燕軍 Tokyo Swallows» NPB

5/22/12 – Chiba (Away) [Game Cancelled]

David Watkins — Tue, 22 May 2012 07:42:00 +0000

May 22nd, 2012

Tokyo Yakult Swallows

Chiba Lotte Marines

Streak: Lost 3 Last 5: LWLLL

(QVC Marine Field)

This evening’s game fell victim to a day of rain, and will be rescheduled for Thursday 24th at 6:15pm.

5/8/12 – Chunichi (Away)

David Watkins — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:21:29 +0000

May 8th, 2012

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!!

5/6/12 – Hiroshima (Home)

Christopher Pellegrini — Sun, 06 May 2012 14:36:21 +0000

May 6th, 2012

Hiroshima Carp 6

Tokyo Swallows 0

Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: WLWWL

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

This is the same pitching duel that we saw early last week in the rain in Hiroshima, Tokyo’s Shohei Tateyama taking on Hiroshima’s Kenta Maeda.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Hiroshima	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	3	6	14	1
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1
W: Maeda (4-2, 1.44 ERA) L: Tateyama (3-1, 2.29 ERA)

It was Maeda’s first game of 2012 pitching at Jingu Stadium, and if his bad luck from 2011 had continued at Jingu, then that would’ve been good news for the Swallows. In his two starts last season, he pitched a total of 14.2 innings and lost both decisions while surrendering five earned runs. 2010 was the opposite for Maeda as he earned two wins from his two starts in the stadium that Tsubakuro built, giving up just one earned run over 17 exceptional innings.

One week ago, however, the birds wore him down and made him swallow an uncharacteristic four earned runs through just six innings of work. Before today’s game, Tateyama was 3-0 with a 1.85 ERA, and Maeda was 3-2 with a 1.67 ERA.

But with just a half-game lead on Chunichi in the standings, the Swallows would need to sustain and build on the momentum and positive energy that they’ve created so far.

That didn’t happen because, as one might expect, this game basically came down to pitching.

Tokyo	Order	Hiroshima
Tanaka (2B)	1	Kimura (SS)
Fukuchi (CF)	2	Higashide (2B)
Milledge (LF)	3	Maru (CF)
Balentien (RF)	4	Stavinoha (LF)
Kawabata (SS)	5	Matsuyama (1B)
Miyamoto (3B)	6	Amaya (RF)
Hatakeyama (1B)	7	Dohbayashi (3B)
Nakamura (C)	8	Kura (C)
Tateyama (P)	9	Maeda (P)

To summarize the proceedings, Hiroshima’s pitching was excellent. Tokyo’s? Not so much.

In other words, Tokyo got to see the 2010 version of Kenta Maeda.

Tateyama had a wobbly day on the mound and allowed droves of base-runners throughout the evening. He allowed three base runners in the second, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, and was perhaps fortunate to only give up three earned runs.

Hiroshima’s starter, Maeda, got things started in the fifth inning with a single, and then a sac bunt and a double later, and the Carp had opened the scoring for the first time in this series at Jingu.

Tateyama was hooked after he allowed a double to Maeda which scored two.

The sixth was when the real damage was done though. Amaya singled and then Dohbayashi walked to start things off. Out number one came thanks to a sac bunt which moved the two runners over and brought Maeda to the plate again. He ended up smacking a 2-2 forkball down the left field line for a double which cleared the bases and put the game even further out of reach.

3-0 Hiroshima.

And that’s when Tateyama finally got the hook. Hidaka came in and took care of the next five batters without incident.

Unfortunately, Maeda was just as effective on the mound as he was at the plate. He scattered just three hits through seven innings of work while mixing in seven strikeouts, a walk, and a beanball. The only time that the Swallows threatened to score was in the seventh when they loaded the bases with two outs, but pinch-hitter, Fujimoto, grounded out to short to end Tokyo’s best chance.

Down by three, the Swallows inserted Koki Watanabe for his third appearance of the year in the ninth (Abe pitched a perfect eighth). And it was one to forget as he saw a total of eight batters and gave up four hits (one homer), a walk, a wild pitch, and three earned runs on his way to helping Hiroshima double its lead.

Enjoy your time in Toda, Mr. Watanabe.

6-0 Final.

Pitching:
Tateyama took the loss for the good guys. He pitched 5.1 innings (96 NP), and gave up ten hits and three earned runs. He also issued three walks, struck out three, and beaned one batter. His record is now 3-1, and his ERA jumped to 2.29 through six starts this season.

Hidaka (13 appearances) and Abe (four appearances) are still sporting perfect ERAs.

Thrilledge gunned Matsuyama down at home plate in the fourth to preserve the 0-0 tie.

Hitting:
Just three hits. Nobody was able to get anything going against Maeda today.

Notes:
15,885 tickets were allegedly sold to this game. It was a major departure from the crowds of the two previous days. It rained quite a bit during the afternoon, but the skies were crystal clear once the game started.

Miyamoto reached the 2,000 hit milestone on Friday, but he 0-8 (one walk) since that historic moment.

The Swallows are still in first place because the Dragons lost to Yokohama once again.

The Swallows are on the road for the rest of this week. They will bounce around to a few different stadiums while playing the Dragons, and then they host an abbreviated series in Akita against Yomiuri on Saturday and Sunday.

The next Swallows home games will be on May 16th (Wed) and 17th (Thurs) when the Fukuoka Hawks are in town to help kick off the five week interleague schedule.

5/1/12 – Yokohama (Away)

Christopher Pellegrini — Tue, 01 May 2012 10:37:41 +0000

May 1st, 2012

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 Snapshot: May 1st, 2012

Christopher Pellegrini — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:32:25 +0000

Something to read while looking for inspiration.

Website Updates

Apologies for the delay, but we finally set up a game schedule up on the front page. We didn’t have one on there last season due to space limitations, but we think that you’ll find this year’s solution to be a workable one. Scroll down to the bottom of the front page for a look at Tokyo’s upcoming schedule as well as the Central and Pacific League Standings. Oh, and there’s a list of the community selections for Swallows of the Week down on the right.

Swallows of the Week

Week 4

Last week you chose your favorite from among five outstanding performers: Katsuki Akagawa (P), Wladimir Balentien (RF), Tony Barnette (P), Shingo Kawabata (SS), and Orlando Roman (P).

28 people cast their vote this time around, and here’s what you decided:

Player	Votes	%
Wladimir Balentien	13	46
Tony Barnette	7	25
Shingo Kawabata	5	18
Katsuki Akagawa	2	7
Orlando Roman	1	4

Nicely done, Mr. Balentien! Coco was a force in week five as well, so it should be interesting to see if he can be the first player to ring it up twice here in the voting. At any rate, we’re enthused that he’s helping the team so much. Love, love, love! his improved control of the strike zone and hustle in the field. Long may it last!

Week 5

Tokyo played six games in the fifth week of the 2012 season. Three of those were played in the rain at Jingu, and the other three were day games at Mazda Stadium in Hiroshima.

Tokyo outscored Chunichi 9-4 in the three game series that they hosted last week, and including the rough day against Hiroshima’s young Nomura on Sunday the birds outpaced the Carp 13-8.

Game reports:

April 24th vs Chunichi (Home) 4-1 W
April 25th vs Chunichi (Home) 1-1 D
April 26th vs Chunichi (Home) 4-2 W
April 28th vs Hiroshima (Away) 6-4 W
April 29th vs Hiroshima (Away) 0-3 L
April 30th vs Hiroshima (Away) 7-1 W

And here are the top-performing birds from week 5:

Wladimir Balentien (RF) comes fresh off of his first ever SOW win with another solid performance in week 5. He hit .304 last week (7-23 at the plate) with three walks and seven RBI. He hit another two home runs in week 5, including that three-run dinger that helped the team steal game one of its just-finished series against Hiroshima.

Tony Barnette (P) notched three saves last week and appeared in the first four games of the week. That was good enough for the most innings pitched of any reliever. Over four innings of work, Tony struck out two while allowing three hits and no walks. He has yet to surrender a run this season (0.00 ERA).

Kazuhiro Hatakeyama (1B) had a bit of a breakout week while continuing to toil in the 7-hole. He was 8-22 at the plate (.364 average) with a double and a triple (gasp!) this week. He also drove in five runs and added two walks. Give the man some more pudding.

Lastings Milledge (LF) was awesome this week. He hit .391 and was a team-leading 9-23 at the plate with three doubles, a game-changing home run, three RBI, and three walks. And I daresay that his aggressiveness in left field is having a ripple effect in right. Oh, and he’s a sure bet to get waved home. I lost count, but Lastings slid home safely several times this week.

Shohei Tateyama (P) is at the end of this list due solely to alphabetical concerns. Tokyo’s true ace won two games this week, and that’s no mean feat. 13 innings pitched, 10 hits, 5 K, 5 BB, and just two earned runs–not too shabby. He co-shares the league lead in wins (3) and winning percentage (perfect!).

Let us know what you think! And as always, please vote only once.

Roster Updates

Rookie Hiyane (CF) was dropped to the farm on the 23rd due to some general greenness at the plate and in the field, and a complete inability to use his speed to swipe second base.

Utility infielder, Noguchi, was promoted on the 24th and featured as a pinch runner and defensive replacement at third last week.

Second year shortstop, Tetsuto Yamada, was dropped on the 27th in order to get some actual playing time, and speedster Miwa (INF) was promoted a day later to provide another pinch-running option.

The active roster, as of game time on the 30th, looked like this:

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

Catchers
Nitta, Fukukawa, Nakamura

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

Outfielders
Balentien, Iihara, Yuhei, Milledge, Ueda

From the Farm

The team announced that an Eastern League game was scheduled for May 17th at Toda against Saitama. You can check the farm team’s full schedule here (link in Japanese).

Tokyo’s game against Rakuten on the 27th was rained out, but the little birds won three of the four games that they played last week (results for Monday’s game against Saitama were not available when this article was published).

Lim pitched in a few games last week and earned a couple of saves but also got shelled in his outing yesterday against Saitama. If the bullpen holds together over the next few days, that could mean that Roman gets at least one more start on the top team.

Onodera continues to look pretty sharp, and it looks like Kyuko is getting a little bit of work in. I didn’t see Yoshinori’s name anywhere though.

Around the Central

Tokyo finished the week with 4 wins, 1 loss, and 1 tie. They took two of three from Chunichi in the rain at Jingu (one tie game), and two of three from the Carp in Hiroshima. They’re tied with Chunichi for first place in the Central League.

Chunichi finished the week 3-2-1. They lost two of three to Tokyo (one tie), and then swept Yokohama at Nagoya Dome. They’re tied at the top with your Tokyo Swallows.

Hanshin finished the week 2-3-1. They took two of three from Hiroshima at Koshien Stadium, and then lost two and drew one against Yomiuri at Tokyo Dome. Tossers. Hanshin are 2.5 games behind the first place tie of Tokyo and Chunichi.

Hiroshima finished the week 2-4. They lost two of three against the Tigers in Hanshin territory, and then they dropped another two at home to the Tokyo Swallows. They remain 2 games behind the third place Tigers and 4.5 behind Tokyo and Chunichi in first.

Yomiuri finished the week 3-0-1. They won one game against Yokohama in Kagoshima (the other game got rained out), and then won two and drew one at home against the Hanshin Tigers. Yomiuri are one game behind Hiroshima in fifth place.

Yokohama finished the week 0-4. They didn’t win a game this week against either the Yomiuri Giants or the Chunichi Dragons. Sixth place and three games behind the Giants.

The Week Ahead

Tokyo are headed straight to Yokohama for a three game series against the last-placed Baystars. The games on Tuesday and Wednesday both start at 6pm, but the game on Thursday starts at 2pm. Ishikawa will start for the birds on Tuesday.

Don’t be too surprised if the outfield bleacher seats are all reserved (ie. more expensive than normal) as Yokohama has a history of gouging during Golden Week.

Also, the weather looks kind of iffy, so plan accordingly. If the game gets rained out, and you’ve got extra time on your hands in the Kannai/Bashamichi area, stop by the Baird Bashamichi Taproom for a couple of brews and some BBQ ribs.

The final third of Tokyo’s current nine-game marathon will be played at the lovely Jingu Stadium Friday to Sunday. Friday’s game starts at 3pm, but the two weekend games are scheduled for 6pm starts. If the weather’s nice, those games could see some pretty healthy attendance, so arrive early if you’re part of a decent-sized group (four or more) or are picky about where you sit.

Former Swallows

Alex Ramirez (Tokyo player from 2001-07) didn’t start against the Dragons on Saturday or Sunday. The manager is apparently worried about his conditioning and wants him to get his legs back in shape. Ramirez did start yesterday, however, and was 0-3. He’s currently hitting .215/.227/.262.

Atsunori Inaba (Tokyo player from 1995-2004) joined the Meikyukai on Saturday after recording his 2,000th hit in a game against Tohoku in Sendai. Check this post for some excellent factoids related to Inaba’s feat.

Alright, please excuse me while I tune in to the derby.

Drink up!

4/30/12 – Hiroshima (Away)

Christopher Pellegrini — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:02:30 +0000

April 30th, 2012

Tokyo Swallows 7

Hiroshima Carp 1

Streak: Won 1 Last 5: DWWLW

(Mazda Stadium, Hiroshima)

Yesterday Tokyo ran headlong into a masterful performance by early rookie-of-the-year candidate, Yusuke Nomura. The 22-year-old drafted out of Meiji University threw his slider wherever he wanted and induced 14 groundouts from the 25 batters he faced (1 H, 4 K, 2 BB).

And today looked like it might be another long day for the Tokyo bats as Hiroshima’s ace, Kenta Maeda, brought his own lethal slider with him as he took the mound on a rainy afternoon at Mazda Stadium.

Maeda (3-1, 0.97 ERA) had won his last three decisions and hadn’t given up more than one since his opening day start at Nagoya Dome back in March. Yikes.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	1	3	3	0	0	7	10	1
Hiroshima	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	6	0
W: Tateyama (3-0, 1.85 ERA) L: Maeda (3-2, 1.67 ERA)

Tokyo’s ace, Shohei Tateyama (2-0, 2.00 ERA) started for the Swallows and hoped to win his third consecutive start.

Yuhei was called upon to roam center field in place of Ueda who was perhaps being dealt some thinking time on the bench after his rather inexplicable error in center field yesterday.

	Tokyo		Hiroshima
1	Tanaka (2B)	1	Soyogi (SS)
2	Yuhei (CF)	2	Higashide (2B)
3	Milledge (LF)	3	Hirose (RF)
4	Balentien (RF)	4	Stavinoha (LF)
5	Kawabata (SS)	5	Maru (CF)
6	Miyamoto (3B)	6	Iwamoto (1B)
7	Hatakeyama (1B)	7	Dohbayashi (3B)
8	Nakamura (C)	8	Shirahama (C)
9	Tateyama (P)	9	Maeda (P)

You may recall that Maeda no-hit the Baystars back on April 6th. Well, he painted both sides of the plate with his slider early on and had a no-hitter going against us through four this afternoon.

His opposite number, Tateyama, didn’t get through the innings with quite as much ease as Maeda, he faced a bases-loaded jam in the second but got Maeda to strike out swinging to preserve the scoreless tie.

Tateyama pitched a solid seven innings and finally got some real run support.

Kawabata was the first Tokyo bat to finally get to Maeda in the fifth. It kind of makes sense that it was Kawabata since he hit .636 against Maeda last season. He grounded a 2-2 changeup just to the right of second base that the sprawling Higashide did very well to get to but was in no position to throw Kawabata out at first. Miyamoto quickly popped up to second for the first out, but then Hatakeyama sliced an outside slider into right field which allowed Kawabata to reach third standing up.

With runners on the corners, Nakamura very nearly surprised everyone with a safety squeeze bunt that drifted wide of the first base line. But three sliders later, he was able to bloop a single just behind first base that scored the crucial first run.

1-0 Tokyo.

Maybe watching all of those sliders yesterday when Nomura was pitching was good practice for the birds because they came right back at Maeda in the sixth. Yuhei grounded out for the second time in as many at-bats, but then Milledge worked a full count and ended up poking an outside slider into the corner in left for a stand-up double.

Balentien got ahead in the count during his ensuing at-bat and was able to wait for the fastball that he knew would be coming. He drove it to center field and Milledge was able to motor home from second.

2-0 Tokyo.

Balentien was able to hustle to second as Milledge was busy beating the throw home, and that brought Kawabata to the plate again with just one out on the board. Shingo drew a five pitch walk, and then Miyamoto juiced the bases with a single to center.

That brought Hatakeyama to the plate. Tokyo’s pudding-filled first baseman protected the outside of the plate marvelously in a nine pitch encounter that was 2-2 after four pitches but never budged after that. After that fourth pitch, Hatake fouled off four consecutive pitches and had Maeda scratching his head. The man who inspired the shape of the Tsubakuro costume came through on the ninth pitch with another hit to right which scored both Balentien and Kawabata.

4-0 Tokyo.

And that was it for Maeda. He was replaced by Nakamura in the seventh, but that did nothing to stop the bleeding. Tanaka and Ueda (batting for Yuhei) both grounded out to start things off, but Milledge reignited things with a single to left, and Balentien followed with a five pitch walk.

Kawabata punched a 1-1 fastball into left which was enough for a double and a plus-one on the board for the good guys as Milledge was once again able to score from second.

Just four hits to go.

5-0 Tokyo.

With Balentien on third and Kawabata on second, Miyamoto drove a 1-0 fastball into right which cleared the bases and allowed him to reach second safely.

7-0 Tokyo.

And that was it for the offensive onslaught from the Tokyo Swallows. But it was more than enough, and more than expected.

Tateyama surrendered a consolation run in the bottom of the seventh when Dohbayashi’s double was followed by a one out Matsuyama single.

7-1 Final.

Pitching:

Tateyama got the win, his third of the season, on seven innings and 106 pitches of work. He gave up six hits, struck out four, walked three, and gave up one earned run. His ERA is now 1.85.

Masubuchi pitched a perfect eighth, and his ERA is now down to 3.00.

Hidaka worked the ninth for the birds and had a minor fielding hiccup, but didn’t allow a runner past first. His ERA is still 0.00 through 11 appearances.

Hitting:

Milledge, Kawabata, Miyamoto, and Hatakeyama all had multi-hit games. Kawabata and Hatakeyama earn extra praise for reaching base a third time thanks to drawing a walk each.

Notes:

Maeda hadn’t given up a run since the seventh inning of his start against Hanshin on April 12th. The four earned runs he gave up today were the most he’s allowed so far this season.

Maeda was perhaps a bit unlucky to give up that first run as nobody was hitting him hard. If Nakamura’s hit had sailed six inches to the right it would have been foul.

Tateyama is tied with Tokyo’s Muranaka for the Central League lead in wins (3) and perfect winning percentage. He’s also currently tied for the team lead in innings pitched (34 with Akagawa), and leads outright in both strikeouts (23) and K/9 (6.09).

Tokyo won the series 2-1 and are now 4-1 against the Carp so far this season.

With Chunichi’s win against Yokohama this afternoon, the birds are still tied for first place with a 15-8-2 record.

Tokyo are now off to Yokohama for a three-game set

4/29/12 – Hiroshima (Away)

Christopher Pellegrini — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 07:11:57 +0000

April 29th, 2012

Tokyo Swallows 0

Hiroshima Carp 3

Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: WDWWL

(Mazda Stadium, Hiroshima)

After yesterday afternoon’s come-from-behind win, the Swallows looked to make it four wins in a row against the fourth-placed Carp.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1
Hiroshima	1	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	X	3	8	0

Roman (1-3, 3.57 ERA) took the mound for the birds against Hiroshima’s Nomura (1-1, 1.00 ERA). Roman was coming off of his first win in Japan, a game in which he pitched 5.1 innings and gave up two earned runs off of three hits (one homer).

Nomura started against Chunichi last Sunday at Mazda Stadium, but he didn’t factor in the decision as Sarfate was unable to keep the lid on a tie 2-2 game and ended up getting tagged with the loss. So far this season, Nomura has only lost one game, his previous start against the Swallows.

	Tokyo		Hiroshima
1	Tanaka (2B)	1	Soyogi (SS)
2	Ueda (CF)	2	Higashide (2B)
3	Milledge (LF)	3	Hirose (RF)
4	Balentien (RF)	4	Stavinoha (LF)
5	Kawabata (SS)	5	Maru (CF)
6	Miyamoto (3B)	6	Iwamoto (1B)
7	Hatakeyama (1B)	7	Dohbayashi (3B)
8	Nakamura (C)	8	Shirahama (C)
9	Roman (P)	9	Nomura (P)

While Tokyo stranded a number of runners last night, they’ve had more success getting runners across home plate so far this season. The birds have a run differential of +12 while the fish have been struggling at -19.

In four games so far this season, Tokyo has outscored Hiroshima 17-5, and the 1.67 ERA to 5.04 ERA matchup is also solidly in the good guys’ favor.

Today’s game was an important one for Tokyo’s Orlando Roman. With Milledge and Balentien responsible for 42% of the team’s RBI (25-60) and nine of its league-leading 11 homers, it would be hard to argue that either of them needs some extra work on the farm.

And Barnette has been lights-out in the ninth, so he’s not going anywhere.

So Roman needed to do everything in his power to keep his name in the mix.

He got off to a bit of an unlucky start in the bottom of the first as Hirose’s bloop single landed in the one spot between Kawabata and Ueda that neither of them could get to. Soyogi scored from second.

Hiroshima 1-0 Tokyo.

And unfortunately for Tokyo’s offense, Nomura looked very effective early on. Armed with good control and a baffling changeup, he induced 10 groundouts in the first 6 innings (four fly-outs). The Swallows only had one walk to speak of through those first six frames. Nomura had a neat little no-hitter going on only 66 pitches.

And Hiroshima added a couple of insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth after Roman made it through the second, third, fourth, and fifth allowing only two base runners.

After a Higashide groundout, Roman was perhaps guilty of creating some of his own misery when he tried to block a slow come-backer but booted it into an unplayable area in front of short for an infield single.

Next man up, Stavinoha, now batting cleanup for the Carp because of Kurihara’s absence, skied a 1-0 fastball into the left field bleachers to score two for the home side.

3-0 Hiroshima.

Unfortunately, Stavinoha was the clean-up hitter celebrating today.

The birds finally got a second runner on base in the top of the seventh when Tanaka drew a walk after an 11-pitch encounter (five foul balls). After Ueda struck out looking, Milledge check swang and bundled a grounder into right field to break up the no-no bid.

That also put runners on the corners for Coco with one out.

But Balentien’s bat broke (again) and he ended up grounding into a 1-6-3 inning-ending double play.

Abe took the mound for Tokyo to start the bottom of the seventh. In just his third appearance of the season, he got the first two outs pretty easily, and then watched as Ueda misjudged an easy pop-up in center and Soyogi was safe on second.

But he was bailed out by Balentien who made a running basket catch at the warning track in right to bring Nomura out again for the top of the eighth.

Abe’s presence on the mound continued to influence anomalies in the outfield. He very nearly started things off with a man on third thanks to an errant Balentien rocket from the corner in right. Despite doing well to get to the corner in a hurry, and fielding the ball cleanly off the wall, his hurried throw easily cleared Kawabata on the left field side of second, and drew Miyamoto well off third into shallow left to reel it in.

That left third base exposed, and Hirose went for it. With Kawabata unlikely to get there any sooner than Hirose, Abe stepped in to field the bullet from Miyamoto and tag a sliding Carp for the first out.

Stavinoha struck out swinging, but Maru sliced a difficult ball into left that Milledge overran and saw drop behind him. But the fleet-footed Maru decided to try for third, and he was thrown out to end the inning and bring Sarfate to the mound. (Nice throw by Milledge, by the way.)

Takeuchi led off with a single to center before Iihara flied out to shallow right, and Tanaka grounded into a 1-6-3 double play to end the game and Tokyo’s win streak.

So, apparently the Phillie Phanatic has a Japanese cousin. Terrific.

Pitching:

Roman took the loss while pitching six innings of six hit, three run baseball. He struck out one and walked one, and was unlucky to be facing an absolutely locked-in Nomura. Roman is now 1-4 with a 3.77 ERA.

Abe pitched two innings in his third appearance and looked decent. He has a couple of good pitches although his heater appears to be pretty easy for batters to read out of his hand. He faced seven batters and gave up two hits while also striking out two. His perfect ERA is still intact despite the outfield shenanigans.

Hitting:

No comment other than to say that Nomura pitched a hell of a game.

Notes:

Tokyo grounded into three inning-ending double plays.

Nomura was so efficient that this game was over in just two hours and 17 minutes.

31,819 tickets were sold to this game.

Tomorrow’s game is again scheduled for a 1:30PM start. Tateyama (2-0, 2.00 ERA) will take the mound for the Swallows while the Carp will counter with Maeda (3-1, 0.97 ERA).

4/28/12 – Hiroshima (Away)

Christopher Pellegrini — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:55:23 +0000

April 28th, 2012

Tokyo Swallows 6

Hiroshima Carp 4

Streak: Won 2 Last 5: WWDWW

(Mazda Stadium, Hiroshima)

Tokyo traveled to Hiroshima yesterday for their first away series at Mazda Stadium. The two teams have played each other twice so far this season (played in Matsuyama) with Tokyo taking both of those contests. Akagawa (2-1, 0.95 ERA) earned the win in the Sunday afternoon game of that short series, and he was back on the mound today to take on an injury-depleted Hiroshima.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	6	11	0
Hiroshima	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	4	9	1
W: Hirai (1-0, 0.00 ERA) L: Mickolio (1-1, 3.48) S: Barnette (1-0, 10 S, 0.00)

Akagawa wasn’t exactly overpowering in that April 15th game against the Carp, but he was able to get through seven full innings without giving up a run (4 H, 4 BB, 1 HBP, 0 K). He was much sharper in his last start when he pitched a complete game shutout at home against the Giants on April 21st (5 H, 1 BB, 6 K).

	Hiroshima		Tokyo
1	Soyogi (SS)	1	Tanaka (2B)
2	Higashide (2B)	2	Ueda (CF)
3	Hirose (CF)	3	Milledge (LF)
4	Stavinoha (LF)	4	Balentien (RF)
5	Aizawa (RF)	5	Kawabata (SS)
6	Matsuyama (1B)	6	Miyamoto (3B)
7	Dohbayashi (3B)	7	Hatakeyama (1B)
8	Shirahama (C)	8	Nakamura (C)
9	Fukui (P)	9	Akagawa (P)

All in all, the Swallows had to be liking their chances against the fourth-placed Carp.

It seemed clear from the start that birds were going to try to wear down Hiroshima’s starter, Fukui (1-1, 3.18 ERA), and get to the

Hatake's timing at the plate is improving.

bullpen as quickly as possible. If that was in fact what Tokyo was doing, then it was a very good idea. Like the Swallows, Hiroshima is scheduled to play nine games in as many days, and if Tokyo can force Hiroshima to use it’s bullpen early and often, that could mean good things for the birds when Hiroshima come to Jingu next weekend.

Tanaka and Ueda worked a pair of walks to start the game, and both Milledge and Balentien worked full counts as well. The latter coaxed Fukui into issuing his third walk of the inning, and the bases were loaded for Kawabata. Unfortunately, the Swallows were not able to take advantage of the situation, as Kawabata lined out to second and Ueda was doubled up.

But the good news was that Fukui threw 31 pitches that inning.

Akagawa, on the other hand, got through the first inning on only six pitches despite giving up a leadoff hit to Soyogi.

The birds finally got something from all of their patience in the top of the third. Milledge worked a full count walk with one out, and then Kawabata singled to left with two outs. Miyamoto then singled to center to bring Milledge home from second.

Hiroshima 0-1 Tokyo.

But Hatakeyama then chipped in with a bases-clearing triple (sixth of his career, believe it or not) to give Akagawa some breathing room.

3-0 Tokyo.

And to make matters worse for Hiroshima, second-year starter, Fukui, had already thrown 76 pitches by the end of that inning. Fukui had his most efficient inning in the fourth when he only expended 13 pitches on three batters.

First career win.

But Kokubo came in to pinch hit for him with two outs and a runner on first in the bottom of the fifth.

The Swallows loaded the bases on reliever, Kishimoto, but weren’t able to bring anyone home in the process.

Akagawa ran into a bit of trouble in the bottom of the sixth when his control started to suffer, and he either left pitches up or started throwing a lot of stuff down the middle.Hiroshima was able to string a walk and three back-to-back hits together to get themselves back in the game with a pair of runs.Hiroshima 2-3 Tokyo.

He was fortunately able to get the second out on a foul fly off to the side of third base, and then he was hooked in favor of Masubuchi to face Dohbayashi with runners on first and second.

Masubuchi eventually got the rookie to strike out swinging at an offspeed pitch to help Akagawa avoid getting tacked with any more runs.

Hikaka pitched a perfect seventh.

Oshimoto had a more eventful inning of work. He surrendered a leadoff single and a one out walk to put runners on first and second. With veteran Maeda pinch-hitting, Oshimoto watched the count get worked full before finally conceding his first earned run of the season on a soft single to right.

3-3.

Oshimoto out, Watanabe in.

Second pitch, Maru RBI single to center.

Game-winning home run.

4-3 Hiroshima.

Watanabe out, Hirai in. Hirai got the final two outs of the frame on only six pitches to help stop the bleeding.

Mickolio took the mound for the Carp in the top of the ninth with a one-run lead to protect. Tanaka led off with a grounder to right, and Ueda then bunted pinch-runner, Miwa, over to second. Milledge poked a single to center to put runners on the corners for Balentien.

Mickolio hung a slider right in the middle of Balentien’s wheelhouse, and the next time anyone touched it, it was a souvenir for a lucky fan in the left field bleachers.

6-4 Tokyo.

Barnette closed out the game on six pitches in the bottom of the inning.

Pitching:

Akagawa left the game with a one-run lead and didn’t figure into the final decision. It was almost like he suddenly got tired during the sixth. At any rate, here’s his line: 5.2 IP, 88 NP, 5 H, 1 K, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 2 R, 2 ER, 1.32 ERA. His record remains at 2-1.

Oshimoto was tagged with both runs in the eighth. His ERA rose from 0.00 to 1.69.

Hirai got the win, the first of his career.

Barnette continues to lead the league in saves (10) and appearances (14).

Hitting:

Balentien was the hero of the game due to his game-winning homer, his league-leading sixth of the season. He was 2-4 with a walk and three RBI.

Hatakeyama also had a good game down at number seven in the lineup. He was 3-5 with two RBI.

Tanaka, Ueda, Milledge, and Miyamoto all got on base twice. Milledge also scored twice.

Notes:

Today was Hatakeyama’s first three-hit game of the season, and he very nearly had a fourth hit in the eighth. However, Soyogi made a nice leaping grab at short to rob Hatake of extra pudding.

Miyamoto’s RBI single today puts him at six hits away from the 2,000 hit milestone.

Former teammate, Atsunori Inaba, reached the Meikyukai 2,000 hit threshold this afternoon in a game against Tohoku.

Tokyo needed three pitchers to get through the eighth inning when Hiroshima temporarily took the lead. It was a bit of a departure from how solid the bullpen has been this month, but one could argue that Oshimoto was a little bit unlucky and pitched better than his line. Unfortunately, Tokyo used two more relievers than they might have liked to today. But luckily the team still won.

Mickolio was as hittable in the ninth as Akagawa was back in the sixth.

The birds now lead the season series against Hiroshima 3-0.

Chunichi also won today, so Tokyo’s lead at the top remains at one game.

The game tomorrow kicks off at 1:30 PM. Nomura (1-1, 1.00 ERA) will pitch for the Carp, and the Swallows will counter with Roman (1-3, 3.57 ERA).

Tokyo is undefeated in its last seven games (one tie).

04/24/12 – Chunichi (Home)

David Watkins — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:05:47 +0000

April 24th, 2012

Chunichi Dragons 1

Tokyo Swallows 4

Streak: Won 4 Last 5: LWWWW

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Chunichi	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	1
Tokyo	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	X	4	7	0
W: Tateyama (2-0, 2.00ERA) L: Yamai (0-3, 3.18) S: Barnette (1-0, 8S, 0.00)

After the confidence boosting and oh so pleasurable home sweep this last weekend against Yomiuri, Tokyo kept the momentum rolling with a relatively straightforward victory against the reigning CL chuamps.

	Chunichi		Tokyo
1	Oshima (CF)	1	Tanaka (2B)
2	Araki (2B)	2	Ueda (CF)
3	Morino (3B)	3	Milledge (LF)
4	Yamasaki (1B)	4	Balentien (RF)
5	Wada (LF)	5	Miyamoto (3B)
6	Ibata (SS)	6	Morioka (SS)
7	Hirata (RF)	7	Hatakeyama (1B)
8	Tanishige (C)	8	Nakamura (C)
9	Yamai (P)	9	Tateyama (P)

After Tateyama made light work of the first three batters of the evening, Tokyo’s bats got things up and running against the distinctly average Yamai who was on the mound for the Dragons.

Back-to-back singles for Tanaka and Ueda put men on first and second for Milledge, with a wild pitch during Lastings’ at-bat allowing both runners to reach scoring positions. That wild pitch turned out to be oh so fortunate as it meant just the one out instead of the two, as Milledge hit a ground-out to short which scored Tanaka for 1-0 Tokyo, with Ueda now at third. Balentien hit a shallow fly for out number two before Miyamoto came to the plate. He hit a grounder to first, but the 63 year old veteran Yamasaki couldn’t come up with it as Miyamoto reached first on the error, and Ueda made it home for 2-0 Tokyo.

Morioka, in tonight’s line-up to give Kawabata a rest (he has some lower back issues I believe) hit a dribbler up the middle that somehow evaded the Chunichi middle infield and Tokyo had men on the corners to threaten once more, but Hatake flew out to to right to end the inning with the lead at two.

But that lead would be halved in the top of the 2nd, as it became apparent that Tateyama is still not 100% early in this new season. Two singles and a two-out run scoring wild pitch got Chunichi back in the game at 2-1.

And the game would be see the last of it’s scoring in the bottom of the 3rd, as a Milledge double to the fence in right, and a Balentien homer over the same fence made it a much more comfortable 4-1 Tokyo. It was Balentien’s CL-leading 5th dinger of the year.

Tateyama would battle his way to the end of the 6th without allowing any further runs, aided by some very solid defence behind him, and so it was on to the bullpen. Masubuchi was up first in the 7th, followed by Oshimoto in the 8th, both allowing a solitary hit apiece which meant it was Tony-time come the top of the 9th. And as is becoming customary, he made light work of it, sitting down the 71 year old Yamasaki, 53 year old Wada and the positively spritely 42 year old Ibata in order to wrap things up nice and dandily for a 4-1 Tokyo Final.

Notes

A “not at his best” Tateyama was still good enough to earn his second straight win after his 6I / 102P / 4H / 1K / 2BB / 1ER evening.
The bullpen duo of Oshimoto and Barnette are still yet to give up an earned run this year, while Masabuchi’s ERA now sits at 3.86.
Miyamoto went 1 for 3 (plus a dead ball for good measure), the hit coming via a 5th inning single, which means he is now just the 8 hits away from tears all round.
After the two-run 3rd, Tokyo got a hit in each of the 4th and 5th innings before being shut down by the Dragons’ bullpen over the final three.
Hatakeyama was the only non-pitching member of the starting line-up without a hit for the evening. He’s now batting .174.
12941 folks were at a soggy Jingu to witness the Swallows’ extend their streak to four, and end Chunichi’s at five.
In tonight’s only other game in the CL, Hanshin lost at Koshien in a pitcher’s duel which saw Maeda’s Carp come out on top against Messenger to the tune of 1-0. This means Tokyo and Chunichi are now tied for first place with Hanshin 1.5 games behind in third.
Tomorrow’s game will see Ishikawa start for the birds with the mythical creatures countering with Nakata. Thursday’s starter for Tokyo will likely be Muranaka.

Today in Swallows History: Welcome to Pro Baseball, Mr. Takatsu

Christopher Pellegrini — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:08:04 +0000

Takatsu saved 286 games for the Swallows.

On this day in 1991, Shingo Takatsu made his NPB debut for the Swallows. Selected in the third round of the 1990 draft out of Asia University, he was first used as a starter but only won a few games during his first two seasons on the top team.

It wasn’t until the 1993 season that he got a shot at closing games, and the Swallows won the Japan Series that year, a feat that they had fallen short of the year before. Takatsu was also the Swallows’ closer for the team’s Japan Series titles in 1995 and 2001.

The sidearm, slow sinker specialist is perhaps best known for not allowing a single run in his 11 Japan Series appearances from which he earned eight saves.

286 NPB saves puts him second on the all-time list behind Chunichi’s current closer, Hitoki Iwase. Throw his MLB saves in there, and he’s at 313 total.

Takatsu is back in Japan now after stints in the majors, where he won a World Series with the 2005 Chicago White Sox, KBO, and Taiwan’s pro league. He can also be seen on TV quite regularly in Japan as a baseball analyst and commentator.

When Tsubamegun owns the team, we promise to give you a proper sendoff, Mr. Takatsu!