The sickened crew includes none other than tomorrow’s intended starter, Takagi, as well as the team’s number four starter, Yuki.

Rounding out the bout of bad news is infielder Noguchi also joining the list of players quarantined by the club.

Noguchi, as you’ll remember, played in last night’s game, so there’s a chance that the bug could hit other players on the first team.

So who’s left to start? You’re not going to like the answer to that question.

Muranaka and Yoshinori are the last logical choices in terms of number of games started this season. The only other option would be Oshimoto, but he has already pitched in the first two games of the series.

Matsui and Hashimoto could enter the picture if the aforementioned players come down with the flu as well.

Basically, if you want to know the long and short of it, the Swallows are in big, big trouble!

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 as he went the distance on 115 pitches, giving up just 4 hits, striking out 5 and walking none. His record now stands at 2-0/1.10. Who’d have thought back in happier pre-allstar times that he would end up being the form/most reliable starter on the pitching staff come September?

Takada again tinkered with his lineup this afternoon:

1. Fukuchi (LF)
2. Tanaka (2B)
3. Miyamoto (SS)
4. Aoki (CF)
5. Ihara (RF)
6. Hatakeyama (3B)
7. Noguchi (1B)
8. Aikawa (C)
9. Takagi (P)

Tokyo faced Hiroshima starter Saitoh, and got a man to second in both the 2nd inning (Hatake double) and the 3rd (Aikawa double) but it wasn’t until the 4th that they managed the breakthrough.

Aoki drew a one out walk before Ihara launched one over the fence in leftfield and it was 2-0 Tokyo. It was Yasushi’s sixth homer of the year. Another Hatakeyama double was then followed up by the same from Noguchi and it was 3-0. After Aikawa flew out for out number two, they could have scored more as Takagi chipped in with a single of his own to put men on the corners with two outs, but Fukuchi could only ground out and the lead remained at three.

The teams manage one more hit each in the 5th and after that pitchers dominated as neither team managed another hit through the distance, 3-0 Tokyo Final.

A nice win and Takagi is certainly developing into quite a prospect for the future. But it’ll need another couple of weeks of continous victories like this from the team to make up for the dross served up these last six weeks.

The two teams meet again tomorrow at 13:30 with the season series now tied at eleven.

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 start since reappearing in the first team clubhouse last week.

The lineup featured the usual suspects. Aoki seems to be back in center field for good while also staying in the number three spot quite regularly.

Tokyo’s lineup:

1. Fukuchi (LF)
2. Tanaka (2B)
3. Aoki (CF)
4. D’Antona (1B)
5. Guiel (RF)
6. Miyamoto (3B)
7. Aikawa (C)
8. Kawashima (SS)
9. Ichiba (P)

Ichiba started well, actually, and he got through the first three innings without giving up a hit (although he walked two.)

The only thing of consequence to occur early on was D’Antona getting injured. He left the game after lunging to reach a throw to first and appeared to pull a muscle in his leg. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious.

The Baystars finally got to Ichiba in the fourth care of some good base-running and hitting. 2-0 Yokohama.

Kawashima came up with an RBI groundout in the fifth to get the score to 2-1, but the BayStars added another run in the top of the sixth when Ishikawa notched his second rbi of the evening. 3-1 BayStars. Hagiwara got the earned run on that one.

The birds pulled level in the seventh when Guiel’s leadoff single was followed by a Miyamoto home run (his fifth of the season.) 3-3.

The rally was cut short after Aikawa drew a walk (which only happens once in a very long while these days), and Kawashima bunted to move him over. As we’ve seen a lot lately, no runs scored after that.

Both teams got out of jail free a couple of time between the eighth and the 11th, but no more runs scored. Many, many more pitchers came to the mound for both teams.

Here’s who pitched for the Swallows:

Inning(s) – Pitcher – (ERA) – earned runs

1-5           Ichiba (7.01) 2
6               Hagiwara (4.41) 1
7               Lee (3.13)
8               Igarashi (2.70)
9               Lim (0.40)
10            Matsuoka (2.86)
11             Oshimoto (3.09)
12             Kamada (1.80) 1

Kamada, fresh off of his call-up to the first team yesterday, had the pleasure of facing Uchikawa in that fateful 12th. With two outs, Uchikawa launched one over the wall in left to put the BayStars up 4-3.

And unlike yesterday, the birds weren’t able to make a comeback. With one out and first and second occupied by Tanaka and Fukuchi, Aoki wasn’t able to replicate last night’s heroics and hit into a game-ending double play.

Tokyo’s offensive player of the game was definitely Miyamoto who went 3-5 with two RBIs and was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.

Tanaka, Aoki, Noguchi, and Guiel had two hits each as well.

But Tokyo hit into three double plays tonight, and that never helps. All three of them were inning-enders for the birds, so that definitely hurt.

Kamada took the loss in his first appearance back on the first team.

Game three of this series is tomorrow night at 6 p.m.

See you tomorrow night for Muranaka’s (?) next attempt to stay in a game longer than five innings.

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 of Yuuichi who was dropped from the 28-player, first team roster.

Here’s what the current Tokyo roster looks like as of August 7th, 2009:

Pitchers: Yoshinori, Lim, Muranaka, Ishikawa, Matsuoka, Tateyama, Yuuki, Hagiwara, Kida, Ichiba, Lee, Igarashi, Oshimoto

Catchers: Aikawa, Yoneno, Kawamoto

Infielders: Kawshima, D’Antona, Miyamoto, Tanaka, Hatakeyama, Kawabata, Noguchi

Outfielders: Fukuchi, Guiel, Takeuchi, Iihara, Aoki

Incidentally, it sounds like Miwa has been hitting up a storm on the farm team, so don’t be surprised if we see him appear on the first team before too long.

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 inning wild pitch, off six hits in seven innings of work. Masanori struck out two and walked none as he earned his fifth win of the season (5-1, 2.872ERA).

The starting lineup saw Aikawa return as catcher batting seventh and Tanaka dropped yet again, replaced by the promising Yoshiyuki Noguchi at second and in the No.8 hole.

Chunichi starter Asao struggled with his control early on and the Swallows took the lead in the top of the 2nd. Guiel led of the inning with a solo homer to right (his 6th of the year) to make it 1-0 Tokyo. Mioyamoto struck out for out number one before consecutive hits from Aikawa and Noguchi put men at first and second. Ishikawa sacbunted the runners around before Keizo Kawashima hit to right and the two runners scored to extend the lead to 3-0 Tokyo.

Two more runs came in the top of the 6th. Aikawa and Noguchi again combined for consecutive singles before Ishikawa made his third successsful sacbunt of the evening to put both runners in scoring positions. And again, up stepped Keizo, this time with a double which narrowly got past Dragons shortstop Ibata and it was 5-0 Tokyo. Ibata was injured trying to field the ball and had to be replaced by De La Rosa

Two singles and the run scoring wild pitch made it 5-1 in the bottom of the 6th before another two Tokyo runs followed in the top of the 8th.

A one-out Noguchi solo homer extended the lead to 6-1. That was Noguchi’s fourth hit of the night as he made a claim for a permanent spot in the lineup at the expense of Tanaka. Takeuchi, pinch hitting for Ishikawa, then reached second on a throwing error from reliever Saitoh. Two walks followed to load the bases with only one out on the board. Up stepped Aoki who hit a lineout to centre and it was as you were with two outs. Aoki was hitless in his five plate appearances and is now batting .233. He looked rather lost at the plate tonight and is clearly still struggling to get his offensive game going.

D’Antona, who had earlier ended his three-game hitless streak with a single in the 5th, was then replaced by Tanaka. Hiroyasu hit to centefield, Takeuchi scored from third but Kawashima was out at the plate. 7-1 Tokyo.

Igarashi worked a hitless 8th to lower his ERA to 2.919, and then Kida (4.563ERA) gave up two hits in the 9th but got out of the inning unscathed and it was 7-1 Final.

So, standout performances aplenty then:

• Keizo Kawashima 3 for 4 with 4 RBIs.
• Noguchi’s 4 hits including his homer.
• Guiel going 3 for 4 with his home run that opened the scoring in the 2nd.
• Ishikawa’s fine 7 innings of work, and his helping hand with the bunts.
• Two more shutout innings from the bullpen
• Two-hit nights for Fukuchi and Aikawa. 16 hits overall, to Chunichi’s 8.
• Hanshin’s bullpen (two thirds of the now defunct JFK) hilariously costing them the game against Hiroshima. Ah, sorry, wrong game.
• Yokohama’s sayonara win over the Giants. Ah. Shit. Wrong game again…….Apologies.

So all in all a great evening and good to see Tokyo’s ability to bounce straight back from defeats since their five game losing streak towards the end of April. They’ve now not lost two straight since April 26th.

The two teams meet for the final time this series tomorrow evening in Nagoya.

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 past week.Boy Wonder pitched five full innings but didn’t surrender any runs. Softbank managed to get four hits off of him, but he struck out eight in the process. Yoshinori didn’t give up any walks although he did bean one guy (yeah, that must’ve hurt).

Yoshinori was followed by Igarashi who allowed both of Softbanks runs. Then Hashimoto came in to pitch the seventh and eighth innings while Matsuoka pitched a scoreless ninth.

Yoshinori picked up the win.

Yusuke Kajimoto (IF/OF), Hatakeyama, and Noguchi had two-hit games with Noguchi boasting a two-run dinger in the eigth. Yuuichi also had a home run in this contest.

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.

The pitching crew combined to give up 13 hits. Hye-cheon Lee started and was allowed to stay in the game for 91 pitches over five full innings. He gave up three runs off of eight hits in his second appearance of the month. He also had two K’s against two walks.

Lee was relieved by Satou who pitched one inning without giving up a run despite allowing two hits.

Satou was followed by Takaichi who had a solid seventh inning followed by a rocky eighth in which he gave up three hits and two runs.

Lee took the loss while Ando secured the win for the home team.

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 game despite being aired in direct competition with team Japan’s opening game of the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

Tokyo put the first run of the evening on the board on a solo home run by Keizo Kawashima in the third inning. Hokkaido left fielder, Sledge, drove in Hokkaido’s first run of the evening in the bottom of that inning to tie it up off of Tokyo starter, Yoshinori. Tokyo’s young fireballer pitched four innings and had five strikeouts against four walks.

Tokyo added another run in the fourth to go up 2-1, and Sledge had his second rbi, and the team’s final run, in the fifth. Satou, the eventual game-winner, was tagged with that run.

Tokyo took control of the game in the top of the sixth with a four hit, three run effort. Yuuichi started things off with a single to center and was followed by rbi singles care of Noguchi and Tanaka, plus a ground out to third by Fukukawa that resulted in a run crossing the plate.

No more runs scored after that. Kawashima, Miyamoto and Tanaka had two-hit each, and Hashimoto, Yamamoto and Matsuoka combined for four innings of scoreless relief. Matsuoka pitched the final two frames and picked up a save in the process.

Tokyo has tomorrow off which is good because we’re going to be at the Big Egg watching a WBC game between Taiwan and South Korea.

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 solo home run in the top of the fourth. Tokyo went up 2-0 when

Miyamoto scored on a Noguchi triple.

Ishikawa was replaced by Yoshikawa at the beginning of the 5th, and things got ugly very quickly. Yoshikawa gave up three successive hits to start the inning, the third of which was a blast into the bleachers in left. Tokyo 2-3 Hokkaido.

Maruyama pitched the sixth for Tokyo and didn’t allow anyone to score in his second appearance of the pre-season. However, the home team added another run in the bottom of the seventh off of Tokyo’s Oshimoto which put them up by two runs.

Tokyo tied it up in the top of the 9th with a nice little two-out rally which was partly courtesy of an error by Hokkaido’s pitcher. With two men on, Yuuichi doubled to right which scored both Hatakeyama and Tanaka.

But with Takai on the mound for his first appearance of the year, it wasn’t meant to be. With two men on and two outs, Hokkaido’s center/left fielder, Morimoto, came through with a game winning double after killing rallies with weak hits in both the 5th and 7th innings.

Final score: Tokyo 4 – 5 Hokkaido

]]> http://tokyoswallows.com/2009/03/04/3409-hokkaido-away/feed/ 0 http://tokyoswallows.com/2009/03/01/3109-yokohama-home-away-from-home/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=3109-yokohama-home-away-from-home http://tokyoswallows.com/2009/03/01/3109-yokohama-home-away-from-home/#comments Sun, 01 Mar 2009 07:43:58 +0000 Christopher Pellegrini http://tokyoyakultswallows.wordpress.com/?p=1847 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 Yokohama’s leftfielder, Onishi, homered to left off of new Tokyo southpaw, Ricky Barrett. Despite giving up the game-tying run, Barrett was credited with the win when Noguchi brought Iihara home on a game-winning single in the bottom of that inning.

Another Tokyo newcomer started the game. Hye-cheon Lee, formerly of the Doosan Bears, pitched three innings, and then he was followed by Ryo Kawashima who did the same. Tokyo’s third pitcher for the day was veteran Masao Kida who pitched two innings in middle relief.

Noguchi was definitely the highlight of the offense today. He went three for three with a triple, double and that game-winning single mentioned earlier. Kazuki Fukuchi and Yasuchi Iihara came through with two hits each.

In addition to Noguchi, Aaron Guiel (OF), Yuuichi Matsumoto (DH) and Kouhei Kawamoto (C) each had an rbi.

The Yokohama offense only had four hits, but they got a little help from a pair of Tokyo errors to help keep them in the game. Hitoshi Fujie took the loss for Yokohama.