An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
Swallows Present As mentioned in our most recent podcast, Balentien could start the year on the top team. Because he’s starting to show some life at the plate, mixed with Roman’s continued stability on the mound, and abetted by Lim’s tender throwing arm, Tokyo’s well-paid closer could start the year on the farm instead. Yet [...]
Chunichi Dragons Sold backup catcher, Keiji Oyama (31) to Tohoku. 2011 was Oyama’s best season so far, offensively-speaking. He hit .280/.394/.390 in 102 plate appearances. It sounds like Araki and Ibata could be reverting to their old positions, second and short, respectively. Victor Diaz is all but certain to be wearing a Chunichi uniform this [...]
Fukuoka win the 2011 Japan Series 4-3 over Chunichi.
2011 Central League champs, the Chunichi Dragons, advanced to the Japan Series after defeating the Tokyo Swallows in six games in the final stage of the playoffs. The Fukuoka (Softbank) Hawks won the Pacific League pennant and then swept the Saitama Seibu Lions to face Chunichi in the best-of-seven series.
‘M’ gets back to his traveloguing ways for the final installment of this story. Pre-game. I feel the same as I did on Monday. Nervous and expectant. This walk up Dragons Road isn’t helping. Tonight our season will end or we will set up one of the most exciting games in Swallows living memory tomorrow. [...]
October 10th, 2011 Tokyo Swallows 0 Chunichi Dragons 3 Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: LWLWL (Nagoya Dome) This was the first game of that oh-so-critical four-game away series that we’ve been looking forward to since early last month. And as you can see, it didn’t start well. Chunichi was able to capitalize when they got [...]
October 2nd, 2011 Tokyo Swallows 4 Yokohama BayStars 3 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: WWLLW (Yokohama Stadium) After watching its young pitchers get knocked about the park for the past two days, Tokyo looked to salvage a bit of pride against the recently very feisty BayStars. Tokyo opened the scoring on a solo Hatakeyama [...]
May 8th, 2011 Hiroshima Toyo Carp 3 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3 Streak: Tied 1 Last 5: WWLLD (Matsuyama Stadium) Hiroshima 1. Soyogi SS 2. Higashide 2B 3. Hirose RF 4. Tracey 3B 5. Kurihara 1B 6. Iwamoto LF 7. Maru CF 8. Ishihara C 9. Maeda P Tokyo 1. Aoki CF 2. [...]
May 3rd, 2011 Chunichi Dragons 3 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Streak: Won 2 Last 5: WLLWW (Meiji Jingu Stadium) The weather didn’t cooperate, but another quality start by Ishikawa teamed with some timely hitting were enough to overcome a Chunichi team that looked ever so slightly sharper than they did the last time [...]
May 1st, 2011 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6 Hanshin Tigers 2 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: WWLLW (Koshien Stadium) After an impressive unbeaten streak that lifted the team to the top of the Central League in April, the Swallows finished the month with a pair of losses at Koshien Stadium. The birds took the field [...]
April 29th, 2011 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1 Hanshin Tigers 4 Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: WWWWL (Koshien Stadium) Tokyo’s magnificent run of good form finally came to an end as they ran into a very effective starter in Kubo. This game saw some interesting switches within the lineup as Miyamoto and Aikawa both had [...]
