Reason to weep: it was reported that several key members of the Swallows are reportedly out of action due to the flu.

September 22nd, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3 Hiroshima Toyo Carp 0 Streak: Won 1      Last : LLLLW (Mazda Stadium) After last night’s roadcrash-esque 9th inning failure, Tokyo eased to victory off the back of a superb complete game shutout performance from rotation newcomer Takagi. The 26 year old earned his second career win [...]

August 12th, 2009 Yokohama BayStars 4 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3 Streak: Lost 1  Last 5: LLLWL (Jingu Stadium) Much like last week’s series, the birds opened this one with a win last night. Would they be able to make it two in a row? Just to make things interesting, Ichiba was in for his second [...]

Yoshiyuki Noguchi (no. 55) made his return to the top team yesterday and provided an rbi single to center in the ninth inning. The 28-year-old infielder (throws and bats right-handed) had several decent games at the minor league level to help get himself another shot at the first team. His return comes at the expense [...]

May 13th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 7 Chunichi Dragons 1 Streak: Won 1   Last 5: WLWLW (Nagoya Dome) There were standout performances aplenty as Yakult eased to a comprehensive victory over the Dragons in Nagoya Dome. Ishikawa started and had another fine outing, giving up just one run, and that courtesy of a 6th [...]

March 11th, 2009 SoftBank Hawks 2 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 7 Streak: Won 1     Last 5: WLLLW (Meiji Jingu Stadium) Tokyo finally got one back in the win column today. Yohsinori had a great day on the mound, and the Tokyo bats were a little bit more reliable than they had been over the [...]

March 8th, 2009 Tokyo Swallows 0 Hanshin Tigers 5 Streak: Lost 2 Last 5: WLWLL (Kurashiki) Tokyo managed only two hits in this affair, two of which were courtesy of the underrated Noguchi’s bat.

March 5th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows  5  Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters  2 Streak: Won 1   Last 4: WWLW (Sapporo Dome) Three Tokyo players had two-hit games, and the pitching staff only gave up a pair of runs in Tokyo’s second half of a two-day stay up in Hokkaido. Impressively, more than 10,000 people turned out for the [...]

March 4th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows  4  Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters  5 Streak: Lost 1   Last 3: WWL (Sapporo Dome) The highlight of this game, from our perspective anyway, was Ishikawa. He started, threw only 41 pitches and retired all 12 batters he faced. Guiel provided the only offense of the game to that point with a [...]

March 1st, 2009 Yokohama BayStars 3 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4 Streak: Won 2 Last 5: WW (Urasoe) Tokyo won this game on a walk-off single to left care of infield utility man Yoshiyuki Noguchi (IF). Tokyo had gone into the top of the 9th nursing a one run advantage when