Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2

Chunichi Dragons 7

Streak: Lost 8    Last 5: LLLLL

(Nagoya Dome)

The Swallows long slide to fifth place continues. Hanshin’s win over Yokohama means that Dave was right, and the birds now find themselves in fourth place at the end of the weekend.Tokyo’s starting lineup:

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

To give you an idea of how rough the pitching has gotten, and part of the reason why the birds can’t win a game, recall back to June and July when the team ERA was in the 3.40-3.60 range. Now it’s above 4.00, and Tokyo’s pitching ranks ahead of only Yokohama who has been in last place all season.

Tateyama started this one for the Swallows and didn’t have one of his better outings. He gave up six runs (four earned) off of eight hits (one home run). He also posted five strikeouts against one walk and saw his ERA climb to 3.54 while the loss set his record at 14-5.

The home team jumped all over Tateyama early with a two out rally in the first. Morino’s walk set things in motion and culminated with veteran Inoue’s bases clearing triple. 3-0 Chunichi.

Aikawa’s single in the top of the second brought Miyamoto around to score to make it 3-1.

But Chunichi had another three hits in the fifth which brought home a pair of runs. 5-1 Dragons.

Guiel responded in the top of the sixth with a solo home run (his 23rd). 5-2 Dragons.

But that would be all from the Tokyo offense as Yamai kept runs off the board during the final three innings of the game.

And the Dragons scored one each in the sixth and seventh innings to ease to a 7-2 final score.

Kida pitched the seventh and gave up two hits (one earned run) to run his ERA back up to 5.55.

Okamoto, in his first appearance of the year, threw a perfect eighth inning on 10 pitches.

Kawashima, Miyamoto, and Aikawa had two hits each, but not nearly enough was done offensively to ever give Tokyo a shot at winning this game.

The birds travel to Yokohama to take on a team that they have not been able to handle this season. Game one of the series is at 6 PM Tuesday evening.

The fifth place Hiroshima Carp are only one game behind the Swallows. With the way that the Swallows’ pitching is working, it won’t be very surprising to see the birds in fifth by Sunday.

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1

Hanshin Tigers 6

Streak: Lost 5    Last 5:  LLLLL

(Koshien)

The Tokyo Swallows kicked off an absolutely enormous week in defense of their ever-weakening hold on third place (and a playoff spot) by traveling down to Hanshin territory for a series versus the resurgent Tigers.

Refreshingly, the lineup finally looked like it did before the slump began in earnest (just a little while before D’Antona and Miyamoto went down with injuries).

Yes, that’s right. D’Antona was back in the lineup tonight for the first time since a little over two weeks ago. The original prognosis was that he would be out for three weeks, but he appears to have rehabbed at an impressive pace.

Tokyo’s starting lineup:

1. Fukuchi (LF)
2. Tanaka (2B)
3. Aoki (CF)
4. D’Antona (1B)
5. Guiel (RF)
6. Miyamoto (3B)
7. Kawashima (SS)
8. Aikawa (C)
9. Tateyama (P)

Toritani put the home team on the board in the first on  a two-out homer to right-center. 1-0 Hanshin.

The Swallows got a little something going after Guiel’s leadoff pop fly to left. With one out, Miyamoto, Kawashima, and Aikawa had back-to-back-to-back singles to load the bases.

But then, with Tateyama at the plate, Takada called for the squeeze on the first pitch. The ball bounced just in front of the plate which made it easy for Yano to glove it, step on home plate, and throw to first for the double play. A true tak bunt if there ever was one. Oops.

The bottom of the second inning started with a bit of slapstick humor. Arai fouled the first pitch he saw off of the home plate ump’s left knee. After a three minute break where it looked like the ump might start crying, he fouled the second Tateyama offering off the inside of his left thigh. He toughed it out, however, and eventually smacked a 2-2 pitch into left field.

However, D’Antona managed to turn the second unassisted double-play of the inning when Brazell lined the first pitch he saw right at him and he was easily able to double up Arai at first. Sakurai then lofted a pitch to the warning track in center for out number three.

The strike zone got a lot bigger after that as it looked like the umpire wanted to go home early. Both pitchers benefited for a little while, but then in the fourth Tateyama left a pitch over the plate that Aikawa had called for way outside. Kanemoto took advantage of it, and the result was a two-run homer that took the score to 3-0 Hanshin.

Following that, Arai singled and Brazell walked to put runners on first and second with one out. Sakurai ended up grounding one toward first that D’Antona did a good job of catching, but the throw to first wasn’t in time to get the double play. With two out, there were runners on first and third, and Tateyama’s control just got worse and worse.

Yano managed to come through with an rbi single to center that scored Arai from third to make it 4-0 Hanshin.

Hanshin starter, Ando, mercifully struck out to stop the bleeding.

With two outs in the top of the fifth, Tateyama and Fukuchi reached on consecutive singles. That came as a bit of a surprise to Ando. But he buckled down again and eventually got Tanaka to ground out to second to end the inning.

With Ando already on 86 pitches through five innings, Aoki led off the sixth with a stand-up double off the wall in right. D’Antona followed that with a first pitch bloop single to shallow right to move Aoki over to third with no outs. Guiel ended up grounding into a double play, but Aoki scored from third in the meantime to finally get a run on the board. 4-1 Hanshin.

Hey, we’ll take it. The last time Aoki, D’Antona, and Guiel came to the plate, all three of them struck out. At least they were able to generate a run this time around.

Incidentally, Yano’s pitch calling against Guiel in this game was very good. He just kept feeding Guiel a steady diet of inside pitches which the Tokyo outfielder pulled into foul territory every time. Yano then called for low outside pitches later in the at-bat, and Guiel popped up and grounded out once (and watched another pitch for a called third strike).

When Tateyama next took the mound, he had already thrown 83 pitches. He really needed to get out of this inning quickly in order to have a chance at pitching the seventh inning. But it wasn’t meant to be.

Kanemoto led off with a single before Arai hit a harrassing fly ball to center that ricocheted off of Aoki’s outstretched glove. Kanemoto chugged around from first to make it 5-1 Hanshin.

With Arai on second and one out, Katsuragi moved him over to third on a grounder to second for out number two. Arai later scored on pinch-hitter, Hiyama’s, single to center. 6-1 Hanshin.

In six innings of work, Tateyama threw 103 pitches, gave up six earned runs off of nine hits (two of which were home runs), struck out two, and walked a pair as well. Not to take anything away from the Hanshin hitters, because they definitely had a good game (Toritani is seeing everything in slow-motion at the moment), but this was definitely not one of Tateyama’s better starts. His record moved to 14-4 while his ERA fattened a bit to 3.44.

Recently recalled Hagiwara (4.81) pitched a scoreless seventh.

Mayumi showed his true colors in the eighth by bringing Egusa in to pitch with a five run lead (a true waste of an outing with the way that the birds are playing right now). Aoki grounded out harmlessly for out number one, and Hatakeyama fouled off three straight pitches before finally drawing a walk. Guiel followed that with a four pitch walk of Guiel. Huh.

Miyamoto came to the plate with runners on first and second and one out. After it looked like he might have things going his way, he guessed wrong and struck out swinging. And then something really strange happened. After looking like he was getting owned by Egusa, Kawashima drew a walk which loaded the bases with two outs.

And after that third walk, that was it for Egusa. Nice one, Mayumi. [I bet his middle name is Takada.]

So then another one of Hanshin’s very capable middle-relievers, Atchison, had to be called in to clean up a mess that wasn’t necessary in the first place.

Lucky for him, he was facing Aikawa. In a matter of 10 seconds, Atchison was well ahead in the count, and then Aikawa struck out looking (on a pitch that was a fair bit outside, but hey) to end the threat.

Takagi (1.29) came in to pitch the bottom of the eighth, and he looked reasonably sharp. He gave up Arai’s fourth hit of the evening (what did he have for breakfast?) to lead things off, but he sat everyone else down in order.

Abe then took the mound in his 19th appearance for Hanshin and walked both batters he faced, Iihara (pinch hitting for Takagi) and Fukuchi. That caused Mayumi to come out and make the unnecessary switch to Fujikawa. Men on first and second, and nobody out.

And Fujikawa came in and did his thing. He struck out Tanaka, Aoki, and Hatakeyama to close out the game and secure a very easy contest for the Hanshin Tigers.

Final score: 6-1 Hanshin.

And, once again, we must acknowledge a large part of the problem:

Takada Count: 10

Keep in mind that this number should be about twice as high as it is right now, but I was way too nice earlier on because the team was winning during the first half of the season. Funny how that happens. Now it appears that the Tigers are playing well in spite of their manager much like we did during the first half of the season.

Bright spots:

Veterans Fukuchi and Miyamoto had two hits each, and Kawashima also reached base twice. Fukuchi actually reached base three time when counting that walk in the ninth.

Takagi looked OK pitching the eighth. With all the injuries on the team this season, it’s nice to see one guy could come up from the farm and show enough potential to stick around a while. I’ve  probably just jinxed the kid, but he’s got solid mechanics and at least three good pitches that I saw.

Other than that, this game wasn’t a whole lot of fun to watch.

Hanshin Tigers 2

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4

Streak: Won 1     Last 5:  LLWLW

(Jingu Stadium)

After regaining his spot in the first team rotation, Tateyama pitched a decent seven innings and helped Tokyo take a game from the visiting Hanshin Tigers.

Tokyo’s lineup:

1. Kawashima (SS)
2. Fukuchi (LF)
3. Aoki (CF)
4. Hatakeyama (3B)
5. Iihara (RF)
6. Noguchi (1B)
7. Tanaka (2B)
8. Aikawa (C)
9. Tateyama (P)

Tateyama was not dominating, but as usual he showed an ability to get guys to make mistakes at the plate when he was in a jam. He allowed 10 baserunners in his seven inning, including nine hits and a single walk, but he frequently got guys to ground out to escape from the inning. The two earned runs caused his ERA to budge slightly to 3.37, and the resulting win improved his record to 13-3.

His run support started right in the first inning when consecutive singles by Fukuchi, Aoki, and Hatakeyama loaded the bases for Iihara with one out. Iihara then ended up taking one for the team, but the plunking ended up earning him an rbi as Fukuchi trotted in from third on the play. 1-0 Tokyo.

The Tigers came back in the top of the second with some singles of their own and put a run on the board, but a one-out sac bunt helped limit the damage. 1-1.

Hanshin then added a run in the fourth when Kanou (C) brought the runner home with a one-out double to left. 2-1 Hanshin.

With a retooled middle third of the lineup, accompanied by other issues, the birds weren’t able to get anything going after that until the bottom of the seventh when Tateyama had just thrown his last pitch.

Noguchi led off with a single to center before Tanaka was asked to resume his bunting duties. However, a whole lot of fielding craziness ensued, and an error left Tanaka on base and gave Aikawa a chance to bunt as well. Somehow the second sac bunt fooled the Tigers defense as well, because Aikawa reached base and the bases were loaded with no outs.

In a repeat of the first inning, Iwata beaned the next batter, Kawashima in this case, and Noguchi loped in from third for the leveling run. 2-2.

With the bases still juiced, one out, and Fukuchi at the plate, Tokyo’s left fielder was able to put a sac fly deep enough into right field for Tanaka to score from third. Aikawa also moved over to the corner on the play. 3-2 Tokyo.

And just to add insult to injury, Hanshin starter Iwata threw a wild pitch to allow the third run of the inning to make it home from third. 4-2 Swallows.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win, and the lads in the dugout were as happy as ever.

Igarashi (2.53) pitched the eighth inning for Tokyo, and after letting three runners reach base care of a pair of hits and a beaning he got utility man, Katsuragi, to ground into a double play.

Lim (0.58) then took the mound to try and get the save. He allowed his obligatory baserunner with a two-out beaning of Akahoshi, which means that Hanshin outbeaned us 3-2 in this game, but got Hirano to pop up to right field to end the game. The save was Lim’s 25th of the season.

Game three of the series is tomorrow night at 6pm at Jingu stadium. Tokyo will likely put Yuuki on the mound for that game, so the key is going to be run support.

In exchange, Kyouhei Muranaka has been sent down after several lackluster starts on the first team. In five starts, Muranaka was 0-4 with an 8.06 ERA.

The following are the 28 players currently listed on the first team roster (as of August 18th, 2009):

Pitchers: Yoshinori, Lim, Tateyama, Ishikawa, Matsuoka, Yuuki, Hagiwara, Matsui, Takagi, Ichiba, Lee, Igarashi, Oshimoto

Catchers: Aikawa, Yoneno, Kawamoto

Infielders: Kawashima, Kajimoto, Yoshimoto, Tanaka, Hatakeyama, Kawabata, Noguchi

Outfielders: Fukuchi, Guiel, Takeuchi, Iihara, Aoki

Takada instead chose to promote a different second year guy, 26-year-old outfielder, Toshihiro Nakao (no. 56). He apparently has been one of the best hitters this season in the Eastern League.

He replaces rotation ace, Tateyama, who had a rough outing last night, who will spend a little time on the farm team “readjusting” (whatever that means).

Here’s what the roster looks like as of August 8th, 2009:

Pitchers: Yoshinori, Lim, Muranaka, Ishikawa, Matsuoka, Yuuki, Hagiwara, Kida, Ichiba, Lee, Igarashi, Oshimoto

Catchers: Aikawa, Yoneno, Kawamoto

Infielders: Kawshima, D’Antona, Miyamoto, Tanaka, Hatakeyama, Kawabata, Noguchi

Outfielders: Fukuchi, Guiel, Takeuchi, Iihara, Aoki, Nakao

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 7

Yomiuri Giants 10

Streak: Lost 3   Last 5: LWLLL

(Tokyo Dome)

The birds fought back pretty hard, but boy oh boy this was a rough one.

Tokyo’s lineup:

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

The whole bunting-in-the-first-inning thing has worked reasonably well so far this season, but the run scored early on didn’t make a whole lot of difference. Thank you, Iihara, for the run-scoring base hit. 1-0 Swallows.

But Yomiuri would come back with four runs in the bottom of the first to mark the beginning of a phenomenally ugly outing for Tateyama which included five hits in that inning–easily his most painful start of the last year. 4-1 Yomiuri.

Tokyo got one back in the sixth on an Iihara solo home run (his third round tripper and second hit of the game), but Yomiuri had a big half just a little later.

To set the tone, Abe led off with a solo home, his 14th, just to set the tone. Then, with two men on, Sakamoto hit his 13th of the season into the stands in left. Two home runs in the same inning. 6-2 Yomiuri.

Then Kida came on to replace Tateyama. It didn’t work out very well.

Matsumoto found his way on base with a single before Ogasawara hit the inning’s third home run, this one his 14th, to make it 10-2 orange twerps.

The Swallows would come back with a bit of a surprising burst in the eighth inning when Micheal Nakamura (yes, his first name is spelled correctly) let Iihara (his third hit of the game) and D’Antona reach base with consecutive singles before he was able to record the second out. Fukata came in to give up a bases-loading walk (to pinch-hitter, Hatakeyama) before another pinch-hitter, the free-swinging Kawamoto, boomed one into the left field bleachers. Surprise grand slam.  10-6 home team.

And the birds were able to squeeze one more out of the game in the ninth when Aoki’s single was cashed in on Noguchi’s (welcome back!) rbi hit. 10-7.

But that was as close as Tokyo was able to get.

The best night on offense was definitely performed by Iihara who had two rbi’s off of his 3-5 game.

The only other player with a multi-hit game was D’Antona who went 2-4.

Tateyama (3.41) ended up with his third loss of the season while giving up eight earned runs off of 10 hits. He had six K’s, one walk, and a single HBP, but it took him 104 pitches to get through five and one-third innings.

Kida (5.74) finished up the sixth while Hagiwara (4.26) and Oshimoto (2.91) pitched the last two innings without conceding any more runs.

Ugh. That wasn’t fun.

The saga continues tomorrow night when game two of the series kicks off at Tokyo Dome. 6pm. Can’t wait.

Chunichi Dragons 2

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3

Streak: Won 1    Last 5: WWLLW

(Jingu Stadium)

Tateyama tallied his second win of the month at home versus the Dragons, and the birds snapped a two-game losing streak thanks to some good fielding and clutch hitting.

Tonight’s starting lineup:

1. Aoki (LF)
2. Tanaka (2B)
3. Fukuchi (CF)
4. D’Antona (1B)
5. Guiel (RF)
6. Hatakeyama (3B)
7. Aikawa (C)
8. Kawashima (SS)
9. Tateyama (P)

Yes, you read that correctly. Aoki was in left for the first time this season (since the WBC, at least), and Fukuchi moved over to center. Replacing the veteran, Miyamoto, at third was plus-sized utility man, Hatakeyama.

Tateyama (12-2, 2.96) kept the Chunichi bats quiet for the first six innings of the game. Not only that, but he took Tony Blanco out of the game with a well-placed bean-ball in the fourth inning.

Meanwhile, the home side was able to squeak three runs up on the board. The first run came when D’Antona singled to bring Aoki home from third. The second and third runs came with two out in the sixth. Tanaka and Guiel reached base on a single and a walk, respectively, and they moved over to second and third on a pair of wild pitches by Chunichi starter, Yoshimi. Hatakeyama, 0-2 at that point in the game, came up and lined one hard into left-center. Both Tanaka and Guiel scored to make it 3-0 Tokyo.

But things would get a bit hairy in the top of the seventh with Tateyama still on the mound. The first and second batters of the inning, Wada and Fujii, singled to put two men on with no outs. They both reached home on Tanishige (single) and Tatsunami (superb diving play by Tanaka to record the groundout) connections to make it 3-2 Tokyo.

And Tateyama would return for the eighth as well. He ended his evening, and secured a spot on the hero interview platform, by retiring all three batters he faced.

The top of the ninth was interesting.

Lim came on to protect the one run lead, and he promptly got Wada to ground out to second. But Fujii made it to first on a little bit of an Aikawa fumble that was ruled a hit. Fujii then proceeded to attempt a steal of second base which looked, from Keizo Kawashima’s vantage point at least (he was the guy applying the tag at second, after all), like he was clearly out. Honda, the second base umpire, disagreed, and Kawashima very clearly voiced his despleasure (as did just about everyone in the right half of the stadium).

The uncharacteristic outburst from our shortstop triggered an equally uncharacteristic reaction from our stoic manager, Shigeru Takada. He left the dugout for the first time this season.

Aoki can get plunked nine times in four games and Takada won’t move. But if a fellow Nippon Hammy (ie. Keizo) is pissed off about something, then by golly it’s time to get out there and set things straight!

All the arguing chatting went for naught, of course, and the runner remained on second base. Then, with things looking a little hairy for Tokyo, Tanaka made his second huge save in as many innings to further pinch the Chunichi offense. With two out and Fujii on second, Lim struck Tanishige out to end the game, earn his 23rd save of the season, and safeguard Tateyama’s 12th win.

Tateyama gave up two earned runs off of six hits, five strikeouts, one walk, and a single beaning. He threw 111 pitches in his eight innings of work.

Jamie D’Antona was the most consistent performer on offense for the birds. He went 3-4 with one rbi. The only other bird to reach base twice was Aoki with a single and a walk.

With first place Yomiuri’s loss to fifth place Hanshin, Tokyo gained a game on both Chunichi and the orange idiots. Game two of the series is tomorrow night at 6pm.

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5

Hanshin Tigers 0

Streak: Won 3     Last 5:  WLWWW

(Koshien)

After yesterday’s rainout, two thirds of Tsubamegun were in attendance at the tiny, heavily-guarded visitor’s section in Koshien Stadium for an attempt at taking the series from the fifth place Tigers.

In case you’re wondering, this third of Tsubamegun is not at all bitter that he was left in Tokyo. Far from it. He’s actually relieved that he didn’t have to deal with all the crap that his fellow Tokyo fans reported from Kansai.

Tokyo’s starting lineup:

1. Aoki (CF)
2. Tanaka (2B)
3. Fukuchi (LF)
4. D’Antona (1B)
5. Guiel (RF)
6. Miyamoto (3B)
7. Aikawa (C)
8. Kawashima (SS)
9. Tateyama (P)

Tokyo got off to a quick start in this one when Aoki led off with a single and was bunted over to second by Tanaka. With two outs, D’Antona came through with an rbi single to center that set the tone for the early innings. Aoki scored making it 1-0 Tokyo and getting the rare run that can be at least partly attributed to the bunt. However, when you play for one run, the most you usually get is one run. And in tune with that nugget of wisdom, Guiel struck out to end the threat.

Tokyo grabbed two more runs in the top of the third. Things started badly for Hanshin when Tanaka got on base care of an error, and then Fukuchi followed with a base hit to left. With two on, D’Antona again had a clutch hit with a single to center. 2-0 Swallows.

After Guiel got tossed for arguing his second strikeout of the game, Miyamoto then came through with a one out rbi single to left that put the visitors up 3-0. Hanshin starter, Iwata, hit the showers after the end of the fourth.

Tokyo’s fourth run came in the top of the fifth with two outs. Iihara replaced Guiel in the lineup and promptly crushed one over the wall in center to make it 4-0 Tokyo. It was his second home run this season.

Tateyama didn’t exactly keep Hanshin’s runners from reaching base, but he got some good defensive help during the first five innings.

He allowed eight hits and 10 total base runners during that span (for a five-inning RIP of 2.0–yikes!), but he seemed to be able to throw the right pitch when he needed to, and he got Hanshin to ground into three double plays. Tateyama threw only 70 pitches during those first five frames despite all the runners prancing about on base.

Meanwhile, Garrett and Dave were sitting in the bleachers in left fuming because they weren’t allowed to do the wave (apparently it’s banned at Koshien). They claim that they were pissed off about the Guiel ejection, but they were actually seething because they were rendered waveless. Well, that and the matter-of-fact racism displayed by the home fans.

D’Antona struck again in the top of the seventh after Fukuchi had found his way on base with one out. This time D’Antona singled to right (his third rbi single of the game) to make it 5-0 birds.

And that was it in terms of run production. D’Antona and Miyamoto had three hits each. Notably, all three of D’Antona’s hits were rbi singles. Fukuchi also had a multi-hit game with two.

After allowing two runners again in the sixth, Tateyama got through the seventh without allowing a single man on base, the first time he was able to accomplish that feat in this game.

Tateyama went into the bottom of the eigth having thrown 94 pitches and allowed 12 base runners. But the Tigers still had a big ‘ole bagel up there on the board, and with the meat of the Hanshin lineup about to make plate appearances, this appeared to be the make-or-break inning for Shouhei.

An eight-pitch battle versus right-fielder, Katsuragi, ended in a fly ball to center. Kanemoto then kindly flew out to left on only three pitches. Brazell also took a hack at the third pitch he saw which resulted in a routine grounder to Kawashima at short.

Despite all the base runners, Tateyama did a good job of keeping his pitches down in the zone which meant that most of the outs recorded were via groundout. Until the eighth inning, no outs were recorded in the outfield (save for a long foul ball in the seventh); there were 12 groundouts accounting for 15 of the outs recorded up to that point.

In the eighth and ninth innings, Hanshin batters started getting under pitches a little bit more.  Two of the outs in the eighth were fly balls, and another two in the ninth.

In the end, however, it was all Tateyama (11-2, 3.01), all the time. Number 25 threw a 125-pitch, complete game shutout to help lead the Swallows to a series win over the Tigers and their (at times) friendly, but openly-racist fans (Garrett and Dave got bit of it. Brazell got more).

And apparently Hanshin fans enjoy beating each other up just like their Jingu-based yellow and pink-clad brethren.

Garrett reported several Hanshin vs. Hanshin fights in the left field bleachers after the game. Apparently there was some projectile-action directed at the small contingent of heavily-guarded Tokyo fans after Hanshin lost, but I’ll let Watkins and DeOrio elaborate on that point after they (most likely) get stabbed on their way out of the stadium (like English football, the away fans were held in the stadium after the game concluded until most of the home fans had left to prevent the away frans from being attacked).

And now the team has a five-day break as the All-Star game takes place in Sapporo and Hokkaido. The second half of the season kicks off with a six game home stand for the birds. July 28th-30th see Tokyo take on the Hiroshima Carp, and the 31st-2nd will be a three game series versus the second place Chunichi Dragons.

The Tokyo Swallows finished the first half of the season with a 46-33 record (.582 winning percentage) which is good enough for third place in the Central, two games behind the Chunichi Dragons and 4.5 games behind first place Yomiuri.

Yomiuri Giants 7

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 13

Streak: Won 1   Last 5: WLLLW

(Jingu Stadium)

On the first pitch of the game, Sakamoto, that little pre-pubescent twerp, smacked a double off the wall in center. But Tokyo starter, Tateyama, weathered the storm and got out of the inning relatively unscathed.  The real damage would be done in the fifth.

And here’s a funny one–Aoki didn’t start.

Here’s tonight’s starting lineup:

1) Iihara (LF)
2) Tanaka (2B)
3) Fukuchi (CF)
4) D’Antona (1B)
5) Guiel (RF)
6) Miyamoto (3B)
7) Aikawa (C)
8 ) Kawashima (SS)
9) Tateyama (P)

To his credit, Tateyama got the next three batters out–Ogasawara and Ramirez going down by way of strikeout.

And that’s when the Tokyo bats woke up. Following a miserable game yesterday where the offense was asleep, the birds got a bit of a pep-talk when the people from the Guinness Book of World Records showed up to reward the lads for their interleague, world record-setting display versus the Buffs when they strung together 11 hits in a row without an out. If only such a feel-good, pat-myself-on-the-back prelude could start off every game.

Tanaka reached second on a nice drive to left, and then Fukuchi started his day (in the place of Aoki) by hitting a line drive over Ramirez’s motionless body in left. 2-0 Tokyo after one.

Gomiuri got one back in the top of the second, but the glory would be short lived. Tokyo saw Aikawa draw a walk to lead off, and then Kawashima followed with a single to left. Tateyama clumsily bunted into a double play, but Aikawa was brought home from third on a double from Iihara. 3-1 birds after two.

And the hits just kept on coming. Tokyo had five hits in both the third and fourth innings, and that ended up meaning tallies of three and five runs, respectively.

In the third, Fukuchi got things started with a single, and that was followed by a one-out, rbi single to center by Guiel to make it 4-1. Then Miyamoto singled to left, Aikawa brought Guiel around with a single to center, and Kawashima singled past Sakamoto at short to plate Miyamoto and make it 6-1 Tokyo.

In the fourth, Iihara advanced to first on a beaning, then Tanaka singled to right, and both of the youngsters came home on Fukuchi’s third hit in as many at-bats, a triple, to make it 8-1 birds. D’Antona then walked, and Guiel hit his second rbi single to center of the evening. 9-1. A Miyamoto single, Aikawa sac fly, and Tateyama rbi single to right meant that the score had ballooned to 11-1!

But it wouldn’t last. Tateyama, with a 10 run lead, would proceed to self-destruct in the top of the next frame. After getting the first two batters of the inning out, Tateyama surrendered five hits and a walk to the next six batters he faced. One of those hits was a three-run homer by Ogasawara. Tateyama would eventually get out of the inning by striking out Wakiya, but that would be his last inning on the mound.11-5 Swallows.

While getting the win, his tenth, Tateyama gave up five earned runs off of nine hits in five innings. He paired those unenviable numbers with a slightly more respectable eight K’s against three walks. His ERA blipped to 3.28, and his record is now 10-2.

The penguins got one back in the bottom of the fifth when D’Antona singled to bring home Tanaka who had earlier doubled. 12-5 Tokyo.

And Ogasawara would rear his ugly head once again (you looked much better with facial hair, Michihiro. Maybe you and Mr. Damon from New York should form a support group) in the top of the eighth when he connected for his second home run of the night–this time a two run shot off of Igarashi. This made the score 12-7 Tokyo. Why Igarashi was pitching with a seven run cushion, I have no idea.

And just to make sure that Tokyo both started and ended the scoring for the evening, Guiel parked a Nakamura pitch in the right field stands to make it 13-7.

And that was it. Lim came in to pitch the top of the ninth, and he buttoned things up quite nicely. Why he was pitching with a six run cushion, again, I have no idea.

But that was kind of how things went today. No matter how badly things went, and no matter how stupid the decisions that Takada made were, the team just kept on hitting. So it didn’t matter. The birds amassed 20 hits today, and all nine of Tokyo’s starters recorded at least one hit (including the starting pitcher, Tateyama). In fact, all eight of our starting position players reached base at least twice in this contest.

Both Guiel and Tanaka went four for five this evening, and Fukuchi was a double short of hitting for the cycle. Miyamoto also chipped in with three hits of his own. Fukuchi and Guiel led the team in rbi’s with four and three, respectively. Meanwhile, Fukuchi hit his fourth homer of the season, and Guiel hit his 15th.

One final thought about Tanaka–holy crap that kid is good on defense!

In terms of pitching, Hagiwara (ERA: 3.20) and Lee (2.94) combined to finish of the sixth without letting any runs score, and Matsuoka (2.48), Igarashi (1.84) and Lim (0.25) came in for the final three innings.

Tomorrow is a travel day for the birds. They will play the Carp in Hiroshima this Friday-Sunday.

The Swallows are in second place (a few percentage points above the Dragons) six games behind first place Yomiuri. The Giants, by the way, now have a “Magic Number” of 52 games in their quest to clinch the Central League pennant. Tonight was only Tokyo’s third win this season against the orange mob from across town.

That sounds pretty lame, but it’s one better than our record against the sixth-place Baystars.

Tokyo Yakult Swallows  3

Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters  2

Streak: Won 1   Last 5: WWWLW

(Sapporo Dome)

In what was initially thought to be a Darvish-Tateyama faceoff, Swallows fans were a bit relieved to hear that former Tokyo southpaw, Shugo Fujii, would be taking the mound instead.

Not that Fujii (3-2; 4.50) isn’t a decent pitcher. Not at all. But he doesn’t compare very flatteringly against Darvish. Well, then again, the same can be said for the vast majority of pitchers on the planet.

Guess we’ll be seeing him tomorrow then.

Tateyama had himself a decent outing today. If it weren’t for that walk that was soon followed by an Inaba (yes, another guy who used to wear a Tokyo uniform) blast into the bleachers in right, he would have probably stayed in through eight innings. As it turned out, he surrendered two runs off of three hits while striking out three, walking two, and beaning one. His ERA now stands at 1.74, and his record improved to 5-0.

Igarashi (2.08) got a hold point for his work in the eighth, and Lim (0.00) picked up his 14th save of the season after striking out all three batters he faced in the bottom of the ninth.

Here’s what the lineup looked like tonight:

Iihara brought the winning run around from second with this single in the sixth.

1. Keizo Kawashima (SS)
2. Noguchi (LF)
3. Aoki (CF)
4. Hatakeyama (1B)
5. Iihara (RF)
6. Miyamoto (3B)
7. D’Antona (DH)
8. Aikawa (C)
9. Tanaka (2B)

On offense, Kawashima went two for three with  two doubles and got on base a third time by way of a beaning. Unfortunately, Takada had Noguchi bunt after both of Kawashima’s doubles (no outs, man on second in both situations), and wouldn’t you know it, no runs scored either time.

Aoki went one for two with an rbi sac-fly and a walk. Tanaka went two for three.?D’Antona and Guiel were hitless in this game.

All three of Tokyo’s runs came in the sixth inning. With the bases loaded, Aoki’s sac-fly made it 2-1 Hokkaido, and then with the bases loaded for the second time in the inning and two outs, Iihara hit a single to center that scored two. 3-2 Tokyo.

And that’s how the game ended. The Swallows have now won 10 out of the 14 games that they’ve played this month, and it will take serious contributions from several players to overcome Darvish tomorrow evening. Should be a good game.