows ended up celebrating with a 3-1 win in the first stage of the Climax series. As it turned out, the Swallows picked up where they left off against the Giants.

Here were the starting lineups for both teams:

	Yomiuri		Tokyo
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 Utsumi	9	P Ishikawa

Tonight, things got off to a quick start for the Swallows but nothing showed up on the score board. Tanaka lead off the game with a single. He quickly moved to second when Ueda “safety”-bunted and was safe at first. Milledge would strike out before Hatakeyama grounded to second but reached base on a fielders choice that forced Ueda out at second. The inning would end with Kawabata grounding out to third. Although no runs were scored, it set the tone for the rest of the game.

The second inning saw both sides go down in order and the game tied 0-0.

However, that all changed in the third inning. Ishikawa helped himself out by leading off the inning with a single. Tanaka followed with a double down the left field line. Ueda then hit a duck snort to shallow left-center scoring both Ishikawa and Tanaka. 2-0 Tokyo

Up next was the new signing, Milledge. Unfortunately, all he could do was fly out to left. With the clean-up hitter, Hatakeyama up next, Ueda made a mental error by attempting to steal second and was easily thrown out by Abe. Of course, on the very next pitch, “Boo” hit a single to right-center. With two outs, Kawabata was up. He proceeded to hit another single to right, putting runners on the corners. Miyamoto, inching closer to that 2000 hit milestone, hit yet another single to right easily scoring “Boo” and advancing Kawabata to third. 3-0 Tokyo

Long night for the chosen one

Balentien was up next and he walked to load the bases. Unfortunately, the inning came to an end as Aikawa hit a grounder to Sakamoto who forced out Balentien at 2nd base.

Ishikawa was cruising through the first five innings with his only blemish being his throwing error on soft grounder by Sakamoto to open the home half of the first inning. The only other runner in the first five innings from the most hated team money can buy, was Ogasawara who reached base on a very questionable, full-count, ball four in the second inning. The announcers began to talk about a no-hitter but they must not be aware that there was a new rule introduced by fandom in America. You have to wait until the 7th inning to start talking about a no-hitter. Come on guys, catch up.

This is so much fun seeing these guys struggle.

The Swallows made some noise with their bats again in the fifth with two hits, but couldn’t score in the inning. As our own Nostradamus, Cristopher Pellegrini, predicted, the Swallows continued to knock around Utsumi in the sixth. But yet again, Tokyo was unable to put any runs up on the board. However, Hara had seen enough and that was the end of Utsumi’s night as he was replaced by Romero in the top of the 7th.

Although the pitcher changed for the home side, it had little impact on the Swallows offense in the 7th. Hatakeyama walked to start the inning. He was followed by Kawabata, who bunted “Boo” over to second. Miyamoto followed Kawabata by bunting as well. However, Ogasawara was unable to make a clean throw to Romero who was running to cover first and Miyamoto was safe. The official scoring was an error on the play. With runners on 1st and 3rd, Balentein was up next. He hit a hard grounder to third. Murata started the double-play attempt by throwing to second for the force-out. A bad relay throw to first ensured Balentein was safe and that Hatakeyama would score. 4-0 Tokyo

The inning would end with an Aikawa strikeout.

As per the previous 6 innings, the Giants could not get anything going against Ishikawa in the 7th and 8th inning. They went down in order both innings. Now it was getting serious and the announcers were really talking about a no-hitter.

As I watched the game on TV, the PR people were preparing flowers for Ishikawa and potentially his no-hit performance. I thought to myself, “Great. They just jinxed him. He’s lost the no-hitter. “Of course after he got the first batter out, he lost it when Sakamoto hit a shot off of Miyamoto’s glove. Every Swallow supporter was heard groaning. Ishikawa would give up another hit to Bowker.

After surrendering that second hit of the inning and the night, Ishikawa appeared to injure his left leg. Out came the training staff and he was immediately taken out of the game.  In came Barnette. The Giants faithful were finally able to cheer about something but that was very short-lived. Barnette struck out Chono and got Abe to ground out to short, to end the game. Final 4-0 Tokyo

Game notes:

• Miyamoto had 3 hits this evening. He is now 22 away from 2000 for his career
• Ishikawa pitched 8 innings of no-hit baseball
• Barnette got the save
• On the hill tomorrow are Sawamura for the giants and Muranaka for Tokyo

Ishikawa is a beautiful blend of quality and class.

On this day in 1980, Masanori Ishikawa was born in Akita Prefecture. He joined the Tokyo Swallows at the end of 2001 when he was selected in the first round by the Japan Series champion Tokyo Swallows.

There was no delay in his introduction to top team baseball, and he quickly found himself a weekly contributor to the team’s title-defense efforts. He went 12-9 with a 3.33 ERA in his rookie season and brought home Central League Rookie of the Year honors in 2002.

In 2006, Ishikawa became only the third pitcher in NPB history to record at least 10 wins in each of his first five seasons as a pro.

In 2008, he won a Golden Glove. To this day, he is the only Tokyo Swallows pitcher to ever earn that distinction.

In 2011, Ishikawa threw just over 178 innings and finished up with a 2.73 ERA.

Happy birthday, Masanori. We here at Tsubamegun salute you for your durability and willingness to help the young guys on the team. You’re a class act.

Best of luck this season!

Tokyo Swallows 3

Chunichi Dragons 1

Series: Chunichi 2-1 Tokyo

(Nagoya Dome)

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

With the team already down 2-0 in the series, it goes without saying that tonight’s game was a must win for the Swallows. Amidst much speculation, the Swallows started Ishikawa on 3 days rest against the Dragons’ Chen. But that call wasn’t the only roster move made by Ogawa.

	Tokyo		Chunichi
1	(SS) Yamada	1	(SS) Araki
2	(LF) Ueda	2	(2B) Ibata
3	(3B) MIyamoto	3	(3B) Morino
4	(CF) Aoki	4	(1B) Blanco
5	(RF) Balentien	5	(C) Tanishige
6	(1B) Whitesell	6	(LF) Wada
7	(C) Aikawa	7	(RF) Hirata
8	(2B) Tanaka	8	(CF) Oshima
9	(P) Ishikawa	9	(P) Chen

The most surprising decision made by Ogawa was to send down Masubuchi for last year’s 1st round draft pick, Tetsuto Yamada. Not only did Ogawa put Yamada on the roster, but he gave the 19 year old his first ichi-gun start in a must win game batting lead off. Ogawa was also true to his word, benching Hatekeyama after he failed to perform in the Climax Series. It seems that Ogawa has decided to go against conventional wisdom in the playoffs and make roster changes designed solely to motivate his players to rise to the occasion.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the moves backfired as the Swallows offense struggled against Chen’s pitching, as the offense managed only 3 hits in 7 innings. But while the offense struggled, Ishikawa rose to the occasion and held the Dragons to only a single hit in his 7 innings. As the game moved briskly because of the pitchers’ duel, the real action only began in the eighth.

With Chen still looking strong on the mound, the Swallows had the bottom third of their lineup come up in the eighth. While they both made Chen work for the outs, Aikawa and Hiroyasu both eventually fell harmlessly to the Taiwanese southpaw. With the pitcher’s spot in the lineup up, Ogawa decided to send Iihara into the game and ended Ishikawa’s night. Iihara, he of the .126 season average and supreme impatience at the plate, was probably not inspiring the Swallows’ faithful with hope. In fact, I joked to my bar mates that “Iihara would be a hero if he homers here,” a factual statement, but so ridiculous that it could only have be taken as a joke. But life is funny sometimes, Iihara actually took the first 2 pitches from Chen and got ahead of the count 2-0, one of the few Swallows to do so tonight. After taking strike 1, and fouling off another pitch to make the count 2-2, Iihara took a low pitch and floated it to left field. The ball barely made it into the stands, reminicint of Aikawa’s homerun on Monday, and into the hands of a fan to give the Swallows the lead. 1-0 Swallows

Iihara finally delivers a big moment this season.

After Iihara’s improbable homerun, Ogawa surprised Swallows’ fans again in the bottom of the inning by electing to send Tateyama to the mound. While the move certainly sent the message that the Swallows where intent on winning NOW, it certainly begged the question WHO THE FUCK IS PITCHING TOMORROW? But in the here and now the move paid off as Tateyama got the Swallows out of the inning despite walking a batter.

With Chen having been taken out for a pinch runner in the bottom of the eighth, the Swallows had the opportunity to face the lesser Dragons’ pitchers for the first time this series. The first such pitcher was the 10 year veteran Takahashi, making only his third appearance this season. Ueda immediately took advantage by taking the third pitch he saw back up the middle for a single. Miyamoto bunted Ueda over to second for the first out. Aoki took the second pitch he saw from Takahashi and smashed it hard against the hard turf to get an infield single, and put men on the corners with 1 out. The Dragons changed pitchers and sent Kawahara to the mound, while Fujimoto came in for Balentien. Fujimoto got jammed hard on 2 pitches, and the ball got picked up by Ibata who managed to get Ueda in a rundown. Aoki managed to get to third and Fujimoto got to second during the rundown to make it 2 out with men in scoring position for Hatakeyama. The big boy wasted little time and hit one back up the middle to score 2 key insurance runs. 3-0 Swallows

With the Swallows up 3, Tateyama was called to pitch another inning to finish off the game. He managed to get Ibata to foul out after 9 pitches for the first out. But Morino managed to hit a Ogasawara-esque solo home run to right to get back 1 run. 3-1 Swallows But that was it as Tateyama got Blanco and Tanishige out to end the game in the Swallows’ favor.

Ishikawa and Tateyama combined to allow only 2 hits to the Dragons. While the Swallows managed to get 7 hits (4 in the last 2 innings) on the night.

The Tateyama appearance makes the Swallows rotation for the rest of the series very unpredictable. Ogawa’s willingness to use his big starters in the reliever’s role and use starters like Ishikawa on short rest make it hard to tell who will pitch when. I guess we’ll just have to tune in tomorrow to find out how things go…

Tateyama gets the save, but will he start during the series?