2001 Nihon Series Game 5

Nori (Nakamura) leads off the inning striking out swinging. One down.

High bound to Hodges going toward first. He has it and throws to first in time for out number two.

Kitagawa follows grounding out to the left side, and the Buffaloes go down quitetly yet again.

Burgman comes in to pitch for Kintetsu. He's the fourth pitcher in four innings for the Buffaloes.

The first batter he faces is opposing pitcher Hodges. And he hits a high bounder up the left field line. Nakamura makes the play well behind the bag. He throws to first, wide and too late. Hodges has an infield hit!

Manaka follows with a poten hit to left. Runners at first and second, nobody out!

Miyamoto is up to bunt. There's no doubt about that. Hey, and he bunts the ball just in front of home plate. The ball is fielded by Burgman and thrown to third in plenty of time to get Hodges. Sacrifice bunt fails!

Inaba, though, comes through on his first pitch. He goes the other way down the third base line. Manaka scores from second. Miyamoto is in to third before the throw comes back in, and Inaba has an RBI double.

Petagine gets a free pass with first base open. Not that pitching to Furuta has paid off any this Series, though.

Furuta grounds the ball just inside the line at third. Nakamura dives, grabs it, fires home a bit up the first base side. Furukubo holds one foot on the plate and stretches as far as he can toward first. Miyamoto slides in to take as much of Furukubo out as he can, but Furukubo keeps a hold of the ball. He's out of there!

With Iwamura at the plate, Burgman turns and fires to second. The touch on Peta-chan is in time, and the side is retired.

But not before Yakult increased their lead to 0-4.

Gilbert, who made that touch at second, strikes out swinging at a high pitch. One down.

Furukubo gets his first hit of the Series with a rip up the middle! Yeah! If he can hit, ...

Bergman (looks like I've been misspelling his name) bats for himself. He was looking bunt on the first pitch, but swung away on the second. He then goes down swinging for out number two.

Ohmura follows with a base hit up the middle on the first pitch! Hey, we have a rally going.

Mizuguchi is then knocked down on a high and tight pitch. It looks like the ball hit his wrist. And he's in pain.

Wakamatsu-kantoku looks like he's seen enough of Hodges, and is going to his bull pen to face Rhodes and Nakamura. Newman climbs the mound with the bases loaded.

Rhodes had a base hit his first at bat in the first, but was left stranded. And Rhodes hits a come backer up the middle! Newman reaches out with his bare left hand, but doesn't get it. With two down, the runners are off, and one, two cross the plate! Kintetsu has cut the Swallows' lead in half, 2-4.

Nakamura, who's been swinging at bad pitches this whole Series, is quickly behind 2 strikes, one ball. Whoo. And that one just missed outside to even the count. It could have been called either way. The next pitch is grounded to third. Looks routine, but Iwamura double pumps making the play at first closer than it has to be. (Did the runner going by in front of him break his concentration?) Nonetheless, the throw is in plenty of time, and the side is retired.

But Rhodes' two out base hit puts the Buffs on the board as they now trail 2-4.

Bergman continues on the mound and faces Iwamura. After running the count full, Iwamura rips a base hit over the second base bag. The lead off runner is on for Yakult yet again.

Ramirez lifts his first pitch high to left. But not deep enough as Kawaguchi (Rhodes is in right this evening) camps under it well before the warning track and takes the ball in for the first out of the inning.

The announcer on the radio mentions that Yakult has stranded 7 so far this evening, showing that they're having trouble getting their runners around.

With Dobashi at the plate, Iwamura takes off for second. It took Gilbert an awful long time to get to the bag, and the touch is just a fraction of a second too late. Iwamura steals second.

Dobashi then pops up a short fly to the right side while breaking his bat. Kitakawa, critisized for not having good defence, makes a great diving catch to get the ball before it hits! Iwamura stays close enough to the bag to not warrent a throw. That looked like pretty good D to me.

Soejima, who hit the game deciding home run last night, lifts a high fly ball to left. Kawaguchi is under it, and makes the catch.

Yakult got a runner to second, but he turned out to be the 8th stranded Swallow of the evening.

Yakult sees a pitching change going to the sixth. Kawabata takes the mound. It was said that Yakult is lefty-heaven, and I'm starting to believe.

Kawaguchi flew out to right to lead off the inning.

Kitagawa follows with a base hit to left! That's Kitagawa's second (or was it his third?) hit on the evening. He's the highest hitting Buffaloe this Series, hitting .400.

Gilbert, after faking a safty bunt, grounds the ball deep to the hold at short. But Miyamoto gets there and fires to second for the force. Awww. Two down.

Furukubo, who finally got his first hit of the Series his last at bat, hits a one bounder back to Kawabata on the mound. It's a easy throw to first to retire the side.

Maekawa comes in to pitch for Kintetsu. Yes, the same Maekawa who pitches 1+ innings to start last night.

Manaka flies out to Kawaguchi on the run in left for the first out.

Miyamoto, the hardest out for Kintetsu this Series, grounds the ball to Gilbert at short. It looks routine, but Gilbert throws wide of first! E-6. See there, they just can't seem to get him out (other than on sacrifices).

Inaba goes deep to right. Rhodes goes back, back, back. And grabs it while he runs smack into the fence with his back. It doesn't go much farther than that at Jingu. Whew!

Petagine now steps in, and Maekawa throws to first. Finally a pitch to the plate, and Peta-chan pulls the ball to the right side. Mizuguchi gets a glove on it, but he ball rolls off into shallow right field. Miyamoto heads on to third while Petagine holds with a two out single.

And now we have a pitching change while Nakamura goes in to change his glove. Ah, Yoshioka goes into the game at third, Nakamura moves to short. Gilbert comes out for the new pitcher Okamoto. Kinetsu's defense doesn't look anything like normal.

Furuta now steps in. Many feel that he deserves the MVP for his leading the pitchers to holding the Buffaloes to a batting average in the .100's through the first four games. And he's contributed at the plate and/or by drawing walks - often scoring afterwords. Speaking of which, he draws a walk on four pitches right here. Not a good start, Okamoto.

Iwamura now steps up to the plate. He's batting .500 in the Series so far, with two hits this evening. And Okamoto misses yet again, way inside. Yossha, finally a strike. After a foul ball that Iwamura got around way too fast on, the umpire calls a beautiful outside pitch ball two. Oshi! The next pitch is also outside, and the count is full. And the deciding pitch is down the middle and swung through too late! Strike three! That retires the side and gets Kintetsu out of a big pinch.

At the end of 6, Yakult still leads 2-4.

Yoshioka leads off with a ground out to third.

And with that, Kawabata retires to the dug out and Yamamoto comes in to take over on the mound.

Lead off batter Ohmura comes up to face Yamamoto. After working the count full, Ohmura slaps a base hit to left, his second hit of the night.

Mizuguchi, well recovered from being hit on the wrist last at bat (well, maybe not as his swing looks odd), swings and misses a pitch in the dirt. He starts for first, but there's already a runner there. He did get Furuta to panic a bit there.

Rhodes, who came through last time with a two run base hit, swings and misses a pair of Yamamoto fork balls way low to go down swinging. Lucky seven wasn't so lucky for the visiting Buffaloes.

Ramirez, 3 for 17 so far, one of those a home run in Game 1, goes down swinging on a 2-2 pitch. (I thought that the previous pitch, called ball two, was strike three myself. I really hadn't disagreed with many calls this Series, but tonight's home plate umpire has had me wondering a few times.)

Dobashi lifts one deep to left. But it's cutting foul. He got enough of that one, but was just around a little too quick. The next pitch is popped up and caught by a fan behind the back stop behind the plate. He gets a round of applause. Dobashi then lines the ball back at Okamoto. But it's off his glove and rolling toward third. Dobashi crosses the first base bag before the ball can be picked up. That's rulled a base hit.

Miki goes in to run for Dobashi at first.

Pitcher Yamamoto is batting for himself, and squares to bunt before Okamoto sets up on the rubber. The first pitch is fouled away for strike one. He then takes a pitch low for ball one. The next pitch is bunted very nicely up the first base line, and the sacrifice is completed. Runner at second, two down.

Kobayashi-pitching coach now heads to the mound. With only three pitchers left in the pen, it looks like Okamoto is being left in there.

Manaka is walked intentionally. Not that choosing Miyamoto is any better, but then again, he seems to have been stopped a bit better this evening.

And Miyamoto gets his first hit of the evening! A base hit through the left side. Kawaguchi was playing shallow in left, and held the runner to third. But that loads the bases for Inaba, who has been hitting in runs.

And Okamoto is being relieved. Pitcher Ohtsuka come in in second baseman Mizuguchi's spot in the order, Ichihara comes in to play second and will bat #7 in the order.

Inaba steps in and takes strike one. (Well, I thought that one was high, but...) The next pitch if fouled with Inaba swinging way late. Compared to the other Buffaloe pitchers, Ohtsuka's 145+ kph fast ball looks fast! And the third pitch, 149 kph, is taken down the middle for strike three! That retires the side. Yakult strands three more on the bases.

"Osaka ni kaero." ("Let's go back to Osaka.") That's what Nashida-kantoku said before the game this evening. Well, Kintetsu is down to their last two chances.

Nakamura rips a hard line drive to left, but right at Ramirez. Wait, that doesn't look like Ramirez in left any more. That looks like Manaka. Iida is now in at center, and Miki stays in the game at third.

Kawaguchi follows by swinging out on a pitch way outside. Two down.

Kitagawa, two for three this evening, is battling Yamamoto, but just getting a piece of the ball here and there on his bat. Ah! Now he's got his timing down and lines a base hit to center field! That makes him three for four, by far the best batter this Series for Kintetsu.

Pinch hitter Takano tries to keep things going. But he's in the hole two strikes, no balls really fast. After fouling one away, he swings and misses to retire the side. Kintetsu has just got one more chance to bring it back to Osaka.

Yakult, before this inning begins, has set a new Nihon Series record for stranding the most runners. I think he said that they've stranded 13, or the old record was 13. Will they add more?

Petagine leads off with a base hit to right. There's another base runner.

Yakult team leader Furuta lifts a fly to right center. Rhodes is over and pulls the ball in before over running it. One down.

With super-closer Takatsu warming up in the bull pen on the first base side, Iwamura strikes out on three pitches. He didn't come close to getting Ohtsuka's timing down. That's the second out.

Iida, 1 for 8 in the Series, strikes out on a pitch way outside and high to strand Petagine.

Let's see, Yakult has gone through their line up 4 times + 7 batters. That's 43 batters. There have been 24 outs and 4 runs, so that's 15 stranded.

It's Kintetsu's last chance and closing ace Takatsu takes the mound. Takatsu set a new Nihon Series record with his 9th career save point last night. In all, Takatsu has pitched 15 2/3rd innings without giving up a single run.

Takatsu's first pitch to pinch hitting Isobe is taken for strike one. A few pitches later, and Isobe grounds out t short for the first out. Kinetsu is down to two outs.

Yoshioka follows with a ground out to second. One out left to go.

That brings us back to the top of the order in Ohmura. Ohmura comes through with a base hit to right! Stayin' alive, stayin' alive.

Pinch hitter Fujii comes up. The first pitch is over for strike one. Fujii fouls the next pitch off just left of third base. The Swallows are lining up at the entrance to the dug out, ready to celebrate. The next pitch is fouled off on the right side. Still two strikes, no balls. Takatsu's fourth pitch is in the dirt and taken. Furuta blocks the ball with his body, holding Ohmura to first. The next pitch is swung on and just met and fould away. Whew! The sixth pitich is lifted up behind home plate. Furuta is under it, and makes the catch!

Yakult is Nippon Ichi! The umbrellas are out, and the fans are dancing in the isles.

Now the players are throwing Wakamatsu-kantoku up in the air. Once, ..., ara. He disappeared. It looks like they dropped him. Now they've got him back up. Once, twice, three times, ... ten times.

Well, we're not going back to Osaka.

Congratulatons Yakult Swallows.

Thanks for the play by play.

I know that Atsuya Furuta was named MVP of the Series. Are there other awards that are given out for play in the Series?

I've been picking up the baseball card sets that BBM puts out for each Series. These sets feature one card for each player on each team. There's an extra card for the Series MVP and and additional card for four or so other player from both teams. Since I don't read Japanese, I can't read the text that's on the card, so I don't know why these other players have been singled out. Are they winners of some other Series related award or is it just BBM deciding that these guys merited additional recognition?

Thanks.

Dave

From what I've learned from Daniel Johnson's "Japanese Baseball: A Statistical Handbook", there's a couple extra awards. There's the "Fighting Spirit" award, which appears to be given to a member of the losing team (looks like Kazuhiro Kiyohara won this two years in a row in 93-94. That's gotta be bittersweet). There's also three "Outstanding Player" awards given. I'm not sure what the criteria for those are.

Anyway, according to BBM's Nippon Series set for 2001, the "Fighting Spirit" award went to Tuffy Rhodes and the "Outstanding Player" awards went to Kazuhisa Ishii, Akinori Iwamura and Mitsuru Manaka. All the "Outstanding Player" awards went to Swallows players, but in past years the awards have gone to members from both teams.

I've always mis-translated the three "Outstanding Player" awards as the "runners up to the MVP." And, yes, they usually do include players from both sides.

I think that what happened last year was that Yakult's domination of the Series waranted that they got all of the OP awards. All three were deserving, while there were very few bright spots for any Buffaloe other than Rhodes.