BayStars Scrape Out a Victory - 1 in 3

The Yokohama BayStars continue to eke out a single victory for every three game series. And as with their Yakult victory last weekend, they do it on just three hits and brilliant pitching, this time coming from Hayato Terahara.

Yes, Terahara was the story of the night. Not only did he hold the Chunichi Dragons to 3 hits, but he also delivered what turned out to be the game differentiating hit. But let's rewind.

After allowing a 2-out base hit in the top of the first inning, Terahara set down the next 10 Dragons he faced in a row. In the mean time, Chunichi's Edward Valdez allowed a hit and a pair of walks (one intentional) through the first two scoreless innings. But the BayStars made him pay for a leadoff walk in the third inning.

Takehiro Ishikawa led off the third with a walk. He was sacrificed to second, then came home on a single to left by Seiichi Uchikawa. The BayStars go up 1-0 with just a single hit in the inning.

They replicate the effort in the fourth inning. Jose Castillo gets hit just above his left elbow by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the fourth, and this costs Valdez. He's sacrificed to second, then moves to third on a ground out to the right side and the pitcher coming up next. But Terahara can't be taken lightly. He rips the ball into the right-center field gap for an RBI double to put himself up 2-0. Two innings in a row the BayStars score on just a single hit, and without the long ball.

Terahara gets himself into a bit of trouble in the top of the fifth inning. He gives up a lead-off double to Kazuhiro Wada. A ground ball to the right side moves him to third. Then Kei Nomoto hits a sacrifice fly deep enough to right to plate Wada. The lead is cut in half, 1-2. Keiji Oyama follows that with a double, giving BayStar fans everywhere a feeling of dread. But Terahara gets pinch hitter (for Valdez) and former BayStar Masaaki Koike to pop out to center to end the threat.

And that's the last hit either side will receive. In all, both starters allowed three hits. Both sides used three pitchers each, each side combining for 6 strike outs. But the big differentiator was walks. Terahara only allowed 1 walk through 7 innings, with Shigeki Ushida allowing 1 in 1 inning of work. Valdez walked 3 and hit a batter through 4 innings, two of them scoring.

With the pitchers and bullpens dominating the game, the game concluded in just 2 hours and 29 minutes. "Let's 省 (Sho) Time."

Anyway, looking at the BayStars results so far this season, I see a trend:

     Wins   Losses  Opponent
     1 (1)   2 (1)  Hanshin
     1 (1)   2 (1)  Giants
     1 (1)   2 (2)  Yakult
     1 (1)   2 (0)  Chunichi
    ======  ======
     4 (4)   8 (4)

* The numbers in (parenthesis) denote win or loss by 1 run.

As you can see, we've taken 1 out of every 3 game series so far. But what's more, we've won all 4 of them by a meager 1 run. In the loss column, 4 of the 8 losses were by 1 run. We're clearly keeping things close, which has to be a good sign.