game report

Game Report: Softbank vs Lotte, 4/19

I didn’t get a chance to go to this one due to my short trip out of the country (I’m typing this in Malaysia). John went instead of me, and from what I can tell it looks like I should be glad I missed it.

Here we have:
a) Another pitching implosion. A group effort, 7 runs by starter Kobayashi, 3 by Komiyama (in 1/3+ innings), 2 more by Kawasaki (one run charged to Komiyama, but given up on a 3-run HR to Kokubo by Kawasaki)

Kobayashi throws in the first against the Hawks (from marines.co.jp)
Kobayashi throws in the first against the Hawks (from marines.co.jp)

b) Bobby gets ejected for the first time in Japan. Am I mistranslating that from the Japanese? It seems like he would have been ejected before now, as he’s been around for some 7 years. Anyway, NPB has hit him with a crushing 50k yen fine (edited as of Tuesday), so I hope the team can scrounge up the scratch for that.

So why are the Marines in last, 4 games below 500? As I have may have mentioned — pitching. As of this writing, the Marines have a team ERA of 5.81 through the first 10% of the season. That’s a full run above Yokohama’s team ERA in 2008 of 4.74 — and they lost 94 games last year.

And I really don’t want to keep harping on it, but Kawasaki’s 2 earned in 1 inning of work only slightly raised his 16+ ERA – and he’s appeared in 6 of Lotte’s 14 games.

I’m no baseball genius, but something’s gotta change with the pitching staff if we’re ever going to climb out of the cellar! Maybe with the likely rainout on Tuesday (edited: it was a rainout) the arms can rest… Again, that’s as much optimism as I can muster today!

Regardless, John and I are making our first road trip of the season on Friday to see Lotte beat up on Seibu! (OK, there’s some more optimism for ya)

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