10/11/09 – Chunichi (Home)

October 11th, 2009 Chunichi Dragons 3 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4 Streak: Won 5    Last 5: WWWWW (Jingu Stadium) With the Swallows clinching 3rd and a Climax Series place on Friday, this preview matchup between the two teams that will be contesting the first round of the post-season was meant to be a nice quiet game, [...]

10/8/09 — Hanshin (Home)

Heroes Tateyama and Kawamoto get punked by the penguin.

October 8th, 2009 Hanshin Tigers 0 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Streak: Won 3      Last 5:  WLWWW (Jingu Stadium) The birds rode a complete game shutout by starter Tateyama to their third win in a row and reclaimed third place in the Central League in the process.

10/3/09 – Hanshin (Away)

October 3rd, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6 Hanshin Tigers 4 Streak: Won 1      Last 5:  WLLLW (Koshien) With the race for 3rd getting tighter with every day, this was a game that the Swallows simply had to win. A loss tonight and they’d be two games back of Hanshin, a win and they’d [...]

10/2/09 – Hiroshima (Home)

October 2nd, 2009 Hiroshima Toyo Carp 5 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2 Streak: Lost 3       Last : WWLLL (Jingu Stadium) With Hanshin having a day off today, Tokyo had a chance to move level with the Tigers in 3rd place with a win this evening. As it turned out, it was a win [...]

9/30/09 — Hanshin (Home)

Three fielders, nobody calling for the ball.

September 30th, 2009 Hanshin Tigers 7 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1 Streak: Lost 2     Last 5:  WWWLL (Jingu Stadium) The birds outhit the Tigers 12-10 but still got annihilated. Yuki pitched six rather solid innings but got roughed up a little in the seventh. Takada factored a bit in this one as well.

9/29/09 — Hanshin (Home)

Yoshinori is suddenly the worst starter on the first team.

September 29th, 2009 Hanshin Tigers 8 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2 Streak: Lost 1     Last 5:  WWWWL (Jingu Stadium) Well, no blisters were involved, but that still sucked.

9/27/09 — Yokohama (Home)

Ishikawa didn't need any help this time.

September 27th, 2009 Yokohama BayStars 1 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3 Streak: Won 5  Last 5: WWWWW The Tokyo Swallows maintained their slim half-game lead over the Hanshin Tigers with another complete game victory by the team’s starter, Masanori Ishikawa. The Tigers absolutely embarrassed Chunichi’s Yamamoto on their way to winning that series two to one. [...]

9/25/09 — Yokohama (Home)

Tateyama's first victory since 8/25.

September 25th, 2009 Yokohama BayStars 2 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Streak: Won 3  Last 5: LLWWW (Jingu Stadium) For the third time in as many games a Tokyo starter lasted all nine innings, and the birds were able to continue their mini-revival (third win in a row) versus the 6th-place BayStars.

9/23/09 – Hiroshima (Away)

September 23rd, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4 Hiroshima Toyo Carp 1 Streak: Won 2      Last : LLLWW (Mazda Stadium) The day after Takagi threw a complete game shutout, Yuki went the distance himself as Tokyo won only their second series in the last  month and a half. The same two pitchers were at [...]

9/21/09 – Hiroshima (Away)

September 21st, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Hiroshima Toyo Carp 6 Streak: Lost 4      Last : WLLLL (Mazda Stadium) There are nights when I seriously have to question whether or not watching and writing about baseball is actually fun, or in fact a colossal waste of time, emotion and energy. Tonight (as well as far [...]