Things didn't go well last week, so here's a picture of the farm team lineup.

Sorry for the delay, Swallowers. It’s my fault. There are no excuses here at Tsubamegun.

Something for you to read while planning a trip to New Orleans.

Swallows of the Week

Week 6

This one was never really going to be much of a contest, what with the wicked week that Coco put up and all. But 31 voters thought long and hard and chose the most worthy from the following four players:

Wladimir Balentien (RF)
Masanori Ishikawa (P)
Orlando Roman (P)
Hiroyasu Tanaka (2B)

Player	Votes	%
Wladimir Balentien	25	81
Hiroyasu Tanaka	4	13
Orlando Roman	2	6
Masanori Ishikawa	0	0

Congratulations, Coco, the first Tokyo player to ever earn SOW honors twice in the same season! You definitely earned it. I must say that you surprised the piss out of us several times during week six, and we love you for it.

Now just sit back and let them walk you for a couple of weeks.

Week 7

Like the week before, the Swallows played five games during week six. However, things didn’t work out quite as well for your Tokyo Swallows.

The first three games were all over the midlands map in and around Nagoya as the birds took on the Dragons in a three-game set. Tokyo wasn’t able to win a game until the series finally arrived back at Nagoya Dome. Game three  saw the birds exorcise some of the their demons by winning a game against the Dragons in Nagoya, but they still lost the series 1-2.

Then it was off to the miserably wet and cold embrace of the enduring Akita Prefecture winter for a two-game series against the “visiting” Gomiuri Giants.

Tokyo played to an annoying 1-1 draw in the first game before losing the second game 5-1.

Game reports:

May 8th at Chunichi 0-1 L
May 9th  at Chunichi 3-8 L
May 10th at Chunichi 3-1 W
May 12th vs Yomiuri 1-1 D
May 13th vs Yomiuri 1-5 L

But despite Tokyo’s 1-3-1 record, there were still some individual bright spots.

Katsuki Akagawa (P) – The only pitcher to record a win, Akagawa pitched seven innings at Nagoya Dome on Thursday and threw 98 pitches while issuing only a single walk. He scattered six hits while striking out three and allowing one earned run in the sixth inning.

Shinya Miyamoto (3B) – A week after joining the Meikyukai, Shinya had his nose to the grindstone last week. Despite not starting on Wednesday, he was 6-14 at the plate in four games at third base.

Ryosuke Morioka (SS) – Given some playing time following Kawabata’s injury, Morioka started four games last week and was 3-14 at the plate with a double and two RBI.

You know what to do:

Roster Updates

As reported here in the last update, Takeuchi (IF) was removed from the top team on May 6th. It turns out that he has a right wrist injury that he needs to rehab.

On the seventh, Koki Watanabe (P) was also dropped to the farm after his four hit, three run performance on Sunday at Jingu.

On the eighth, Kentaro Kyuko (P) and Takahiro Araki (IF) were promoted from the topfarm team.

On the tenth, Kyohei Muranaka (P) and Shingo Kawabata (SS) were demoted. Kawabata is injured, and Muranaka is struggling.

On the 12th, both Aikawa (C) and Yuhei (OF) were brought back up to the top squad. Aikawa is coming off of a toe injury, and Yuhei has rejoined the struggle to find a viable and durable option in center field.

On the 15th, it was announced that Hitoshi Yamamoto (P) will have TJ surgery on his throwing arm (right) and is out for the rest of the season. Yamamoto made 12 appearances and pitched 55 innings for the Swallows last season. He finished the year with a 4.25 ERA.

That left the following 28 players on the top team roster:

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

Catchers
Aikawa, Fukukawa, Nakamura

Infielders
Miyamoto, Tanaka, Fujimoto, Hatakeyama, Noguchi, Miwa, Morioka, Araki

Outfielders
Hiyane, Fukuchi, Balentien, Iihara, Yuhei, Milledge

Tateyama was the CL pitching MVP for March-April, 2012.

League Honors

In case you haven’t heard, Shohei Tateyama (P) and Wladimir Balentien (P) were March-April monthly MVPs for the Central League, and it’s the first time since 1997 that Tokyo has had a player win the pitcher and position player categories in the same month!

Sponsored by Nihon Seimei, it was the second time that both players had won the award.

Tateyama last won monthly MVP honors in August of 2010. This time around, he was 3-0 with a 1.85 ERA through 34 innings of work.

Balentien won May honors last year, and he finished the first month-and-a-bit of 2012 with a .308 average and 16 RBI on 24-78 hitting.

The last Tokyo duo to bring home top Central League honors in the same month were batterymates Atsuya Furuta (C) and Kazuhisa Ishii (P) in September 12 years ago.

Nice work, gents! Now if we could just hold on to first place.

From the Farm

The mini birds had an even worse week despite spending the whole time at home. Tokyo started the week off by dropping and drawing a game versus the visiting mini Giants before seeing game three get rained out up in Toda.

They then dropped three straight afternoon games to the mini Chiba Marines.

There’s not a whole lot to report that will excite anyone that is a regular in these parts. Onodera (P) continues to be effective, and Tetsuto Yamada (IF) is hitting well in the leadoff position. Other than that, Yoshinori’s little brother is the the next most exciting thing going on down there. And no, Yoshinori hasn’t made an appearance recently. Think they’ll eventually think about taking his face off of all the walls in Gaienmae soon?

The Week Ahead

It’s interleague time, folks! Tokyo hosts Fukuoka on Wednesday and Thursday after an extra day off, and then Orix comes to town for a weekend series at Jingu. All games start at 6PM. This is the time of year, of course, when we finally have a reason to root for Pacific League teams. May they beat everyone but us. Badly.

Tokyo's lone winning pitcher from last week.

OK, that’s it for this week. Please excuse me while I find some inspiration to do what’s right.

Tokyo Swallows 3

Chunichi Dragons 1

Streak: Won 1 Last 5: WLLLW

(Nagoya Dome)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Swallows	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	3	5	0
Dragons	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	9	0
W: Akagawa (3-1); L: Yudai (1-2); S: Barnette (12)

The Swallows’ bats finally come alive in the eighth to snap the team’s losing streak.

	Swallows		Dragons
1	Tanaka (2B)	1	Oshima (CF)
2	Morioka (SS)	2	Araki (2B)
3	Milledge (LF)	3	Ibata (SS)
4	Balentien (RF)	4	Wada (LF)
5	Iihara (CF)	5	Blanco (1B)
6	Miyamoto (3B)	6	Fukuda (3B)
7	Hatakeyama (1B)	7	Hirata (RF)
8	Fukukawa (C)	8	Tanishige (C)
9	Akagawa (P)	9	Yudai (P)

The lineup got a bit of a tweak after Kawbata’s hip injury, and his subsequent removal from the active roster earlier today left a hole at short. Morioka took Kawabata’s place at short and batted second. With Morioka playing the speedy contact hitter role in the order, the Swallows chose to play Iihara at center to give themselves more punch. Finally, Fukukawa got a start as a reward for his home run in yesterday’s game, his first homer in 4 years.

All that lineup tweaking seemed fairly moot however, as the Dragons’ stater Yudai absolutely owned the Swallows through 7 innings. Yudai gave up just 1 single to the Swallows through 7 innings. Giving up no walks or errors, the lefty kept most of the Swallows’ balls in the infield to be easily fielded.

Akagawa was also pitched quite well but wasn’t quite as dominant. The young lefty kept the game scoreless until the sixth innings. After getting 2 outs Akagawa gave up an infield single to Oshima who quickly stole second and came home on an Araki single to left. 1-0 Dragons Despite being down only 1 run, there was a feeling that the Swallows were staring at their 4th straight loss.

Luckily the Swallows were finally able to get to Yudai in the eighth. Iihara started the inning my lining out to short for out number 1. Miyamoto got the rally by hitting a 3-2 pitch into right for a single. Hiyane took Miyamoto’s place in on the basepaths for Hatakeyama’s at bat. Yudai fell behind 1-0 to Hatake, Hiyane ran on the next pitch and the big man child smacked the ball deep into right for a double to men on second and third with 1 out. It was at this point the Dragons decided to end Yudai’s night and hand the ball to 2011 MVP, Asao. 2011 Asao might have been unhittable, but 2012 Asao has looked a bit more mortal. Asao started off by loading the bases with a 4 pitch walk to a pinch hitting Fujimoto to load the bases. Fukuchi came in to pinch hit for Akagawa, and watched Asao pitch his 5th straight ball before taking strike number 1 deep off the right field wall to score 2. 2-1 Swallows Tanaka couldn’t keep the rally going and gave up the second out of the inning with a liner to first. But the Swallows were able to get an insurance run when Morioka legged out a slow grounder to second for a infield single, letting Fujimoto score from third. 3-1 Swallows

Oshimoto pitched a 1 hit scoreless eighth, and Barnette pitched a 2 hit scoreless ninth to preserve the win. The win puts the Swallows a half game back of the Dragons for the CL lead.

Notes

• Akagawa got the win by pitching 7 innings on 98 pitches, allowing 1 ER, 6 H, and 1 BB.
• His Dragons’ counterpart, Yudai, got tagged with the loss for his 7.1 innings of 3 hit ball, with 2 ER to his name.
• The Swallows will have tomorrow off before playing a 2 game series against the Giants in Akita.
  

  Fukuchi hits a game flipping double.

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!!

]]> http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/08/5812-chunichi-away/feed/ 4 http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/07/tokyo-swallows-snapshot-may-7th-2012/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tokyo-swallows-snapshot-may-7th-2012 http://tokyoswallows.com/2012/05/07/tokyo-swallows-snapshot-may-7th-2012/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 05:44:01 +0000 Christopher Pellegrini http://tokyoswallows.com/?p=12514 Hello, all you Swallowers! Here’s something to read while claiming your shark repellent spray refund.

Miyamoto’s Meikyukai Induction

Miyamoto became the 40th batter to reach the 2,000 hit milestone with a single in his first at-bat against Hiroshima starter, Yuya Fukui on Friday. The game was immediately halted as Miyamoto’s teammates came onto the field to congratulate him.

The team has decided to designate May 30th Miyamoto Milestone Memorial Day when Hokkaido will be in town for a two-game series (May 30th and 31st). Former Tokyo Swallow and teammate, Atsunori Inaba, who became the 39th hitter to enter the Meikyukai just a short while ago, will be playing for the Fighters in that game, and it is likely that Inaba will also be honored by the team in some way.

For more information, including stats and lots of trivial information, check these two posts (here and here) on Yakyu Baka.

In case you missed it, here’s a video replay:

Many congrats to Miyamoto and his family from everyone at Tsubamegun!

Swallows of the Week

Week 5

The Tsubamegun community voted on the outstanding performances by the following five players: Wladimir Balentien (RF), Tony Barnette (P), Kazuhiro Hatakeyama (1B), Lastings Milledge (LF), and Shohei Tateyama (P). There were 35 official votes this week, and here’s how the numbers added up:

Player	Votes	%
Lastings Milledge	20	57
Wladimir Balentien	6	17
Tony Barnette	5	14
Kazuhiro Hatakeyama	2	6
Shohei Tateyama	2	6

Congratulations, Thrilledge! The man has been an impact player at the plate, and he has shown hustle and determination both on the field and the basepaths. All the best to Milledge from the Tsubamegun community as he continues to transition to the pitching and style of play here in Japan.

Week 6

The Swallows played five games last week which completed a eight-games-in-nine-days marathon against Central League competition. The first two were in Yokohama, and after romping in the first game thanks to Balentien’s three bombs, the offense was quieted in game two due to some decent pitching from the home team.

The second series was at home against the Hiroshima Carp. The first two games were both monumental and enjoyable to watch for Tokyo fans as Miyamoto eclipsed the 2,000 hit mark on Friday, and the team churned out an impressive performance both on offense and defense to clinch the series. Yesterday’s game, however, was a bit of a mess thanks mostly to the fact that Tokyo wasn’t able to get anyone on base for most of the game.

Coco made this pose many times this week. They must've thought it was hailing in the left field stands.

May 1st at Yokohama 7-0 W
May 2nd cancelled (rain)
May 3rd at Yokohama 1-3 L
May 4th vs Hiroshima 8-4 W
May 5th vs Hiroshima 4-1 W
May 6th vs Hiroshima 0-6 L

Several players put up impressive numbers last week, and here are the names for you to choose from:

Wladimir Balentien (RF) had a crazy week 6 at the plate. He was 8-17 with six homers, four walks, eight RBI, and 27 total bases. Here’s his slash line for the week: .471/.571/1.588.

Masanori Ishikawa (P) recorded his first complete game shutout in a couple of seasons at Yokohama on Tuesday. He threw 145 pitches through nine innings of work and gave up five hits, one walk, and one beanball while striking out five on his way to helping his team secure a 7-0 victory.

Orlando Roman (P) had his longest outing of the year on Saturday when he subdued a very aggressive Carp team with only 95 pitches through eight innings of work. He gave up only five hits, three walks, and one earned run while striking out three. The Swallows went on to win that contest 4-1.

Hiroyasu Tanaka (2B) was solid both at the plate and on defense. He was one of only two players to hit safely in all five games last week and was 7-21 at the plate. He mixed in a couple of doubles, two walks, and four RBI to help reward Hatakeyama and Nakamura for their solid offense in the bottom third of the lineup. Slash line: .333/.391/.429.

Tick the box next to the player you think most deserves SOW honors for week 6.

Roster Updates

On Wednesday May 2nd, Genki Nitta (C) and Yuhei (OF) were demoted, and on Thursday veterans Atsushi Fujimoto (IF) and Kazuki Fukuchi (OF) were brought up. Fujimoto had his first hit of the season that same day. Fukuchi had his first hit on Friday and recorded his first sac fly of the season on Saturday.

Ueda (CF) was dropped to the farm on Saturday after banging up his right shoulder on a herculean effort to prevent a home run in Friday’s game. He was 1-2 at the plate with a double before being removed from the game. Hopefully his rehab stint doesn’t take too long.

Rookie Hiyane (OF) was brought back up on the same day to serve as cover/competition for Kazuki Fukuchi in center field.

Takeuchi was dropped to the farm on Sunday for reasons that were not immediately clear. Hopefully it’s nothing more than an attempt to keep him fresh by seeing live pitching on a regular basis on the farm.

That leaves 27 players on the top team roster as of this morning:

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

Catchers
Fukukawa, Nakamura

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

Outfielders
Hiyane, Fukuchi, Balentien, Iihara, Yuhei, Milledge

From the Farm

Tokyo’s minor league team dropped two of their three games against Tohoku up in Sendai. Depressingly, they lost both of the first two games in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the 10th inning. But there were definitely some bright spots tucked in there.

The Swallows won the third game thanks largely to a fourth inning, two out grand slam care of Yuichi which put a previously tied ballgame at 6-2 in Tokyo’s favor. The team eventually won the game 6-4 with rookie Hugo Kanabushi getting the ‘W’ thanks to his six innings of  eight hit, three run baseball.

Chikara Onodera continues to pitch effectively from the bullpen. He made two appearances last week and kept the opposition off the board. In 15 appearances so far (farm team high), he’s pitched 15.1 innings and has an ERA of 0.59.

Kyuko has also seen his workload increase, which is another great sign for the team as he was a phenomenal left-handed option out of the pen last year. He made two appearances last week and didn’t allow any runs.

Recently demoted center fielder, Yuhei, started all three games last weekend and was 5-15 at the plate.

Kawamoto (C) appears to be back in action and both caught and DH’d last weekend. Nitta did the same and appears to be having a bit more success at the plate so far.

Tokyo’s little birds will play six home games up in Toda starting tomorrow. The first three are against the little Giants, and the second set is against the little Marines. All six games are scheduled to start at 1PM.

Around the Central League

Tokyo finished the week with three wins and two losses which leaves them in sole possession of first place in the Central League with an overall record of 18-10-2. After splitting a rain-shortened series with Yokohama, the birds returned to Jingu and took 2-3 from the visiting Hiroshima Carp. They enjoy a mere half-game lead over second place Chunichi.

Chunichi finished the week with two wins, two losses, and two ties. Those two losses came over the weekend when they were visiting Yokohama who are now in possession of a semi-healthy Tsutsugoh at third base. The boy has been hitting the ball hard, and if memory serves, he’s eligible for ROY voting this season. The Chunichi Dragons finished the week in second place, half a game behind the Tokyo Swallows.

Staff ace, Kazuki Yoshimi, was taken off the active roster due to a gammy hammy on May 2nd. That’s good news for the Swallows because it means that they won’t have to face him next week when they travel to play Chunichi.

Hanshin finished the week with one win, four losses, and one draw. In fact, they finished the Golden Week nine-game stretch with a league worst 1-6-2 record. They only scored five runs in their six games last week, and they were shut out three times. They’re still in third place though, 4.5 games behind Tokyo and just a half game ahead of the surging Yomiuri Giants.

The scoreless draw against Yomiuri at Tokyo Dome on April 30th was the first time in 69 years (link in Japanese) that such a result has happened between those two clubs.

Looking for some depth at catcher due to injuries to Johjima and Fujii, Hanshin traded pitcher Ryuji Wakatake to Hokkaido for backup catcher, Kenta Imanari. 24-year-old Imanari appeared in 22 games for the Fighters last year and hit .115 with three hits.

Yomiuri finished the week with four wins and two losses. They took 2-3 from the visiting Hiroshima Carp at Tokyo Dome and then did the same against Hanshin when they played there this past weekend. Yomiuri finished the GW stretch with a Japan-best .750 winning percentage which is terrible news for those who value what is just and right in the world. Yomiuri still has a losing record, but they’re just a half game behind the faltering Hanshin Tigers.

Yomiuri is apparently going to be welcoming 33-year-old Edgar Gonzalez back into the fold. You may recall that Gonzalez played for the Giants back in 2010. He had 327 plate appearances in 100 games for Yomiuri that year, hitting .263/.342/.457 with 76 hits (12 HR) and 44 RBI. Last year he hit .315/.378/.457 with 159 hits (30 2B, 14 HR) and 82 RBI in 137 games for AAA Fresno (San Francisco Giants).

Hiroshima finished the week with two wins and four losses. They dropped all three of their GW series, and critically four of their six games with the first place Tokyo Swallows. They are now in fifth place in the Central League, one game behind Yomiuri and just two games ahead of the improving Yokohama Baystars.

Yokohama finished the week with three wins, one loss, and one draw. The biggest thrill for them was undoubtedly winning their weekend series against the defending Central League champs, Chunichi. They outscored the Dragons 19-6 in those three games, and it should be fun to see if they can keep this momentum going into the Interleague block of the season which begins on the 16th. Yokohama are still in last place, but they’re finally showing some signs of life. If Yoshimura, Ramirez, Nakamura, and Tsutsugoh all get on track at the same time, then they should be able to produce quite a few runs.

Yokohama apparently has some kind of ticketing scheme worked out whereby fans can get a refund if they were unhappy with the game that they watched. According to reports, there have been some long lines at the ticket windows following several of the games.

The Week Ahead

Tokyo has a slightly abbreviated schedule this week, the last before Interleague games begin on May 16 with a two game home series against 2011 Japan Series Champs, Fukuoka.

This week also features quite a bit of running around for the team. The first series is against the Dragons May 8th-10th, and even though it’s an ‘away’ series for the birds, only one of those games will be played at Nagoya Dome. Game 1 is in Toyohashi, game 2 is to be played in Gifu, and the final game will see the teams play a game in the cavernous dome that Chunichi calls home.

Friday the 11th is a travel day as the birds head north to Akita for a two-game “home” series against Yomiuri.

Games on the 8th-10th and 12th start at 6PM. The game on the 13th is scheduled to begin at 3PM. Check the calendar at the bottom of this site’s homepage if you need more detail.

Former Swallows

Seth Greisinger continues to be unhittable for the Chiba Marines. He leads the Pacific League in ERA (0.31), winning percentage (perfect), opposing team’s batting average (.165), and K/9 (8.59).

Norichika Aoki only has 34 at-bats in the 22 games that he’s appeared in (usually as a pinch hitter), and his slash line is currently: .235/.316/.353. It will be fun to see what he can do if/when he gets to start regularly for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Alex Ramirez continues to struggle at the plate in his new home of Yokohama (.198/.217/.284). He finally hit his first homer of the season on Friday when Chunichi came to town.

Standing ovation for Tokyo's legendary third baseman.

Alright, that’s all for this week. Please excuse me because I have fallen woefully behind on my meat consumption.

Drink up.

Tokyo Swallows 1

Yokohama BayStars  3

Streak: Lost 1    Last 5: WLWWL

(Yokohama Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Swallows	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	6	0
BayStars	0	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	8	0
W: Takasaki (1-2) L: Muranaka (3-1) S: Yamaguchi (3)

Muranaka made his second straight start in the rain, but unlike the last outing, the Swallows’ offense wasn’t able to bail him out.

	Swallows		BayStars
1	Tanaka (2B)	1	Aranami (CF)
2	Ueda (CF)	2	Watanabe (SS)
3	Milledge (LF)	3	Tsutsugo (3B)
4	Balentien (RF)	4	Ramirez (LF)
5	Kawabata (SS)	5	Nakamura (1B)
6	Miyamoto (3B)	6	Yoshimura (RF)
7	Hatakeyama (3B)	7	Ishikawa (2B)
8	Nakamura (C)	8	Kurobane (C)
9	Muranaka (P)	9	Takasaki (P)

The Swallows went with their usual lineup, including Miyamoto in the 6 spot. The BayStars, on the other hand, finally got to start Tsutsugo and Nakahata retooled his lineup accordingly.

Tanaka started the rainy afternoon game with a double off Takasaki, and it was the last time a Swallows managed an extra base hit off a Yokohama pitcher. Ueda, Milledge, and Balentien weren’t able to cash in on Tanaka’s double, and that foreshadowed the things that were to come.

As has been the norm recently, Muranaka started off the day very shaky. After giving a lead off single to Aranami, Muranaka walked Watanabe to put 2 men on with no outs. Muranaka did manage to get Tsutsugo and Ramirez out, but walked Nakamura to load the bases before getting Yoshimura to fly out to right to end the first. Muranaka needed 25 pitches to get through the first and it was pretty clear it wasn’t going to be a long night for the lefty, unless he got things together.

Takasaki pitched an efficient game keeping the ball largely in the infield. Even when the Swallows got a man on base, he kept the Swallows from capitalizing.

The BayStars broke the game open in the third. Watanabe and Tsutsugo lead off the inning with back-to-back singles to put men on the corners. Ramirez flew out to shallow center and couldn’t bring home Watanabe. Nakamura followed with a double to right which easily scored Watanabe but Tsutsugo was gunned down at home. 1-0 BayStars With 2 out with a man on third, Nakamura having advanced on the throw to home, Yoshimura hit one off Muranaka’s glove for a infield single that scored Nakamura from third. 2-0 BayStars Muranaka walked Ishikawa but managed to end the inning by inducing a fly out from Kurobane.

Takasaki finally showed some vulnerability in the sixth loading the bases after one out to the single-walk-single combo of Milledge, Balentien and Kawabata. The stage was set for Miyamoto, who was 0-for-2 for the game, to get his 2000th career hit in style and give the Swallows a shot in the arm. Unfortunately, while Miyamoto did get an RBI, it was “just” an easy walk to scoe 1. 2-1 BayStars With the bases still loaded the chance was on the shoulders of Hatake who flied out to center. Balentien tried to score on the fly, but Kurobane had the plate solidly blocked and prevented the barreling Curaçaoan from dislodging the ball. So the Swallows only managed to get 1 run off their only chance.

The BayStars got an insurance run in the seventh off Hirai, who came in for mop up duty. Watanabe led off the inning with a double, and Tsutsugo followed with a walk. Morimoto advanced the runners with a grounder, and Watanabe came home off of a sac fly by Nakamura. 3-1 BayStars

Both teams’ bullpens finished the game quickly an efficiently and that was the final score.

Muranaka allowed another 5 walks to his season total, giving him 20 in 6 starts. Along with his walks, Muranaka gave up 7 hits in his 6 innings of work, while only getting 3 strikeouts.

Miyamoto ended up striking out in his last at bat in the ninth inning, setting the stage for his career milestone at Jingu during the team’s 3 game series against Hiroshima. The Swallows will kick off the series with Akagawa, while the Carp will counter with Fukui.

MIyamoto couldn't get hit #2000 in the rain.

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 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

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).

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.

Yomiuri Giants 1

Tokyo Swallows 2

Streak: Won 1  Last 5: WLWLW

(Jingu Stadium)

Tokyo entered this series having just lost an away series at Koshien, and were looking to get things back on track against the very unbalanced fifth-placed Yomiuri Giants.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Yomiuri	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	1
Tokyo	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	X	2	9	0
W: Muranaka (2-0, 1.93 ERA) L: Utsumi (1-3, 2.43) S: Barnette (1-0, 6 Saves, 0.00)

This game didn’t start well at all for Muranaka and the birds. Yomiuri lead-off twerp, Sakamoto, drove a 2-1 heater to center to start Tokyo’s wobbly first inning. He was bunted over to second and then walked to third when Muranaka walked both Chono and Abe on a total of ten pitches to bring Murata to the plate with one out.

RBI single to center. Bases still juiced. Ogasawara at the plate.

After a couple of fouls and three more pitches outside the zone, old-man Ogasawara hit a looping liner just to the right of second base that the sprawling Tanaka was able to snare about a foot off the ground and then roll over on top of second base to double up Abe.

Heart attack averted.

Tokyo 0-1 Yomiuri

	Yomiuri		Tokyo
1	Sakamoto (SS)	1	Tanaka (2B)
2	Tani (RF)	2	Ueda (CF)
3	Chono (CF)	3	Milledge (LF)
4	Abe (C)	4	Balentien (RF)
5	Murata (3B)	5	Kawabata (SS)
6	Ogasawara (1B)	6	Miyamoto (3B)
7	Kajimae (LF)	7	Hatakeyama (1B)
8	Terauchi (2B)	8	Nakamura (C)
9	Utsumi (P)	9	Muranaka (P)

The birds went down in order in the top of the first, but Muranaka got through the top of the second on only six pitches (one hit, runner stranded on second). And his teammates leveled the score in the bottom of that frame.

Balentien, batting cleanup for the first time this season, dug a 1-2 fork out of the dirt and plunked it in center field to get things going. Kawabata lit a red lamp with his botched bunt attempt, but luckily Balentien was still safe on first base.

Miyamoto, working with a 3-1 count, took advantage of one of one of Utsumi’s more pedestrian fastball’s of the evening (only 137 kph/85 mph) and whacked a single to right. Balentien got on his horse and forced a throw from Tani to third, but an error on the play allowed Miyamoto to take second in the process. One out, runners on second and third.

And up came Hatakeyama, starting his first game in a long time outside of the cleanup slot. Second pitch, bang. Single to right.

With two more hits today, Miyamoto's just 10 away from the milestone.

Tokyo 1-1 Yomiuri

Fludge got thrown out trying to take second like Miyamoto had on the previous play which put a damper on the festivities, but it wouldn’t be the last of Tokyo’s running blunders tonight.

The next one wan’t actually a player error, but a coaching error. After Balentien put the Swallows ahead for good with a one out bomb to right in the bottom of the fourth, Miyamoto got things restarted with a two out single to left. A walk by Hatakeyama once again had the Swallows liking their beaks, but Tokyo’s third base coach, Shiroishi, absent-mindedly waved Miyamoto home on Nakamura’s shallow liner to right. Tani threw Miyamoto out at home by a mile and a half.

Tokyo 2-1 Yomiuri

Muranaka allowed four more batters to reach base over the next three innings, but no more runs scored. Milledge was guilty of committing Tokyo’s final base-running blunder when he blasted a full count changeup off the wall in left center but then got caught in a run-down on his way to third base. He was credited with a double (might have been a homer if the wind hadn’t been blowing in from the outfield), but like Hatakeyama a few innings prior, he got a bit greedy on that one.

It didn’t matter though because Barnette came in for the top of the ninth and struck out all three batter he faced (Ogasawara, Bowker (PH), and Takahashi (PH)). He topped out at 150 kph (93 mph) while recording his sixth save of the season. That’s good enough for a tie with Hanshin’s Fujikawa for second in the Central League.

Muranaka got the win thanks to eight innings of 114-pitch work. He gave up six hits, struck out five, and walked four while surrendering one earned run. His record improved to 2-0 while his ERA sank to 1.93.

Milledge, Balentien, Miyamoto, and Hatakeyama all had two-hit evenings at the plate for your Tokyo Swallows. Balentien’s 2-3 performance with an RBI (HR number three) and a walk helped him earn game hero honors alongside Muranaka.

Notes:

• Balentien’s line of .333/.468/.542 is tops in the Central League. So far this season he’s swinging at fewer outside pitches and working with the pitches he’s seeing. He’s not blasting every pitch he’s seeing like he did early last season, but he’s getting on base plenty and has crossed home plate a team high seven times. He also leads the team in RBI (8), walks (13), and Ks (11).
• Tanaka’s diving play to rob Ogasawara of an RBI or two in the first was huge. HUGE.
• After two hits today, Miyamoto is just 10 shy of the Meikyukai milestone of 2,000 career hits.
• The official butts-in-seats tally was a paltry 16,352. Should be quite a bit more tomorrow though since the weather forecast is a bit less gloomy.
• The game was over in just two hours and 47 minutes.
• Tsubakurou now has his own song.
• Hatakeyama’s demotion to seventh in the lineup appears to have awoken him a bit. He was 2-2 with a walk and an RBI.
• Muranaka took a few more good swings during his three trips to the plate today. He put the ball in play twice, but didn’t get on base as he did twice in his last start. His batting average is currently .200. Not bad for a starting pitcher.

Game two of the series is tomorrow at Jingu, and the first pitch is scheduled for 6PM. The weather is projected to be clear with temperatures in the low teens (Celsius). See you there.