Keisuke Hayasaka

The Final Stretch: Hamu @ Lotte, 23-26 September 2014

If you want to be totally negative, you can say the 2014 Chiba Lotte Marines’ backs are flush against the wall. The margin of error is not slim; it’s non-existent. Our Marines must win every game – 6 of them. Hamu must lose every game – 11 of those. If that happens, if these guys can pull off that miracle, Hamu collapses that badly – Chiba STILL needs help in the form of Rakuten and Seibu losing a game or two.

Yes, it’s the unlikeliest of scenarios, indeed, but until all chance is drained from the season we will cheer and cheer with ALL our zeal for Our Marines to move on.

Jingu Batting Doom

Our Marines sent ace Naruse to the hill on Saturday night at Jingu looking to get back into the winning spirit. It didn’t work out that way as Tokyo Yakult blasted their way to a 5-3 victory over Lotte. Grr. It’s actually kind of refreshing to have a garden-variety loss after the back to back

Good Ol Home Cookin’: Lotte vs Yokohama, Interleague Games 13 & 14

I made a road trip last weekend to see our guys play at Koshien, home of the Hanshin Tigers. I haven’t yet gotten around to writing up that trip (maybe tomorrow? How long have I been saying that?) but it didn’t work out so well, either for the team or for myself as it was

Obscene Waste of Bandwidth Picture Post: Lotte vs Yakult, Interleague Game 8

This is 90% picture post and 10% game talk, though if you added it up by KB it would be more like 99.9% picture post and, well, you get the idea. Much like Friday night’s game this game was over very, very early as Lotte poured on the offense over visiting Yakult in a 20

In the Realm of the Clutch Hitters

Friday afternoon I took a look at my planner to see what was on for the weekend. It was empty except for one item, in bold, underlined with a star next to it: 1. Baseball Mmm, home opener. Two years ago the home opener was in late March; it was stupidly cold and raining but