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?

Yomiuri Giants 6

Tokyo Swallows  2

Series: Tied 1-1

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

The Swallows were never really in control of this contest. That was evident throughout. Making it worse was the fact that the team never had a shot once we got deep into our bullpen.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Yomiuri	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	4	6	9
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	2	7
W: Utsumi (1-0) L: Ishikawa (0-1)

Uninspiring. Unhelpful. Unhappy. Unbe-Lim-able.

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

Utsumi was in control of this game from the start. Everything that came off the bat in fair territory was Lim-p at best. He pitched six innings and gave up only three hits and one earned run (94 pitches). He was locked in and didn’t cry in the dugout as far as anyone has been able to tell.

Tokyo’s starter, Ishikawa, was reasonably solid through four and two-thirds innings (an Abe homer in the fourth notwithstanding), but he got yanked after giving up a suicide squeeze bunt to Utusmi which put the visitors up 2-0.

The one run that Utsumi surrendered came in the fifth when pinch-hitter Kawamoto came up with a two-out single to knock in one run. 2-1 Gomiuri.

But that was the extent of the threat from the home team as the cross-town visitors plated four runs in the top of the ninth to put the game out of reach and force a decisive Monday contest.

Surprisingly, Tokyo’s vaunted closer, Lim, did as poorly as he’s done all year by allowing three runs on his watch and a fourth after he had been sent packing.

Abe collected his third hit of the night on the second pitch he saw–an outside slider that ended up in right field.

Hashimoto then bunted him over, and Ogasawara followed with a fly-out to Aikawa (he caught it IN Yomiuri’s dugout).

Then with two outs, pinch-hitter Suzuki singled, and Furuki drew a walk.

It got ugly.

That left the bases juiced for Takahashi who came up with a double to center which scored three. 5-1 Yomiuri.

Lim was then replaced by Matsui (which is normally as unthinkable a switch as can possibly be fathomed), but he walked Sakamoto and allowed Takahashi to score on a Terauchi single to center. That ended up being Lim’s fourth earned run of the game, and that was basically it. 6-1 Yomiuri.

A pair of doubles in the bottom of the ninth (Morioka and Whitesell) meant that Tokyo was able to scrape a conciliatory run back, but that was all she wrote. 6-2 Final.

The home team never really got things going in this game and will likely lose tomorrow unless the team’s veteran’s step it up on offense.

Aoki and Hatakeyama have only one hit each thus far in the series, and Miyamoto is hitless. That has to change. Believe it or not, Morioka, Aikawa and Tanaka are leading the charge so far. Unbe-Lim-able.

To be fair, however, at least Hatake has collected a walk in each of the two games thus far. And Balentien drew as many in tonight’s contest (which is utterly unthinkable).

Tomorrow we’ll likely get to see a Gonzalez vs Akagawa showdown on the mound. Tokyo is going to win, but it never needed to get this far.

See you at Jingu!

There's always tomorrow.

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

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

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

As always, thank you very much for listening!

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

We need to officially change the name of this column, since it’s not Monday and I don’t want to be limited by the title. It’s something we’ll have to work on in the offseason. In the meantime, I’ll be giving you some news updates and roster analysis to mull over before the start of the Climax Series next Saturday.

Senryokugai Players: Earlier this month the Swallows announced that 8 players will be cut by the team at the end of the season. The players are LHP Masaru Sato, RHP Shun Takaichi, RHP Hiromitsu Takagi, RHP Masahiro Yoshikawa, LHP Naoya Okamoto, C Atsushi Kinugawa, INF Ryo Yoshimoto, and OF Toshihiro Nakao. Of the listed players, Kinugawa will be given a front office position with the team, and many of the other players were undecided as to what they wanted to do in the future. No major surprises here, and we wish all these players the best in their future endeavors.

Potential Roster Moves: The Swallows have been going crazy with roster moves since the last Monday Review, and we won’t be going over them all. Instead, we’ll be examining where certain players are now and how our post-season roster is shaping up. As of today the Swallows only have 23 players out of a possible 28 on their active roster. Any player removed from the active roster on or before the 19th would be eligible to return in time for Game 1 of the Climax series on the 29th. Among the players not on the active roster who may get recalled in the playoffs are Ishikawa, Kawabata, Whitesell, Kyuko, Barnette, Muranaka, Yoshinori, Shichijo, and Iihara. I’ll give a quick update on the status of each player.

• Ishikawa was removed from the active roster on the 19th, and he should be expected to return on the 29th. Many outlets are now reporting that Ishikawa will be the Swallows’ game 1 starter, and that he may throw in a Phoenix League (fall league) game as warm up. The chances of Ishikawa NOT getting recalled seems slim to none at this point.
• Kawabata was removed from active roster at the same time as Ishikawa. Apparently he had been feeling pain in his left wrist since a game against Hiroshima in September, and was taken off the active roster for that reason. The pains may have been what contributed to his 5-for-45 batting in October. He’s said he’ll be aiming to return in time for the CS, but the status of his health is concerning.
• Whitesell was taken off the roster with right flank pains on the 9th. But there have been no other reports as to his status since. Obviously having Whitesell’s bat on the bench would be a big help to a team struggling to get its offense going.
• Kyuko returned to the team on the 11th, but had a couple of rocky outings (2.1 IP, 5 ER, in 3 appearances) and was taken of the active roster on the 20th. No word as to whether Kyuko is injured and whether he can be expected back for the playoffs. Since Kyuko was taken off the active roster on the 20th, he would only be eligible to return for Game 2 of the first round.
• Barnette’s case is even more mysterious than Kyuko’s case. Barnette was recalled to the active roster at the same time as Kyuko but was taken off the roster 3 days later without ever getting into a game. Barnette has not pitched in a first team game since September 3, and hasn’t pitched in ni-gun games as far as I can see. No details have been released as to Barnette’s condition. Like Kyuko, we’d love to have a prime Barnette back for the playoffs, but it would be a concern if he takes the mound for the first time in the CS.
• Muranaka was taken off the active roster on the 15th after pitching ineffectively on the 14th. Muranaka is healthy as far as we know, so I’d expect him back on the roster for the playoffs.
• The current word on Yoshinori is that he could potentially return if the team makes it to the Nippon Series, but not any sooner.
• Shichijo was demoted from the team after a series of rough outings in late September, but would be available to the team unless he has a hidden injury. He was not on the initial Phoenix League roster so he may be rusty if he were to join the team.
• Finally Iihara would be available to the team if he is needed.

As you can see from the above list our team has been suffering through injury and our roster is somewhat in flux and other players have not been able to fill in the gap. As reported earlier by Chris, Keizo Kawashima will not be able available to the team as he underwent ligament surgery (possibly Tommy John surgery?) on his right elbow and will be out for a whole year.

Left Field: One of the first topics I ever handled on the Monday Review was our left field situation. At the time, the solution was putting Hatake in left, and that worked for a while. However, the big man’s defensive inability in left combined with some cooling off by Whitesell led to a re-opening of the hole in left. The team has tried Iihara, Ueda, and Fukuchi over the last month. While all of them are more than adequate replacements in left field they haven’t been able to make up for the offense lost by having Whitesell come off the bench. It seems the team has settled on Ueda for the stretch run.

Have we settled on a left fielder for the playoffs?

2011 Draft: The 2011 Draft will occur on the 27th. I will be posting a draft preview sometime next week. Let me know if there are any players you’d like me to cover.

Retirement Game: Our last game is on Tuesday, and as predicted in the last Monday Review, the final game will be a retirement game. Hirotoshi Ishii will be given an opportunity to pitch in one last pro game prior to his retirement. There were no comments in regards to Hamanaka and Guiel, but it seems those players will not be coming into the game.

I Want Love: As mentioned by Chris and Dave in their last podcast, I”m in need to love and feedback for this column. Let me know if you like this column and if there’s anything I can do to make it better.

Tokyo Swallows 0

Chunichi Dragons 3

Streak: Lost 1  Last 5: LWLWL

(Nagoya Dome)

This was the first game of that oh-so-critical four-game away series that we’ve been looking forward to since early last month.

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

And as you can see, it didn’t start well. Chunichi was able to capitalize when they got runners on base, which didn’t happen often, and Tokyo simply wasn’t able to do the same.

	Tokyo		Chunichi
1	Aoki CF	1	Araki SS
2	Ueda LF	2	Ibata 2B
3	Kawabata SS	3	Morino 3B
4	Hatakeyama 1B	4	Blanco 1B
5	Balentien LF	5	Wada LF
6	Miyamoto 3B	6	Tanishige C
7	Tanaka 2B	7	Hirata RF
8	Aikawa C	8	Ohshima CF
9	Ishikawa P	9	Yamai P

With Ishikawa on the mound looking for his 10th win of the season, he got into a little bit of trouble with two outs in the second. Tanishige hit a single to right, and then Hirata, who is only hitting .111 against Ishikawa this season, got his bat extended and popped one over the wall in center. 2-0 Chunichi.

Tokyo showed a little life in the top of the fourth with both Hatakeyama and Balentien getting two-out singles. This put runners  on the corners for Miyamoto, but he flew out to center to end the inning.

Ishikawa allowed a third run in the bottom of the fifth. After expending eight pitches to get two groundouts, Chunichi starter, Yamai, roped the second pitch he saw down the line into left field. That allowed him a stand-up double, and Araki moved him over to third with a single to center two pitches later. Ibata then doubled to score Yamai from third to add the game’s final run. 3-0 Final.

Tokyo again threatened in the top of the seventh as Miyamoto’s one-out infield single was followed by a Tanaka hit that put runners on first and second. Aikawa then succumbed to a heavy diet of forkballs, before Miyamoto was waved home on a grounder that reached Wada in shallow left field. The throw home was right on the money, and Miyamoto was out by a mile.

The Swallows also gave Asao a little bit of trouble in the top of the ninth, but the baby-faced phenom eventually prevailed giving Chunichi an extra-game advantage in the CL standings in the process.

Game two is tomorrow night at 6PM.

Notes:

Balentien showed good patience during his first two at-bats. He had a walk and a single to show for it.

Tokyo outhit Chunichi 9-5.

Hatakeyama and Miyamoto had two hits apiece.

Tokyo did not manage any extra-base hits in this game.

Of Chunichi’s five hits, three were for extra bases (HR, double, double).

This just about sums it up.

Tokyo Swallows 3

Hanshin Tigers 9

Streak: Lost 1     Last 5: WLLWL

(Kyocera Dome)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Tokyo	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	8	1
Hanshin	0	2	0	3	3	1	0	0	X	9	14	0
W: Nishimura (1-0/2.18) L: Ishikawa (9-8/2.72)

Tokyo’s season-defining twelve game stretch got off to the worst possible start as their ailing pitching staff were knocked about by Hanshin to the tune of fourteen hits and nine runs. Meanwhile in Nagoya, an almost inevitable Chunichi come from behind win against Hiroshima reduced the Tokyo lead to a solitary game.

	Us		Them
1	CF Aoki	1	CF Hirano
2	LF Fukuchi	2	2B Yamato
3	SS Kawabata	3	SS Toritani
4	1B Hatakeyama	4	3B Arai
5	RF Balentien	5	1B Brazell
6	3B Miyamoto	6	RF Murton
7	2B Tanaka	7	LF Kanemoto
8	C Aikawa	8	C Fujii
9	P Ishikawa	9	P Akiyama

After a spell out with pneumonia (yes, you read that right. The same illness is also responsible for Kyuko’s current, and possibly season ending, absence) Ishikawa started and looked laboured from the off, but he got through the 1st inning unscathed after a lead-off single from Hirano, stranding the runner at third.

And he found himself with a lead in the top of the 2nd against Hanshin starter Akiyama. Two singles from Balentien and Miyamoto got the inning off to a promising start, and the inevitable Tanaka sac bunt moved them both into scoring positions. Aikawa then hit deep enough to right for a run scoring sacfly, 1-0 Tokyo. After Ishikawa worked himself a walk, Aoki could only ground out to short stranding the two men on the corners.

But the lead wouldn’t last. In the bottom of the inning, two one-out singles for Murton and Kanemoto put two men on. Fujii then quite uncharacteristically came up with a timely hit (the beginning of what would prove a fruitful night for the sub-par catcher), through the infield to right, scoring a run to make it 1-1. Balentien then fluffed his pickup of the ball, allowing Kanemoto to make it to third on the error. An error which would prove costly, as Kanemoto would score on the subsequent groundout to Ishikawa, as the Swallows failed to turn the 1-4-3 double play, 2-1 Hanshin.

The Swallows showed they had a bit of life left in them though, as a Kawabata walk, a Hatakeyama single and a Balentien sacfly made it 2-2 in the 3rd.

After Ishikawa registered his first 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the 3rd, the game was effectively over as a contest after the 4th. A Brazell solo homer led off the inning for 3-2 Hanshin, before two hits put men on the corners with one out. Ogawa had seen enough of Ishikawa as he summoned the bullpen into action. And in all you need to know about the current state of said bullpen, Hashimoto, a farm team arm at best, took his place on the mound tasked with trying to get out of the jam. Cue a walk, a single, a sacfly and a 5-2 scoreline.

Hashimoto (4.40) was gone, with Katoh appearing in his place. And he managed to get Toritani to ground out to first to escape the inning.

Two walks and two hits in the 5th made it 7-2, with Katoh (9.00) then making way for Matsui who gave up another hit to make it 8-2 before getting out of the inning.

And Hanshin’s final run came in the 6th off Matsui (4.39), as a walk, a single and a run-scoring double play from Brazell brought up a 9-2 scoreline.

The only positive of the night was forgotten man Ichiba (5.40) working hitless 7th and 8th innings.

Tokyo’s bats were held to just two hits from the 4th to the 8th innings by the Hanshin bullpen (Akiyama only lasted 2.1 innings), and they added a consolation run in the 9th off reliever Kobayashi, as a walk for Morioka (in for Miyamoto), a single for Nakamura (in for Aikawa) and a RBI hit for Yuichi (in for the pitcher) made it 9-3 Hanshin Final.

Ishikawa took the loss for his brief 3.1IP/7H/2K/0BB/5R/4ER shift.

The two teams will meet again tomorrow evening. Things are not looking good, at least to these eyes. At all.

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 Yakult Swallows 2

Chunichi Dragons 6

Streak: Lost 3  Last 5: LWLLL

(Nagoya Dome)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Tokyo	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	8	0
Chunichi	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	X	6	7	0
W: Asao (4-2/0.49) L: Kyuko (5-2/2.62)

One of these teams has a boatload of experience of being in contention down the home stretch of the season, while the other doesn’t.  After Tokyo wasted chance upon chance and had a late inning bullpen collapse which allowed Chunichi to slash the CL lead to 2.5 games, one wonders how key this disparity in experience will prove from here on in.

	Us		Them
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	RF Balentien	5	C Tanishige
6	3B Miyamoto	6	RF Hirata
7	LF Takeuchi	7	LF Matsui
8	C Aikawa	8	CF Oshima
9	P Ishikawa	9	P Nelson

Ishikawa started for Tokyo, making up the “two” of a Tateyama-Ishikawa one-two punch of starters for the first two games of this crucial four game series. But just like Tateyama the night before, Masanori struggled with his control early on as he issued two two-out walks in the bottom of the 1st. But while Shohei lasted five innings before finally succumbing to the Dragons’ bats, Masanori couldn’t escape the first unscathed as veteran catcher Tanishige hit a rather lucky shot to right, which just landed fair before rolling into the corner. Two runs scored to make it 2-0 Chunichi.

That lead would be halved in the top of the 2nd against Chunichi starter Maximo Nelson, as Balentien hit to left, with the ball just creeping over the top of the wall for a 2-1 scoreline. It was Coco’s CL leading 28th homer of the year.

A chance to draw level, or perhaps even better presented itself to Tokyo in the 3rd. Two two-out singles for Tanaka and Kawabata brought up Hatakeyama to the plate. But the big man could only manage to fly out to centre and the Swallows remained behind.

And in the 5th and Aikawa lead off double off the leftfield wall was followed up by an Ishikawa sac bunt to put a man on third with one out for the top of the order. But that top of the order couldn’t deliver as a flyout to short (Aoki) and a tame groundout to second (Tanaka) stranded the tying run at third.

After giving up a hit in each of the first two innings, Ishikawa then proceeded to shut down the Chunichi bats, not allowing another hit or walk through to the end of the 6th. That would prove to be his final inning as he left the game with a 6IP/2H/5K/2BB/2ER line for his afternoon’s work. He ultimately wouldn’t feature in the decision and his ERA now sits at 2.56.

Matsui pitched a hitless 7th and then the Swallows would finally draw level in the 8th, an inning that saw equal measures of Chunichi generosity and yet more Tokyo wastefulness. Aoki led off the inning with a single to centre and he was bunted to second by Tanaka. Ochiai then benched Nelson, calling on the lefty Kobayashi from the bullpen. Ogawa then made a switch of his own, bringing in the righty Ihara for Kawabata and Yasushi drew a walk to put two men on.

Kobayashi was gone, with the “looks 14 but is actually 26″ Asao appearing in his place to face Hatakeyama. Cue more generosity as Hatake walked to load the bases, before Balentien was issued a free pass of his own to walk in the tying run for 2-2. Cue the Tokyo wastefullness, as a second-pitch shallow flyout to centre for Miyamoto, and a first-pitch flyout to leftfield for Takeuchi let the clearly edgy Asao off the hook.

And just as most Swallows fans feared may well happen, all those wasted chances would come back to haunt Tokyo in the bottom of the 8th. After managing just those two hits to that point, Chunichi unleashed on Kyuko who was in for Matsui. After two pretty straightforward outs, an Araki double and an Ibata single made it 3-2 Chunichi. The Ibata single was to centre, and Aoki really should have thrown Araki out at home to end the inning, only his throw was to the right of home plate, meaning Aikawa had to dive to his left to apply the tag to the sliding runner, a tag which he couldn’t apply in time. Things got worse after that as a Morino double then made it 4-2.

Kyuko feels the heat

Kyuko was replaced with Oshimoto, but that didn’t stop the rot as a Blanco double made it 5-2, and Tanishige was issued an intentional walk before a single from a Donoue made it 6-2. The five hit-four run 8th came to and end when the ninth man to the plate for the inning, Hidenori, hit a caught liner to short to end the inning.

All that remained was for Suzuki to pitch out the 9th and Chunichi had themselves a 6-2 Final scoreline.

Rather ominously, Chunichi have now won four straight while Tokyo have now lost three. The two teams will return tomorrow afternoon for game three of the four game series.

I just hope that the nature of today’s loss hasn’t taken any remaining wind out of the Swallow’s sails, and they can pick themselves up for the remaining two games so that they’re not staring down the barrel of a paltry 0.5 game lead come Sunday evening.

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.