An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
The Birds kicked off Interleague play with a disastrous 0-4 homestand. Starting tomorrow, the team takes their show on the road with two games each against the Seibu Lions and the Lotte Marines. That means for the first time this season, the Swallows will be able to feature a lineup with a designated hitter. The [...]
May 16th, 2010 Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 6 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Streak: Lost 4 Last 5: WLLLL (Meiji Jingu Stadium) This was never going to be easy. With Sugiuchi pitching for SoftBank, Tokyo was going to have to earn this one. But even though they lost again, the birds showed a little more fight [...]
March 31st, 2010 Chunichi Dragons 5 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 9 Streak: Won 4 Last 5: LWWWW (Meiji Jingu Stadium) Well, starts to the season don’t come too much better than this. A start which on paper looked ominous to say the least – an away series against the CL champions Yomiuri followed by the [...]
Well, the festive season is over and the 2010 baseball season can be spotted lurking on the horizon, just waiting to take over our lives again. Here’s a round up of what’s been going on in SwallowsLand so far this offseason that hasn’t been covered elsewhere on the site: The Swallows made only their second ever [...]
Yomiuri 4 Hokkaido 3 Series: Hokkaido 0-1 Yomiuri (Sapporo Dome) The 2009 Japan Series kicked off tonight in Sapporo with the Pacific League Champions, Hokkaido, hosting their Central League counterparts, the Yomiuri Giants.
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 [...]
October 18th, 2009 Tokyo Swallows 2 Chunichi Dragons 3 Series: Chunichi 1-1 Tokyo (Nagoya Dome) The Dragons leveled the series with a come-from-behind win and made sure that both team’s season will survive at least one more day.
October 17th, 2009 Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 1 Tohoku Rakuten Eagles 4 Best of 3 Series: Fukoka 0 – 2 Tohoku (Kleenex Stadium) The Eagles rode a solid performance from starting pitcher, Masahiro Tanaka, to sweep the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks and earn a trip to Hokkaido to face the Pacific League champions.
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 [...]
October 16th, 2009 Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 4 Tohoku Rakuten Eagles 11 Best of 3 Series: Fukoka 0 – 1 Tohoku (Kleenex Stadium) The Eagles absolutely destroyed the visiting Hawks in the first game of what could be an abbreviated series up in Sendai.
