All Good Things Come to an End - May 25, 2013

Yokohama's new ace starter, Shugo Fujii, went into this afternoon's game lossless, with a decent 2.11 ERA, and a team starter best 3 wins (tied with former ace Daisuke Miura). To cut to the chase, Fujii emerges with a loss and a 3.12 ERA. It wasn't his best of outings.

The last time that Fujii got a win was back at the beginning of the month against Chunichi in that 11-1 blowout. He had given up an unearned run in 7 innings, bettering his ERA to 1.73. That was the start of a 4 game winning streak that saw the team temporarily reach the .500 mark. Oh, that seems so long ago. Thereafter, however, Fujii threw two games where he gave up 2 runs (both earned) in each, but didn't figure in the decisions.

After erasing a 1-out base on balls by having Shuto Takajyoh catch Katsuya Kakunaka attempting to steal, Tadahito Iguchi singled and Toshiaki Imae hit a fly ball to left field that somehow drifted over the left field fence. Lotte jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the 1st inning.

Alright. Fujii has a tendency to allow 1 or 2 runs per game. So he's done, right? Wrong.

Takashi Ogino hits a fly ball to right that carries to the first row of seats over the right field wall to start off the 2nd inning. The bayside winds seem to be favoring Marine pop ups this afternoon.

Well, this matches Fujii's worst outing of the year in runs allowed, last giving up 3 runs (only 1 earned) on April 6 against Yakult. This is going to stop, right? Maybe for a couple of innings.

Walks and a pair of hit batters in the 3rd and 4th innings didn't come back to haunt Fujii. However, such luck didn't hold out in the 5th inning. A pair of walks and 3 hits (2 doubles) added 4 more runs, Lotte taking a commanding 7-0 lead.

And that's when Yokohama's bats woke up.

Tony Blanco lead off the bottom of the 5th against Yoshihisa Naruse with a huge home run to left field. No silly wind blown homer on our side. No. Blanco deserved his 21st home run of the season. Tatsuhiko Kinjoh hit one out to left two batters later, and things look like they might turn around. Now down 2-7.

Naruse starts struggling through the 6th inning, allowing 2 more runs on base hits by Hitoshi Tamura and Blanco. 4-7 looks much more doable.

But then things get out of hand. Third BayStar pitcher Shinji Ohhara can't quite finish off Lotte in the 8th inning, Shigeru Kaga allowing Ohhara's two base runners to score on back to back hits. Lotte goes up 9-4, which was the final.