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 [...]

March 17th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 7 Yomiuri Giants 6 Streak: Won 1     Last 5: LWLDW (Gifu) Tokyo nearly let this one get away.

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 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

February 28th, 2009 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6 Chunichi Dragons 3 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: W (Chatan) The NPB pre-season games kicked off today, and not a moment too soon for many of us! Tokyo’s first game of the pre-season schedule, which stretches until March 29th, was against the Chunichi Dragons. As is often the [...]