Semi-official injury count for the month of February at the Tokyo Swallows spring camp: 11 players missed all or part of at least one day of practice. In detail, that works out to six pitchers, four catchers, and one infielder. Go, go Swallows!
While the six injured pitchers may set off the loudest alarm for some [...]

October 19th, 2009

Tokyo Swallows 4

Chunichi Dragons 7

Series: Chunichi 2-1 Tokyo
(Nagoya Dome)
Chunichi was definitely the better team today, but they should never forget that they had the flu and a little bit of Takada on their side. Either way, the season came to an end for the Swallows while the Dragons now inherit the unenviable task [...]

October 12th, 2009

Yomiuri Giants 3
Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5
Streak: Won 6   Last 5: WWWWW
(Jingu Stadium)
The Swallows closed out their regular season with a come from behind win against the Giants, ending their terrible run of losses against Yomuri. Not that this game meant too much really.

October 6th, 2009

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 10

Yokohama BayStars 4

Streak: Won 1   Last 5: LLWLW
(Yokohama Stadium)
For quite a while, it looked as though Yokohama would frustrate Tokyo for the 14th time this year. But in the end, the Swallows extra class told as they put up eight runs in the 8th inning (ooh, a big inning, [...]

September 29th, 2009

Hanshin Tigers 8

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2

Streak: Lost 1     Last 5:  WWWWL
(Jingu Stadium)
Well, no blisters were involved, but that still sucked.

Pitchers Kyouhei Muranaka (no. 15) and Mikinori Katoh (no. 16), the alleged future of the pitching staff, were brought up to the top team on the 18th of September.
Muranaka, a fourth year lefty from Kanagawa, has been one of 2009’s bigger letdowns as far as the rotation is concerned. He resurfaces on the parent club [...]

Back on September 8th, infielder Ryousuke Morioka (no. 68) resurfaced on the pro team. He appeared in 25 games and batted .150 during his first stint on the top team earlier this season.
He has been impressive on the farm, however, hitting .307 in 43 games. And in this, his second, foray on the top team, [...]

September 6th, 2009

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2
Yomiuri Giants 4
Streak: Lost 2   Last 5: LWDLL
(Tokyo Dome)
Well if Friday was a travesty of justice, and yesterday a feeble blowout, then today was simple wastefulness. Tokyo outhit the Giants 8 to 6 and had a few good chances to score more runs but as has been their problem [...]

August 29th, 2009

Chunichi Dragons 5

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3

Streak: Lost 4    Last 5: WLLLL
(Jingu Stadium)
Yoshinori lasted eight innings, and the game went an extra frame before it was decided, but in the end it was another game for the ‘Loss’ column.

August 22nd, 2009

Yomiuri Giants 7

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3

Streak: Lost 1    Last 5: LWLWL
(Jingu Stadium)
Yoshinori pitches against the Giants a lot, and this time they got ahold of him a little bit.