An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
May 16th, 2010 Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 6 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Streak: Lost 4 Last 5: WLLLL (Meiji Jingu Stadium) This was never going to be easy. With Sugiuchi pitching for SoftBank, Tokyo was going to have to earn this one. But even though they lost again, the birds showed a little more fight [...]
May 15th, 2010 Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 2 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 0 Streak: Lost 3 Last 5: LWLLL (Meiji Jingu Stadium) The offensive impotence continues. Starting lineup: 1. Tanaka 2B 2. Miyamoto SS 3. Aoki CF 4. D’Antona 1B 5. Guiel RF 6. Iihara LF 7. Yoshimoto 3B 8. Aikawa C 9. Nakazawa P Yoshimoto, [...]
May 1st, 2010 Yokohama BayStars 3 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: LLLLW (Meiji Jingu Stadium) Bizarre game. Just plain weird. This was one of those games where Takada made a whole bunch of stupid decisions but things kept working in the team’s favor and he ended up looking like he [...]
September 30th, 2009 Hanshin Tigers 7 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1 Streak: Lost 2 Last 5: WWWLL (Jingu Stadium) The birds outhit the Tigers 12-10 but still got annihilated. Yuki pitched six rather solid innings but got roughed up a little in the seventh. Takada factored a bit in this one as well.
September 16th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 7 Yokohama BayStars 3 Streak: Won 2 Last 5: LLLWW (Yokohama Stadium) The Swallows won two games in a row for the first time since July 31st and August 1st when the team was playing the Dragons at home. Coincidentally, that was also the last time that the birds [...]
September 2nd, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4 Hanshin Tigers 9 Streak: Lost 6 Last 5: LLLLL (Koshien) Luckily for the surging Tigers, Takada plugged Masubuchi into the lineup for his first start of the year. One could probably argue that this was not the wisest time to do such a thing, but we’ll get [...]
September 1st, 2009 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 [...]
August 28th, 2009 Chunichi Dragons 7 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Streak: Lost 3 Last 5: LWLLL (Jingu Stadium) I’m beginning to suspect that the team is losing on purpose in order to make Takada look bad in the (foolish) hope that he won’t be asked to stick around next season. And just to get [...]
August 27th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6 Hiroshima Toyo Carp 7 Streak: Lost 2 Last : LLWLL (Mazda Stadium) Oh dear. Things are not going well at the moment. At. all. Just like the Carp did the night before, Tokyo found themselves with a 6-0 lead at the end of their 2nd inning [...]
August 26th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1 Hiroshima Toyo Carp 11 Streak: Lost 1 Last : WLLWL (Mazda Stadium) After a brief respite yesterday with a solid Tateyama start and timely hitting earning a comfortable enough win for the Swallows, normal August service was resumed this evening as Tokyo stunk up Hiroshima’s shiny [...]
