The wingmen …
Discussion in the Japanese Baseball Daily forum
About
This is a site about Pro Yakyu (Japanese Baseball), not about who the next player to go over to MLB is. It's a community of Pro Yakyu fans who have come together to share their knowledge and opinions with the world. It's a place to follow teams and individuals playing baseball in Japan (and Asia), and to learn about Japanese (and Asian) culture through baseball.
It is my sincere hope that once you learn a bit about what we're about here that you will join the community of contributors.
Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
Founder
Copyright (c) 1995-2024 JapaneseBaseball.com.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Some rights reserved.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Some rights reserved.
The Yakult Swallows had every reason to pack things in and surrender Monday’s game to Hiroshima Carp.
Yakult blew a three-run lead, watched a great diving catch that cost it two runs, fell behind late and was facing a quality closer. But the Swallows pulled together, scoring two runs off Kam Mickolio and outlasting Hiroshima 5-4 at The Zoom.
Hiroyasu Tanaka’s jam-shot the opposite way over first plated two in the ninth, and Tony Barnette came on to get the final out with two runners on as the Swallows distanced themselves from the Carp in the race for the third and final Central League Climax Series spot by pushing their lead to four games.
“Hey, we still have five games left against these guys, so we have to forget about this game and concentrate on the next one,” Tanaka said in the hero interview.
The Swallows had to feel things were headed downhill for them in the sixth inning. They put runners on second and third with none out, but the next two batters couldn’t get the ball out of the infield, having two runners cut out at the plate.
Ryosuke Morioka then drove a shot to the gap in left center, but Masato Akamatsu raced to his right and made a YouTube-worthy diving catch to keep the score tied at 3-3. Brad Eldred put the Carp up a run in the eighth with hard sac fly, but Mickolio (3-5) couldn’t protect the lead.
DRAGONS 2, GIANTS 0
Masahiro Araki’s two-run double in the eighth broke open a scoreless tie and gave host Chunichi a victory over front-running Yomiuri, keeping the Giants’ magic number to clinch the CL title at five.
The Dragons’ 27th shutout meant the Giants will not be celebrating clinching the league title at Nagoya Dome.
BAYSTARS 4, TIGERS 4
Takashi Toritani put Hanshin up a run with a bases-clearing triple in the eighth, but Masaaki Koike’s clutch RBI single in the ninth tied the score and Shun Yamaguchi closed out a nine-inning, time-limit stalemate by fanning the side in the ninth at Koshien Stadium.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 11, EAGLES 5
Katsuya Kakunaka had three hits, including an RBI triple in a four-run first, and Seth Greisinger (10-8) held Rakuten to three runs, two earned, on four hits and a walk over eight innings as Lotte cruised at The Kleenex Box.
Greisinger became the first import pitcher since Jeremy Powell to win at least 10 games for three organizations.
HAWKS 2, LIONS 1
PL wins leader Tadashi Settsu (16-5) fired seven innings of one-run ball, and Hitoshi Tamura’s two-run homer in the second was all the scoring SoftBank needed to move 3.5 games up on now-fourth-place Lotte.
FIGHERS 5, BUFFALOES 4
Kenshi Sugiya’s clutch pinch-hit RBI single in the eighth put Nippon Ham back on top after it had blown a lead, and the Fighters went on to top Orix at Sapporo Dome.
The Fighters moved 1.5 games ahead of Seibu.
[Edited by: jgibson on Sep 18, 2012 11:38 AM]