The country's most famous knuckleballer will be playing in Japan in 2012.

Chunichi Dragons

• Signed reliever Jorge Sosa to a one year deal. Sosa has a 4.72 ERA through 294 big league appearances.

Yomiuri Giants

• NPB Tracker thinks the Giants should be legitimate contenders this year.

Hanshin Tigers

• Kubo and Hirano finally re-signed. The team shaved 40 million yen off of Kubo’s salary and tacked 30 of it onto Hirano’s.
• According to NPB Tracker, Hanshin are a lot like Tokyo before the 2011 season–on the outside looking in.

Hiroshima Carp

• This write-up over at NPB Tracker says that the Carp will be fielding another strong starting rotation even though Kuroda opted to spend another season in MLB.

Yokohama Baystars

• Alex Ramirez came down with the flu last weekend despite the fact that he allegedly got a flu shot before leaving the US. Funny things, those flu shots.
• First year manager, Kiyoshi Nakahata, who has been out of action with the flu, returned to spring camp on Tuesday donning the requisite facial mask. He hammed it up pretty big-time for the reporters on hand, so he seems to be feeling pretty well now.
• Patrick Newman says that the team should be a lot more fun to watch this year even though they look destined for a bottom-half finish once again.
• The team reported that it planned to kick the tires on three prospective imports at some point during spring camp. Wes Bankston, Chris Nowak, and Oscar Salazar are the players hoping to be offered a contract.

Pacific League News

• Fukuoka (Softbank) may have found a way to ensure a few more wins by signing Brad Penny from MLB. Penny notched double-digit wins for the Detroit Tigers last season but was released at the end of the season after playing out a one year contract.

Elsewhere in Japanese Baseball

• Gen has a handy post detailing the various suspensions handed out by Japan’s student baseball administrative body. The infractions range from smoking to beating the piss out of younger players. One suspension was meted for purchasing a train ticket in an illegal manner. Huh?
• Female knuckleball phenom, Eri Yoshida (20), will be pitching in the Kansai Independent Baseball League once again as she signed a deal with the 2011 champion Hyogo Blue Sandars. You may remember that Yoshida started her pro career in the KIBL back in 2009 with the now inactive Kobe 9 Cruise. She then signed with the Chico Outlaws early in 2010. Here’s an article with a little more information on what Yoshida experienced during her two seasons of minor league baseball in the US.

Kawakami back with the Dragons this year

Chunichi Dragons

• Sold backup catcher, Keiji Oyama (31) to Tohoku. 2011 was Oyama’s best season so far, offensively-speaking. He hit .280/.394/.390 in 102 plate appearances.
• It sounds like Araki and Ibata could be reverting to their old positions, second and short, respectively.
• Victor Diaz is all but certain to be wearing a Chunichi uniform this season. He has experience playing all over the field, so he should give the Dragons several options in terms of where they can put him.
• The team lured the team’s former starter, Kenshin Kawakami, back from MLB. The last time he played in a Dragons uniform was the 2008 season when he recorded a 9-5 record and a 2.30 ERA. He moved to the Atlanta Braves as a free agent after that. Kawakami pitched well in 2009, but is now regarded as a bust in MLB. He spent most of last season at AA and ended the season with an ERA well above eight. Six million dollars for a crappy year at double A? Yikes.

Yomiuri Giants

• First year players Scott Mathieson (P) and John Bowker (OF) were unveiled to the media on Friday.

Hanshin Tigers

• Much like Tokyo, Hanshin has yet to figure out who will be manning center field this season. A number of names have been floated, including Ryo Asai, Shunsuke, Wei-Chu Lin and rookie Hayata Ito.
• Matt Murton’s wife has still not given birth to the couple’s third child, so there’s a very good chance that he will miss the beginning of spring camp.
• It looks like pitcher Yasutomo Kubo will re-sign with the team some time this week, but infielder Keiichi Hirano is still holding out.

Hiroshima Carp

• Brand new Carp pitcher, Cam Mickolio, and right-handed bat, Nick Stavinoha, were formally introduced to the media on Friday.

Yokohama Baystars

• The new Baystar uniforms are apparently due to be unveiled this weekend. Alex Ramirez may be one of the guys modeling the new kit.

Pacific League Notes

• Kiko Arai, daughter of Orix Buffaloes farm team manager, Hiromasa Arai, is highly attractive. Exhibit A, she was recently crowned Miss Japan.
• Hokkaido received the posting bid money (more than US$50 million for Yu Darvish) from the Rangers. Unfortunately for Hokkaido, however, investors are still guaranteeing the relative strength of the yen over the dollar and euro, so the amount received was basically the equivalent of a couple thousand dollars at today’s exchange rate.

Let's get this deal done already.

• The talk of Araki and Ibata switching back to their original positions, 2nd and short, respectively, continues. Not that anyone cares.
• Victor Diaz might be on the team’s radar. Diaz played in Korea in 2009.

Yomiuri Giants

• Hayato Sakamoto, Yomiuri’s prized homegrown shortstop, has been reaping the benefits of Shinya Miyamoto’s guidance this month. Hey, aren’t those trade secrets? You little git, give us those notes!

Hanshin Tigers

• New Hanshin manager, Yutaka Wada, has given in to Takuya Asao lust and is now babbling about having Fujikawa pitch the 7th inning. If…IF!… he has another top notch closer on hand. Which he doesn’t. And by the way, Mr. Wada, Fujikawa will continue to blow it in the playoffs no matter when you plug him into the game. Sorry.

Hiroshima Carp

• Hiroki Kuroda signed with the Yankees (one-year US$11 million deal). No word yet on whether or not Hiroshima plans to keep waiting.

Yokohama Baystars

• GM Shigeru Takada has injected some young blood into his wing of the building by hiring former Bobby Valentine (Chiba era) front office brain, Shun Kakazu. The 30-year-old has some MLB experience under his belt in the form of serving as San Francisco’s point man on talent in Japan. He has no pro playing experience, however, which makes him rare in front office operations as Patrick Newman pointed out.

Around the Pacific League

• The big news on Yu Darvish will be arriving with in the next few days. The deadline for an agreement is 5PM EST on the 18th (7AM Japan Standard Time on Thursday the 19th). That’s precisely 24 hours after the deadline for a decision on the Norichika Aoki situation.

It's the third year in a row that they've shared the podium together.

Shinya Miyamoto, Tokyo’s veteran infielder and now 41 years of age, was voted the best defensive third baseman in the Central League this season. It was the third time that he has won the honor in as many seasons.

That is, of course, in addition to the six Golden Gloves he had previously won at short.

By the way, Golden Gloves is not referring to boxing in this case. It’s the Japanese version of the Gold Glove awards in MLB.

Norichika Aoki, the team’s center fielder, won his sixth straight Golden Glove this season.

Aoki was second in outfielder voting behind Yomiuri’s Chono. Chono had his name checked by 192 of the 243 voters while Aoki received 179 votes. The third and final outfielder awarded a Golden Glove was Chunichi’s Ohshima (84 votes).

Balentien was tied with Yomiuri’s Suzuki for 11th place with six votes each.

Aikawa (C) and Tanaka (2B) both finished second in voting for their respective positions while Hatakeyama was third in the voting for first base, and Kawabata was fourth at short.

Tateyama and Ishikawa finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in voting for pitchers.

Below are the nine players selected for both the Central and Pacific Leagues.

Central League

Position	Name	Team	Times	Notes
P	Takuya Asao	Chunichi	1
C	Motonobu Tanishige	Chunichi	5	1998, 2006-07, 2009, 2011
1B	Kenta Kurihara	Hiroshima	3	2008-09, 2011
2B	Keiichi Hirano	Hanshin	2	2010-11
3B	Shinya Miyamoto	Tokyo	3 (9 total)	3B = 2009-11 SS = 1997, 1999-2003
SS	Takashi Toritani	Hanshin	1
OF	Hisayoshi Chono	Yomiuri	1
OF	Norichika Aoki	Tokyo	6	2006-11
OF	Yohei	Ohshima	1

Pacific League

Position	Name	Team	Times	Notes
P	Masahiro Tanaka	Tohoku (Rakuten)	1
C	Toru Hosokawa	Fukuoka (Softbank)	2	2008 (Saitama), 2011
1B	Hiroki Kokubo	Fukuoka	2	3B = 2010-11 2B = 1995 (Daiei)
2B	Yuichi Honda	Fukuoka	1
3B	Nobuhiro Matsuda	Fukuoka	1
SS	Hiroyuki Nakajima	Saitama (Seibu)	2	2008, 2011
OF	Yoshifumi Okada	Chiba (Lotte)	1
OF	Yoshio Itoi	Hokkaido (Nippon Ham)	3	2009-11
OF	Tomotaka Sakaguchi	Orix	4	2008-11

Click here to view the page in Japanese on NPB’s website.

Fukuoka win the 2011 Japan Series 4-3.

The following are the results of the 2011 Japan Series. Pacific League champion, Fukuoka, host Central League pennant winner, Chunichi, for the first two games of a best-of-seven series. Games three through five are to be played at Nagoya Dome, and the final two games, if necessary, will be played once again at Yahoo Dome.

This is a rematch of the 1999 Japan Series, back when the Hawks were known as Fukuoka Daiei. Back then, current Fukuoka manager, Akiyama, was the team’s captain, Johjima was behind the plate, and current Tohoku manager, Hoshino, was at the helm for Chunichi. Hoshino’s opposite number in the Fukuoka dugout was none other than the venerable Sadaharu Oh.

Fukuoka won the championship that year.

Game 1 
Yahoo Dome (Fukuoka)
Saturday November 12, 2011 at 1PM

 

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	F	H	E
Chunichi	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	2	4	1
Fukuoka	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	1
W: Asao L: Mahara S: Iwase			Starters: Chunichi - Chen Fukuoka - Wada				HR: Wada (Chunichi) solo in 7th off Wada. Koike (Chunichi) solo in 10th off Mahara.

	Chunichi		Softbank
1	Araki SS	1	Kawasaki SS
2	Ibata 2B	2	Honda 2B
3	Morino 3B	3	Uchikawa DH
4	Blanco 1B	4	Matsuda 3B
5	Wada DH	5	Kokubo 1B
6	Tanishige C	6	Hasegawa CF
7	Hirata RF	7	Tamura RF
8	Koike LF	8	Fukuda LF
9	Ohshima CF	9	Hosokawa C
	Chen P		Wada P

Chunichi lead series 1-0.

Game 2
Yahoo Dome (Fukuoka)
Sunday November 13, 2011 at 6:15 PM

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	F	H	E
Chunichi	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	2	7	0
Fukuoka	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	8	0
W: Hirai L: Mahara S: Iwase			Starters: Chunichi -Yoshimi Fukuoka - Sugiuchi

	Chunichi		Fukuoka
1	Araki SS	1	Kawasaki SS
2	Ibata 2B	2	Honda 2B
3	Morino 3B	3	Uchikawa LF
4	Blanco 1B	4	Matsuda 3B
5	Wada DH	5	Kokubo DH
6	Koike LF	6	Hasegawa CF
7	Hirata RF	7	Tamura RF
8	Tanishige C	8	Fukuda 1B
9	Ohshima CF	9	Yamazaki C
	Yoshimi P		Sugiuchi P

Chunichi lead series 2-0.

Game 3
Nagoya Dome
Tuesday November 15, 2011 at 6:00 PM

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Fukuoka	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	4	12	1
Chunichi	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	2	4	1
W: Settsu L: Nelson S: Falkenborg			Starters: Fukuoka - Settsu Chunichi - Nelson				HR: Tamura (Fukuoka) 2-run off Nelson in 4th Hosokawa (Fukuoka) solo off Suzuki in 8th

	Fukuoka		Chunichi
1	Kawasaki SS	1	Araki SS
2	Honda 2B	2	Ibata 2B
3	Uchikawa LF	3	Morino 3B
4	Kokubo 1B	4	Blanco 1B
5	Matsuda 3B	5	Wada LF
6	Hasegawa CF	6	Tanishige C
7	Tamura RF	7	Hirata RF
8	Hosokawa C	8	Ohshima CF
9	Settsu P	9	Nelson P

Chunichi lead series 2-1.

Game 4
Nagoya Dome
Wednesday November 16, 2011 at 6:30 PM

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Fukuoka	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	8	0
Chunichi	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	5	1
W: Houlton L: Kawai S: Falkenborg			Starters: Fukuoka - Houlton Chunichi - Kawai

	Fukuoka		Chunichi
1	Kawasaki SS	1	Araki SS
2	Honda 2B	2	Ibata 2B
3	Uchikawa LF	3	Morino 3B
4	Kokubo 1B	4	Blanco 1B
5	Matsuda 3B	5	Wada LF
6	Hasegawa CF	6	Nomoto RF
7	Tamura RF	7	Hirata CF
8	Hosokawa C	8	Tanishige C
9	Houlton P	9	Kawai P

Series tied 2-2.

Game 5
Nagoya Dome
Thursday  November 17th, 2011 at 6:15 PM

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Fukuoka	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	0	5	10	0
Chunichi	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
W: Yamada L: Chen			Starters: Fukuoka - Yamada Chunichi - Chen

	Fukuoka		Chunichi
1	Kawasaki SS	1	Araki SS
2	Honda 2B	2	Ibata 2B
3	Uchikawa LF	3	Morino 3B
4	Kokubo 1B	4	Blanco 1B
5	Matsuda 3B	5	Wada LF
6	Tamura RF	6	Koike RF
7	Hasegawa CF	7	Hirata CF
8	Hosokawa C	8	Tanishige C
9	Yamada P	9	Chen P

Fukuoka leads series 3-2.

Game 6
Yahoo Dome (Fukuoka)
Saturday November 19th, 2011 at 6:15 PM

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Chunichi	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	5	0
Fukuoka	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	5	0
W: Yoshimi L: Wada S: Asao			Starters: Chunichi - Yoshimi Fukuoka - Wada

	Chunichi		Fukuoka
1	Araki SS	1	Kawasaki SS
2	Ibata 2B	2	Honda 2B
3	Morino 3B	3	Uchikawa LF
4	Blanco 1B	4	Kokubo 1B
5	Wada DH	5	Matsunaka DH
6	Hirata LF	6	Matsuda 3B
7	Fujii RF	7	Tamura RF
8	Tanishige C	8	Hasegawa CF
9	Ohshima CF	9	Hosokawa C
	Yoshimi P		Wada P

Series tied 3-3.

Game 7
Yahoo Dome (Fukuoka)
Sunday November 20th, 2011 at 6:30 PM

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Chunichi	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
Fukuoka	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	0	X	3	8	0
W: Sugiuchi L: Yamai S: Settsu			Starters: Chunichi - Yamai (RHP) Fukuoka - Sugiuchi (LHP)

	Chunichi		Fukuoka
1	Araki SS	1	Kawasaki SS
2	Ibata 2B	2	Honda 2B
3	Morino 3B	3	Uchikawa LF
4	Blanco 1B	4	Kokubo 1B
5	Wada DH	5	Matsunaka DH
6	Hirata LF	6	Matsuda 3B
7	Fujii RF	7	Tamura RF
8	Tanishige C	8	Hasegawa CF
9	Ohshima CF	9	Yamazaki C
	Yamai P		Sugiuchi P

	Play-by-Play	Score (CD-FH)
Chunichi 1st	Sugiuchi pitching. 1. Araki ground out (GO) to 3rd. 1 out. 2. Ibata K's looking. 2 outs. 3. Morino GO to pitcher.	0-0
Fukuoka 1st	Yamai pitching. 1. Kawasaki GO to second (1-1 count). 1 out. 2. Honda single to center (1-0 fastball). 3. Uchikawa up with Honda taking a big lead. Honda caught trying to steal second (he was safe, actually). Uchikawa K's looking.	0-0
Chunichi 2nd	4. Blanco sticks around with a full count for a few pitches. Sugiuchi flipping back and forth between heaters and sliders. Blanco watches ball four. 5. Wada, responsible for both of Chunichi's runs last night, pops a 2-2 fastball up to 2nd. 1 out. 6. Hirata up with man on 1st. K's swinging at 2-2 changeup. 2 outs. 7. Fujii up. 1-0 fly out (FO) to center.	0-0
Fukuoka 2nd	4. Kokubo GO to 1st. 1 out. 5. Matsunaka GO to short. 2 outs. Yamai looks sharp. Sharper than Sugiuchi at this point. 6. Matsuda K's looking on the third pitch of his at-bat.	0-0
Chunichi 3rd	8. Tanishige, hitless so far in postseason play, comes to the plate against Sugiuchi. K's swinging at the third pitch he sees. 9. Ohshima 1-2 infield fly to short. 2 outs. Sugiuchi's control looking better now. 1. Araki foul fly near 1st base.	0-0
Fukuoka 3rd	7. Tamura lucky bloop hit over Blanco's head. Araki chases it down. 8. Hasegawa rips a double to center that Ohshima should have caught. Runners on 2nd and 3rd. 9. Yamazaki quickly gets the count to 3-0. Draws a four pitch walk with the help of a couple squeeze bunt feints. Bases juiced. Yamai yanked. Kobayashi takes the mound. 1. Kawasaki up. Bases loaded. No outs. Full count. Kawasaki draws a walk! Tamura scores from 3rd. 2. Honda 1-2 foul fly to the catcher. 1 out. Kobayashi yanked. Nelson in to pitch. 3. Uchikawa almost has his head taken off by an errant 1-2 pitch. 2-2 pitch is weakly popped up to right. Hasegawa holds at 3rd. 2 outs. 4. Pops the first pitch he sees up to center.	0-1
Chunichi 4th	2. Ibata easy GO to short. 1 out. 3. Morino K's swinging. 2 outs. 4. Blanco grounds first pitch to left for Chunichi's first hit. 5. Wada FO to right.	0-1
Fukuoka 4th	Nelson, Chunichi's third pitcher, is still on the mound. 5. Matsunaka fouls what would've been an extra-base hit off the wall in right. He then draws a walk. 6. Matsuda successfully sac bunts Matsunaka over to second. 1 out. 7. Tamura 2-2 pitch FO to center. Matsunaka stays on 2nd. 8. Nelson intentionally walks Hasegawa. 2 outs. Runners on 1st and 2nd. 9. Yamazaki up. Quickly behind 0-2. 2-2 pitch sliced to shallow right. Matsunaka just gets past the tag. If the throw had been on line, then he would've been out. 1. Kawasaki, with runners on corners and 2 outs, lines out to left.	0-2
Chunichi 5th	Sugiuchi pitching. 6. Hirata full count. Infield single to pitcher. 7. Fujii watches as Hirata gets his signs mixed up and is thrown out in a rundown between 1st and 2nd. 1 out. Full count. GO to 3rd. 2 outs. 8. Tanishige K's with a feeble swing.	0-2
Fukuoka 5th	Nelson still pitching. 2. Honda K's on 3 pitches. 3. Uchikawa GO to pitcher. 2 outs. 4. Kokubo swings a golf club and misses again. K.	0-2
Chunichi 6th	Sugiuchi's 6th inning. 9. Ohshima K's swinging at a slider. 1 out. That was Sugiuchi's 6th K tonite. 1. Araki FO on 2-2 pitch to left. 2 outs. 2. Ibata, picking his eternal wedgie the whole time, comes to the plate. 2-2 broken bat GO to 3rd.	0-2
Fukuoka 6th	Nelson's 4th inning. 5. Matsunaka K's looking. The ump is calling a very wide zone tonite. TBS keeps showing us replays of the pitches with the camera directly behind the pitcher. Wow. 6. Matsuda infield single to short. Beats the throw after a fantastic grab by Araki. 7. Tamura, batting .360 so far in this series, is 1-2 tonite. Matsuda steals 2nd safely on 1st pitch. Tamura accidentally moves the runner over on a check-swing tap to 1st. 2 outs. 8. Hasegawa up with runner on 3rd. 0-1 pitch FO to 3rd.	0-2
Chunichi 7th	Sugiuchi pitching. 3. Morino 1st pitch hard grounder back to the pitcher. 1 out. 4. Blanco guessing wrong on sliders, but bounces one past the second baseman for his second base hit of the night. 2nd baseman should've had it, but it was to his backhand side. 5. Wada K's swinging. 2 outs. 6. Hirata watches the count go to 3-0, swings way too early at a third consecutive changeup, then draws a fourth ball. Runners on 1st and 2nd with two outs. 7. Fujii watching Sugiuchi continue his onslaught of changeups. Fujii falls behind 0-2, then pulls back to 2-2. K's on yet another changeup.	0-2
Fukuoka 7th	Asao on the mound. How many innings is he going to pitch? 9. Cabrera (PH for Yamazaki) K's swinging at three straight pitches. Asao owned him there. Embarrassing. 1. Kawasaki draws a nine pitch walk. 2. Honda 'safety' bunt attempt is met with a good fielding play by Asao. 2 outs. Kawasaki safe on 2nd. 3. Uchikawa single scores Kawasaki from 2nd. Uchikawa reaches 2nd on the play. 4. Kokubo GO to 3rd.	0-3
Chunichi 8th	Falkenborg pitching. 8. Tanishige, still without a hit in 42 post-season at-bats, K's swinging yet again. 9. Nomoto (PH for Ohshima) K's swinging on 3 pitches. 2 outs. 1. Araki K's swinging as well. Dominating performance by Falkenborg. Chunichi in all sorts of trouble.	0-3
Fukuoka 8th	Iwase takes Asao's place ono the mound for Chunichi. 5. Matsunaka works the count full. K's swinging at a high slider. 6. Matsuda GO to 3rd. 2 outs. 7. Tamura bounces a single up the middle into center field. 8. Hasegawa manages to lift the 2-2 pitch over Araki's head for a single. Runners on 1st and 2nd. 2 outs. 9. Hosokawa fouls off the first two pitches he sees. The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh pitches as well. He finally K's looking at the 8th offering from Iwase. Last three outs for Chunichi.	0-3
Chunichi 9th	Falkenborg takes the mound again. 2. Ibata, 2 for 24 so far in this series, falls behind quickly 0-2. But then Ibata does the improbable and lines the ball of Falkenborg's throwing arm (elbow?). He reaches 1st safely, and Falkenborg, in obvious pain, is out of the game. Ibata on 1st. No outs. Morifuku takes the mound. He looks a little nervous. 3. Morino falls behind 0-2. GO to short, but Morino beats the DP throw. 1 out. 4. Blanco FO to right. 2 outs. Fukuoka switching pitcher to Settsu to try and get the final out. 5. Wada takes a strike down the middle. Strike two on the outside corner of the plate. But then Wada works a full count. However, Wada went down swinging at a fastball down the middle.	0-3
Fukuoka 9th	Let the celebrations begin!	0-3 FINAL

Fukuoka wins the 2011 Japan Series 4-3.

Central League

2nd place Tokyo Yakult Swallows vs 1st place Chunichi Dragons

All games will be played at Nagoya Dome, home of the Chunichi Dragons.

*As 2011 Central League champions, Chunichi enters the best of seven series with a one game advantage. In other words, just pretend that the Dragons and Swallows already played the first game and that the Dragons won. Yes, we agree that it’s stupid.

Pacific League

3rd place Saitama Seibu Lions vs 1st place Fukuoka Softbank Hawks

All games will be played at Yahoo Dome, home of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks.

*As 2011 Pacific League champions, Fukuoka enters this best of seven series with a one game advantage. In other words, just pretend that the Hawks and Lions already played the first game and that the Hawks won. Therefore, they already lead the series 1-0.

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 0

Tokyo Swallows 0

Streak: Drew 1   Last 5: LLLLD

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

Not a very enjoyable day at Jingu. This game was called after five innings of steady drizzling. The mound had just about turned to mud.

Fukuoka

With no run support, this one was a wash.

1. Kawasaki SS
2. Honda 2B
3. Uchikawa LF
4. Kokubo 1B
5. Tamura RF
6. Matsuda 3B
7. Hasegawa CF
8. Hosokawa C
9. Iwasaki P

Tokyo

1. Aoki CF
2. Tanaka 2B
3. Hatakeyama 1B
4. Balentien RF
5. Guiel LF
6. Miyamoto 3B
7. Morioka SS
8. Aikawa C
9. Tateyama P

Tateyama threw a one-hitter through five and allowed only walk. He mixed in six strikeouts as well to keep Softbank off the board.

But Tokyo’s offense was again unable to get anything going.

Iwasaki was effective enough as he was able to get our right-handed batters to chase his low-and-away slider on several occasions. He gave the Swallows three walks and an HBP (Guiel picking up right where he left off), but the rest of Tokyo’s lineup was unable to make him pay.

Tokyo had the bases juiced in the third with two outs, but nothing came of it. In the fourth, again with two outs, it was runners on first and second, but no dice. And in the fifth there was only one out and Tanaka was standing on second, but both Hatakeyama and Balentien struck out waving at outside sliders to end the threat.

So it’s good that we didn’t drop another game, yes, but Tokyo really should have scored at least one run.

Tateyama’s ERA now rests at 1.66 after those five scoreless innings.

Tanaka was the only player to record multiple hits in this contest. He was also the only player from either team to reach base twice.

Tokyo’s next series is a short two-game affair at home against Orix on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Both games start at 6PM.

Notes:

Kawabata was diagnosed with a bruised thigh and will likely be unavailable for three weeks.

Tokyo has several other options at short. Araki, Morioka, Onizaki and Fujimoto are a few of the names that you’re likely to see in the next month or so. Unfortunately, they have not yet registered a hit between them (although, to be fair, Araki and Fujimoto have yet to register an at-bat this season).

Balentien is leading the league with a .352 batting average and mammoth .781 slugging. However, he’s hitting only .200 with runners in scoring position. Trying to do too much?

The only regular whose average is currently worse with runners on second and/or third is Whitesell (.154).

Tateyama takes a seat as the grounds crew was called in.

Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 10

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2

Streak: Lost 1   Last 5: WWWWL

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

Tokyo’s longest winning streak of the season came to a screeching halt at the hands of the Hokkaido Fighters who refused to be swept. In fact, they were so adamant about not being swept that they used seven pitchers over nine innings to keep the home team guessing.

And it worked.

Tonite’s lineup:

1. Aoki CF
2. Tanaka 2B
3. Guiel RF
4. D’Antona 1B
5. Iihara LF
6. Aikawa C
7. Yoshimoto 3B
8. Fujimoto SS
9. Tateyama P

Unlike Muranaka the night before, Tokyo starter Tateyama didn’t fare so well in the wet conditions. He gave up a run in three of the first four innings, two of them coming off of solo home runs. 3-0 Hokkaido.

But the end of his evening was hastened and exacted in the fifth when the Fighters plate five more runs off of four hits, an HBP and some other nonsense. 8-0 Visitors.

Here’s a summary of Tateyama’s evening: eight runs (all earned) off of 11 hits (three homers) with six K’s and a single beanball mixed in. His record now stands at 3-5 and his ERA ballooned violently to 4.01 after those five innings of pure trouble.

The birds were only able to collect one hit during the first five innings as Hokkaido used three different pitchers to keep everyone guessing.

The final four innings would see four different Hokkaido hurlers, and the Swallows had to settle for a Fujimoto solo homer in the seventh (his second of the year). 8-1 Hokkaido.

And their final run came in the ninth when Takeuchi scored care of a Fukukawa single.

But that wasn’t before Katoh came in and made a total hash of the top of that inning to allow the Fighters to score two more.

10-2 Final.

Oshimoto pitched a scoreless sixth to lower his ERA to 3.86, and De La Cruz made his first top team appearance of the season while pitching two innings of slightly nerve-wracking, yet ultimately scoreless, baseball to maintain a triple-bagel ERA.

D’Antona and Fukukawa, who got a couple of at-bats in place of Aikawa, were the only players to reach base twice for the Swallows. Both of D’Antona’s appearances on first were due to walks while Fukukawa went 1-1 with an RBI single and a walk.

The Swallows now have two days off before they resume regularly scheduled Central League programming with a three-game series in Hiroshima starting this Friday.

Random thoughts:

The birds were thoroughly controlled on offense. They managed only four hits and five walks.

The Fighters came up with 17 hits, 1 BB and 1 HBP.

The Swallows won the four-game interleague series versus the Fighters 3-1. It was their best result of their otherwise lackluster interleague campaign.

Tokyo finished the interleague portion of the season with a 9-14-1 record. That was good enough for 11th place. Last place went to Yokohama.

Tonite’s foes, the Hokkaido Fighters, finished the interleague schedule with the best team ERA–2.58–very impressive!

The Fighters finished sixth. Interestingly, the five teams that bested them during interleague play were all from the Pacific League.

Yomiuri had the best interleague record for the Central at 12-12.

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Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 3

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 8

Streak: Won 5   Last 5: WWWWW

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

When this game was originally scheduled to be played (May 23rd), Takada was still at the helm, the birds had just gotten whupped by Chiba 20-4, and the team was in the midst of an eight-game losing streak.

What a difference three weeks make.

Tonite’s lineup:

1. Aoki CF
2. Tanaka 2B
3. Guiel RF
4. D’Antona 1B
5. Iihara LF
6. Aikawa C
7. Miyamoto 3B
8. Fujimoto SS
9. Muranaka P

Tokyo got down and dirty real early in this one.

Aoki led off with a single before Tanaka Tak-bunted him over to second. Guiel then occupied the empty space at first by drawing a walk which set the table for D’Antona to hit one over the fence in right. It was his ninth homer of the season. 3-0 Tokyo.

Iihara chipped in with a walk of his own, the then Aikawa followed with the first of his four singles to put runners on first and second again. Miyamoto then came through with a single to left that plated Iihara. 4-0 Tokyo.

Too bad about that bunt because the second out of the inning didn’t even arrive until Muranaka, the ninth batter of the inning, struck out. Aoki then ended the inning by lining out to short.

Muranaka's Kroon impersonation. Very dramatic in the rain. Wrong hand though.

Ogawa wasted another out in the fourth with a Tanaka Tak-bunt after Aoki had reached base on a single. And yet again, D’Antona was there to make the decision look that much more foolish by crushing his second homer of the night over the fence in center. This two run shot was his tenth of the year and second of the game. 6-0 Tokyo.

Hokkaido finally got on the board in the top of the fifth with a little two out rally that made the score 6-1 Swallows.

But the birds answered back with another two runs in the bottom of that inning. Tokyo actually got a little help, in the form of an error, from former teammate Atsunori Inaba who was playing first base at the time. Aikawa and Miyamoto had come up with back-to-back singles just prior to the Inaba blunder, and Aikawa was able to score. 7-1 Tokyo.

Tokyo’s last run of the game came on Tanaka’s bases loaded groundout to third in which Miyamoto was able to sneak home. 8-1 Tokyo.

Things began to unravel quickly for Muranaka in the seventh. With the rain still falling, he allowed three hits, a walk, and two RBIs without recording an out, so Masubuchi had to come in to quiet things down a bit. Which he did in one, two, three fashion. 8-3 Final.

Matsuoka (1.04 ERA) and Oshimoto (4.01) pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings, respectively, and Muranaka got the win. Muranaka (4-5; 3.56) threw 126 pitches and allowed three earned runs off of seven hits. He also notched five strikeouts and conceded two walks.

The clear standout on offense was Jamie D’Antona who went 2-5 and clubbed two round-trippers and amassed five RBIs. Aikawa also had an excellent game–he went 4-4 and scored once.

Miyamoto and Aoki both had two-hit games with the latter throwing in a walk for good measure.

The final game of this series, the only one in which the Swallows were able to take at lease three of the games, is scheduled for tomorrow night–weather permitting.

Random thoughts:

Tokyo is now riding a season high five-game winning streak.

Tanaka’s consecutive game batting streak came to an end at nine games. Of course, it’s probably fair to wonder what might have been if two of his at-bats hadn’t been wasted on Tak-bunts.

Muranaka leads the league with 9.48 K’s per nine innings.

Tokyo is now just 2.5 games behind the fourth place Hiroshima Carp.

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June 13th, 2010

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 1

Streak: Won 4   Last 5: LWWWW

(Kleenex Stadium Miyagi)

Hats off to the birds for the current winning streak which ties their season-best of four games. And may I remind you that the last two wins came against Iwakuma and Tanaka, two of Japan’s best starters, while giving up a total of only two runs during their two-game stay in Sendai.

Other good news: Darvish pitched yesterday, so the Swallows won’t have to deal with him either tomorrow or Tuesday when the Fighters are in town for those two rescheduled games (both start at 6PM).

This afternoon’s lineup:

1. Aoki CF
2. Tanaka 2B
3. Guiel DH
4. D’Antona 1B
5. Iihara RF
6. Aikawa C
7. Miyamoto 3B
8. Onizaki SS
9. Fukuchi LF

Yoshinori (2-5; 4.61 ERA) started this one for the Swallows–a bit of a homecoming for him as he grew up in Sendai.

And the kid had a good game. He lasted one out shy of eight innings while giving up only five hits and a single earned run off of 128 pitches. He struck out two and walked three and was actually perfect through the first three innings of the afternoon.

The Eagles finally got to Yoshinori in the fifth. Yamasaki scored the first run of the game on a solo shot to right with no outs. 1-0 Tohoku.

D'Antona's bases loaded sac fly leveled the game.

But that was all the run-scoring that the Eagles could muster despite getting two runners on base immediately after Yamasaki’s homer in the fifth, and in the sixth and eighth innings as well.

Tokyo did the bulk of it’s damage in the top of the eighth inning while trailing by a run. Fukuchi reached base on a single before Aoki put him on third with a double. Tanaka recorded the first out of the game on a grounder, but Guiel drew a walk to load the bases.

Next man up, D’Antona, hit a sac fly to left that scored Fukuchi to tie the game at 1-1.

With two outs, Iihara drew another walk to load the bases once again, and then Aikawa did the same to get Tanaka (Tohoku’s starter) to walk in the go-ahead run. 2-1 Tokyo.

Protecting a one run lead, Yoshinori was yanked, quite wisely, with two outs in the eighth after he gave up consecutive singles to Teppei and Nakamura. The look on Yoshinori’s face was a dead giveaway that he could feel the pressure mounting, and consequently his slider stopped breaking, so Matsuoka was brought in to deal with the battle-hardened Yamasaki. The veteran made Matsuoka work for the out by laying off the forkballs, but he was eventually caught napping on an inside heater to end the threat and the inning, and preserve Yoshinori’s bid for his second with of the season.

Tokyo added an insurance run in the ninth. Tohoku’s Katayama recorded the first two outs of the inning with

Tanaka doubles to bring Aoki home from first.

relative ease before having to deal with Aoki–who, I might add, is heating up after a rather forgettable month of May.

Aoki singled to bring up the only batter on the team who is currently hitting better than Aikawa, and that would be Tanaka. He’s 9-15 over the course of the current winning streak (not to mention his three walks and four RBIs), and he came through again today with a clutch double to left that scored Aoki from first. 3-1 Tokyo.

Lim came in to take care of the ninth on only eight pitches, and that was the end of things as the Swallows continue to put the pieces back together in the early stages of the post-Takada era. Today was Lim’s 10th save of the season.

Aoki and Tanaka had two hits each while Guiel also reached base twice care of a single and a walk. Iihara added two walks to his second inning single for a team-leading three times on first base.

Tokyo will attempt to keep the good times rolling when the Fighters come to town tomorrow.

Random notes:

The Swallows outhit the Eagles 9-5.

Yoshinori’s ERA improved from 5.14 to 4.61 after his effort this afternoon.

Tanaka extended his hitting streak to nine games. During that time he’s gone 14-30 (1 HR) with 11 RBIs and four walks. His nine game vitals: .467 batting average; .529 OBP; and .667 SLG.

Guiel hasn’t been hit by a pitch in over a week which must be some kind of record. Regardless, he leads the country with 14.

D’Antona no longer leads the league in strikeouts.

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