Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 5

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 13

Streak: Won 2   Last 5: WWLWW

(Meiji Jingu Baseball Stadium)

This was a wild game. Wild like one of those bird-like things in the Avatar movie except that the game today was real and nobody was wearing blue. Not even me. Don’t hate me.

Tohoku:

1. Teppei (RF)
2. Hijirisawa (CF)
3.  Matsui (SS)
4. Yamasaki (1B)
5. Nakamura (LF)
6. Takasu (2B)
7. Kusano (3B)
8. Shima (C)
9. Katayama (P)

Tokyo:

1. Aoki (CF)
2. Tanaka (2B)
3. Whitesell (1B)
4. Hatakeyama (LF)
5. Balentien (RF)
6. Miyamoto (3B)
7. Fujimoto (SS)
8. Kawamoto (C)
9. Akagawa (P)

What did I mean by ‘wild’?  Let me recount the ways.

First of all, Tokyo scored first. And that’s just odd.

Tanaka’s one out single to center was followed by a Whitesell double to left. 1-0 Tokyo.

And Tokyo starter Akagawa lasted only two innings despite giving up zero runs.

Both Akagawa and Masubuchi, the latter of which was widely reported as the likely starter for today’s game, were possibly on short tethers in this contest after some thoroughly unimpressive outings in May. Akagawa made it through the first two innings cleanly but was replaced by Masubuchi in the third, and it looked as if that was the plan from the start.

Masubuchi didn’t exactly impress, but he got the win. That’s mostly due to the fact that Tokyo erupted for 10 runs in the bottom of the fourth.

Yup, you read that right. 10 runs.

Part of the eruption was likely due to the fact that Tohoku manager, Hoshino, insisted that his starter, Katayama, work his way through the inning. 10 earned runs later, and despite it being his 18th appearance of the season, Katayama saw his ERA balloon to 7.32.

It’s a shame that one afternoon and an graying manager’s vindictiveness can combine to reduce a decent pitcher’s salary by 50% in the year ahead.

Pssst. Hoshino is evil. Pass it on.

The fourth went a bit like this:

Whitesell started things off by striking out. No worries though. Hatakeyama reached first by getting beaned.

Balentien then singled to center, and Miyamoto followed with an RBI single to center. 2-0 Tokyo.

Fujimoto then doubled to center which scored two. 4-0 Tokyo.

But it kept going. Kawamoto tripled, and then Aoki, Tanaka and Whitesell singled to make it 7-0 Tokyo.

Hatakeyama’s double and Balentien’s homer to center then made it 11-0 Tokyo.

Tohoku recovered a run each in the fifth and sixth innings, but Whitesell and Kawamoto homered in the seventh and eighth, respectively, to render any notion of a comeback or short game impossible. 13-5 Final.

Tohoku did grab four runs off of a very hittable Masubuchi (6 innings, 105 pitches, 13 hits, 4 Ks, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 4 earned runs, 5.48 ERA), and another off of reliever Onodera (1 inning, 16 pitches, 1 hit, 1 BB, 1 earned run, 5.40 ERA), but it was never nearly enough to keep the Eagles in contention.

The good news is that Tokyo was able to pull off an easy win despite offering three pitchers whose average ERA is 6.03, but the bad news is that Tokyo’s pitching was treacherous.

On offense? No complaints. But the wacky thing is that Tohoku matched the Swallows hitting-wise: 18 hits were recorded by both clubs.

The big difference was that nearly everything went Tokyo’s way in this contest. [It's about ruddy time!]

For example, in the fourth inning with two outs and Aoki prancing around on first, a clever move to strand him between bases plus a bit of absent-minded base-running meant that the inning was surely over a bit prematurely.

But Aoki was somehow able to elude the pickle and sprawl back to first ahead of the tag, and Tokyo then went on to post five more runs.

And yes, Hoshino left Katayama in for the entire inning. Four innings, 92 pitches, 11 earned runs. The entire Japanese media is insistent that’s Hoshino is one of the best managers ever, but…um…wow. What point was he trying to prove?! That his pitcher wasn’t up to the task? To the tune of 10 hits and 10 earned runs?

Wow.

Whitesell went 4-5 with two singles, a double and his sixth homer of the season (3 RBIs).

Miyamoto chipped in with three singles (1 RBI).

Aoki, Tanaka, Hatakeyama and Balentien all reached base twice with the man from Curacao clubbing his 14th homer and gunning two runners down from right field.

Masubuchi got the win even though he gave up four earned runs off of 13 hits in six innings of work. His record is now even at 3-3, but his ERA plumped out to 5.48.

Game two of the series is tomorrow at six o’clock at Jingu Stadium.

The Swallows are back in the lead in the Central League by a game over the second place Chunichi Dragons.

Notes:

The Eagles hit safely in all nine innings.

Three Eagles players had three hits each. Three also recorded two-hit games.

Of the Tokyo starters (not including pitcher Akagawa), only Fujimoto failed to reach base at least twice.

Tokyo homered three times in a single game for the first time since 5/13 when Balentien had three against the Yokohama BayStars.

After hitting only one homer in their first 12 Interleague games (Whitesell vs Orix on 5/25), the Swallows have clubbed five in the last two games.

Whitesell was a triple away from the cycle although as far as total bases go he was only a double off of the milestone. Hatakeyama was a double away from the cycle in last night’s game.

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 3

Streak: Lost 3   Last 5: WWLLL

(Kleenex Stadium Miyagi)

The Swallows looked to bounce back after two close losses to two of Japan’s premiere pitchers by sending their lefty ace Ishikawa, fresh off his 100th career win, onto the mound. Rakuten sent rookie lefty Takahiro Shiomi to face the Swallows.

The game started off with a lot of promise as Tanaka was able to poke a one-out single to left, and Josh quickly doubled to center to put men in scoring position with one out. Flied out to center, but not deep enough to allow Tanaka to tag up from third, for the second out. Balentien worked a 7 pitch walk out of Shiomi to load the bases for Miyamoto. Unfortunately Miyamoto swung at the first pitch he saw and flied out to left for out number 3. The Swallows would not get a hit off Shiomi for the rest of the night.

Ishikawa struggled with his control early in the game walking Hijirisawa on 4 pitches to start the game, and later plunking Yamasaki two batters later. But the veteran was able to get his three outs to keep the Eagles off the board for the first inning. After the Swallows went down 1-2-3 in the top of the second, Ishikawa opened the bottom of the frame by hitting Nakamura. Nakamura was replaced on the basepaths by Shiokawa. Teppei followed with a single up the middle putting men on first and second with no outs. The Eagles played it safe by making Ohiro bunt the runners over into scoring position and getting them out of a double play situation. The move worked out as Nakatani followed the bunt with a ground out to second, allowing Shiokawa to score from second. 1-0 Eagles Ishikawa got out of the inning without further damage by inducing another grounder to second from Hijirisawa.

The top of the third wasn’t particularly exciting for the Swallows, after consecutive ground outs by Aoki and Tanaka, Whitesell drew a two out walk. But all Hatakeyama was able to do was strike out swinging. On the other side of the frame, Ishikawa was able to get two quick outs from Kaz Matsui and Kusano. Veteran slugger Yamasaki came up to the plate and crushed the first pitch he saw over the right field fence to widen the Eagles’ lead. 2-0 Eagles

That was the way the score stayed for a while as both pitchers got in a groove and got of outs from balls put into play. The Swallows did manage to get men on first and second with two outs via an error and walk in the fourth, but couldn’t cash in. Ishikawa pitched 3 perfect innings starting in the fourth, and cleaned up nicely after allowing the lead runner to get on in the seventh. Shiomi countered by pitching 3 perfect frames from the fifth to the seventh.

Things finally got interesting again in the eighth. After Aoki grounded out on six pitches, Tanaka drew a walk on seven pitches to put a man on first with one out. Whitesell then battled Shiomi for nine pitches before finally getting a free pass to second to put men on first and second with one out. The 22 pitches the Swallows made Shiomi throw put his pitch count up to 119 for the night, and the Eagles ended the rookie’s day. In his place the Eagles sent Aoyama to the mound to face Hatakeyama. Despite falling behind 0-2 early Hatakeyama waited for his pitch and worked the count to 2-2 before sending a low breaking ball back up the middle to score Tanaka from second base. 2-1 Eagles Balentien flew out to deep right, although he did allow Miwa, running for Whitesell, tag up to third. Miyamoto came up to bat with men on the corners and two out. After working the count to 2-2, Miyamoto caught an outside fast ball and grounded it towards first for what looked to be a hit, but a diving Oishi was able to make a diving grab and get the out at first to end the Swallows chance.

Ishikawa ran into a little trouble of his own in the bottom of the eighth. After getting Hijirikawa to strikeout swinging, and Kaz Matsui to fly out to left, Ishikawa gave up a hit to Kusano. He followed that up by walking Yamasaki, and Oshimoto was called in from the bullpen to finish the eighth. Oshimoto did his job getting Uchimura to strikeout.

The Eagles sent out the righty Romulo Sanchez to face the Swallows in the ninth. Takeuchi, batting for Aikawa, struckout on 9 pitches. He was followed by Kawabata who only managed to ground out to third. With two outs the Swallows sent out Yuichi to bat in place of Iihara. Yuichi watched 4 consecutive pitches miss the strike zone, and was promptly replaced by Fukuchi on the base paths. Fukuchi wasted no time and quickly stole second base, his ninth of the year. Aoki worked Sanchez for another walk to put men on first and second with 2 out. Sanchez started throwing in the strike zone again, and Tanaka made him pay by hitting a single into right field. Fukuchi was able to score easily from second base. 2-2 All At this point the Eagles decided to relieve Sanchez, and sent in their closer, Ryan Speier. Speier managed to make short work of Miwa and ended the inning on just 2 pitches.

Teppei slides in for the winning run.

The Swallows stuck with Oshimoto in the bottom of the ninth to face the lower half of the Eagles’ batting order. Oshimoto managed to get Shiokawa to strikeout, but couldn’t get any more outs. He gave up a single to Teppei, and a double to Ohiro. Teppei got a good start at first and managed to beat the throw from left fairly easily. 3-2 Eagles It was Oishi’s first NPB hit in 4 years.

The Swallows dropped 2 one-run games in Sendai and now go back down to Tokyo to face the Hawks at home. There is however rain in the forecast, so it remains to be seen if the Swallows will play tomorrow night.

Notes

• Through 4 interleague games, the Swallows have scored only 5 runs, while only allowing 8 runs.
• Iihara only saw 4 total pitches in his 3 plate appearances today. He flew out to second on 1 pitch in the second, grounded out to third on 1 pitch in the fourth, and flew out to right on 2 pitches in the seventh. Incidentally, all of Iihara’s at bats ended the inning. Not the way you get back into the groove of things.
• Tanaka went 2-for-4 with a walk, a run, and an RBI. he was the only Swallow to get multiple hits. Although Whitesell managed to get on base 3 times via a double and 2 walks.
• Oshimoto was tagged with the loss while Speier got credited with the win.
• The Swallows still have a 2 game lead in the Central League standings. But only 2.5 games separate them from the fourth place Giants.

Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 1

Tohoku Rakuten Eagles 4

Best of 3 Series: Fukoka 0 – 2 Tohoku

(Kleenex Stadium)

The Eagles rode a solid performance from starting pitcher, Masahiro Tanaka, to sweep the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks and earn a trip to Hokkaido to face the Pacific League champions.

Tanaka gave up one unearned run off of seven hits while going the distance on 123 pitches. He also mixed in nine strikeouts and didn’t allow a single walk.

The lone Fukuoka run came in the when an Ortiz error at third allowed Honda to score. Honda, Kokubo, and Hasegawa accounted for six of the team’s seven hits (two hits each).

But the Tohoku bats again got the job done. For the second time in as many games, veteran DH Yamasaki belted one over the wall in left. Tonight, however, there happened to be two runners on base at the time, and that would end up being the difference in the game. Fukuoka’s starter, Houlton, was credited with all four of Tohoku’s runs and got the hook after the fifth inning.

The Tohoku Rakuten now have a couple of days off before they take on the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in the league championship series. Hokkaido, even without the services of Darvish, should prove to be a significantly more potent adversary than the Hawks were.

Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 4

Tohoku Rakuten Eagles 11

Best of 3 Series: Fukoka 0 – 1 Tohoku

(Kleenex Stadium)

The Eagles absolutely destroyed the visiting Hawks in the first game of what could be an abbreviated series up in Sendai.

Iwakuma pitched a complete game for the home side, and the Tohoku offense pumped out four home runs on their way to a good ‘ole ass-whupping.

Fukuoka starter, Sugiuchi, found himself in trouble very quickly as he gave up a lead-off home run to start the game, and ended up surrendering a total of seven earned runs in an outing that lasted an out shy of three full frames.

Importantly, three of the four walks drawn by Tohoku batters either crossed home plate or factored in a run being scored. Also, all nine of Tohoku’s starters recorded at least one hit. Second baseman, Takasu, and left fielder, Nakajima, both had two-hit games including a home run each. First baseman, Seguignol, also hit a home run and recorded three of the team’s rbi’s.

Iwakuma allowed four runs (two earned) off of six hits in game one. He lasted a full nine innings and threw 132 pitches. He struck out seven and walked two.

Game two is slated for tomorrow evening at 1 PM and we should be seeing Fukuoka’s Houlton square off against Tohoku’s Tanaka.