August 27th, 2010 Hanshin Tigers 0 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: WWLLW (Meiji Jingu Stadium) What balm can soothe the sting of a loss to the BayStars? Turning around the next night to spank the Tigers. The Spankers: Aoki Tanaka Iihara Whitesell Hatakeyama Aikawa Takeuchi Fujimoto Tateyama The Spankees: Murton [...]
How We Got There The Swallows came into June fresh off the Takada firing, and were only 4 games into the Ogawa regime. The Birds were looking to build on the 1-2-1 record they had compiled under Ogawa, by exacting revenge on the Pacific League teams that had swept them in May. How We Did [...]
June 23rd, 2010 Yomiuri Giants 3 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: LLWLW (Meiji Jingu Stadium) Tokyo fell behind early but battled back to take a slender lead, with the bullpen putting in a lights-out shift to bring home the much needed victory. Aoki (CF) Fukuchi (LF) Tanaka (2B) D’Antona (1B) [...]
June 15th, 2010 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 [...]
June 9th, 2010 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 1 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: WLWLW (Sapporo Dome) Tokyo won the first of their four meetings in a week with their PL 6th-placed equivalents as they continued their affinity to alternate their wins and losses. Tokyo’s starting lineup was notable for Guiel being switched to [...]
June 1st, 2010 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1 Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 6 Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: DWLWL (Yahoo Dome) With the DH rule in effect, you’d be forgiven for believing that the sacrifice bunt would be a bit scarcer than normal. But then you’d have revealed yourself as being a supporter of a baseball [...]
Monthly Roundup is a new series in which I hope to look back on a month of Swallows baseball and make various observations and comments. How We Got There: The Swallows came into the month of May on a 5 game losing streak, with an overall record of 11-17-1. Things weren’t looking good, but we [...]
May 18th, 2010 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 0 Saitama Seibu Lions 1 Streak: Lost 5 Last 5: LLLLL (Omiya) This one turned into a pitching duel of sorts. Kishi vs. Tateyama. Kishi has been throwing well of late, but Tateyama has had a couple of stinkers leading up to this appearance. Kishi was very solid, [...]
April 30th, 2010 Yokohama BayStars 7 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6 Streak: Lost 5 Last 5: LLLLL (Meiji Jingu Stadium) OK. Right. That sucked. Hard. Tokyo went up five-nil in the first, but they couldn’t notch a ‘W’ today. Holy crap. The lineup: 1. Tanaka 2B 2. Miyamoto 3B 3. Aoki CF 4. Guiel RF [...]
April 20th, 2010 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2 Chunichi Dragons 3 Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: LWLWL (Nagoya Dome) Tokyo continued their inability to string together more than one win as Chunichi edged a tight game in Nagoya, with a calamitous 5th inning screw up from Hiroyasu Tanaka ultimately proving the difference between the teams. Tonight’s lineup: Miwa [...]
