It's Been a While - April 27, 2013
Discussion in the Bayside West: Yokohama forum
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It's been 7 years since Shugo Fujii has thrown a complete game. The last one he threw was a complete game loss to the Giants while still wearing a Yakult uniform on September 10, 2006, 108 starts ago. Fujii had surpassed Seibu's Fujiya Nishiguchi's record of 102 consecutive starts without a complete game in October of 2012. To get to the last time Fujii had a complete game victory, one must go back in time to May 29, 2002, 11 years ago, matching Seibu's Hisanori Yokota who went from August 28, 1987 to May 6, 1998 between complete game victories.
And with that, you know that we won.
And speaking of winning, Yokohama has now won all 5 of their games played on Saturday.
Hanshin starter, Tatsuya Kojima, got the first two BayStars out with little trouble in the bottom of the first. However, the next 5 batters hit safely, putting 3 runs on the board right away. A 1-out walk in the second ignited another hit parade, culminating in back to back 2-out doubles by number three batter Shotaro Ide and number four batter Tony Blanco to add three more. The double by Blanco knocked Kojima out of the game in only the second inning.
Blanco went on to hit another RBI double in the 6th inning and a solo home run to center to add 4 more RBIs to bring his league leading total to 31. The 4 for 5 outing also brings his batting average up to .370, trailing only Chunichi's Hector Luna who is htting .382.
Up 8-0 in the top of the 8th inning, Fujii did look like he was going to have one of those innings when, with two down, he gave up a pair of hits sandwiching a walk, allowing Hanshin's only run.
Blanco's 13th home run of the season followed that and Yokohama took the game 9-1. With Hiroshima losing to Chunichi, and Yakult defeating the Giants, Yokohama and Yakult both rise to third place, both with 11 wins and 14 losses.