It’s that time of year again. Spring camp has begun, and the players are all gearing up for another season of sweeping all before them (well, the Giants players are anyway.) The salary negotiations are done and our heroes in the Tokyo uniforms now know how much they will be earning to follow the instructions [...]

October 19th, 2009

Tokyo Swallows 4

Chunichi Dragons 7

Series: Chunichi 2-1 Tokyo
(Nagoya Dome)
Chunichi was definitely the better team today, but they should never forget that they had the flu and a little bit of Takada on their side. Either way, the season came to an end for the Swallows while the Dragons now inherit the unenviable task [...]

October 17th, 2009

Tokyo Swallows 3
Chunichi Dragons 2

Series: Chunichi 0-1 Tokyo
(Nagoya Dome)
Game one of the 2009 Central League Climax Series kicked off in Nagoya with Chen on the mound for the home team, and Ishikawa taking the reigns for the visiting Tokyo Swallows.
And Tokyo came up with the goods versus a very sharp Chen.

The regular season ended on Monday when Tokyo came from behind to beat Yomiuri, and the Swallows’ resulting 71-72-1 record earned them praise for a modest improvement over last year and the team’s first ever advancement to the Climax Series.
The team’s solid play at the end of 2009 was a refreshing bookend to a season [...]

October 8th, 2009

Hanshin Tigers 0

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5

Streak: Won 3      Last 5:  WLWWW
(Jingu Stadium)
The birds rode a complete game shutout by starter Tateyama to their third win in a row and reclaimed third place in the Central League in the process.

October 6th, 2009

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 10

Yokohama BayStars 4

Streak: Won 1   Last 5: LLWLW
(Yokohama Stadium)
For quite a while, it looked as though Yokohama would frustrate Tokyo for the 14th time this year. But in the end, the Swallows extra class told as they put up eight runs in the 8th inning (ooh, a big inning, [...]

October 3rd, 2009

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6

Hanshin Tigers 4
Streak: Won 1      Last 5:  WLLLW
(Koshien)
With the race for 3rd getting tighter with every day, this was a game that the Swallows simply had to win. A loss tonight and they’d be two games back of Hanshin, a win and they’d be level. For these big [...]

September 30th, 2009

Hanshin Tigers 7

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1

Streak: Lost 2     Last 5:  WWWLL
(Jingu Stadium)
The birds outhit the Tigers 12-10 but still got annihilated. Yuki pitched six rather solid innings but got roughed up a little in the seventh. Takada factored a bit in this one as well.

September 29th, 2009

Hanshin Tigers 8

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2

Streak: Lost 1     Last 5:  WWWWL
(Jingu Stadium)
Well, no blisters were involved, but that still sucked.

September 26th, 2009

Yokohama BayStars 4

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5

Streak: Won 4  Last 5: LWWWW
(Jingu Stadium)
A crazy thing happened today. The Tokyo Swallows reclaimed third place in the Central League.