Things were looking good for Our Marines heading into the 9th inning on Friday night with a 2-1 lead. Greisinger pitched 7 innings of 1-run ball, putting himself in position for the win over Rakuten’s ace, the 13-0 Masahiro Tanaka. Lotte had the 2-1 lead thanks to Iguchi’s 2000th career MLB/NPB hit, a solo home run in the 6th. Most importantly, we were about to pull ourselves within one game of the first place Eagles.
Our Marines won back to back games in the Sapporo Dome on Friday and Saturday, taking Friday night’s game 4-1, and Saturday’s game 7-3. Here’s a quick recap of each…
Our Marines hosted the Orix Buffaloes for a two game stint. Let’s start with the good news. Chiba jumped out to 3-0 leads in both games. The bad news? We blew both leads and would win neither game. Orix and Lotte played to a draw on Tuesday night, finishing tied 3-3. On Wednesday, the Buffaloes won 4-3.
Totaling up everything after Sunday’s 11-2 loss, our Marines were outscored by the Lions 25-7 while being swept in 3 games. We are now riding a 5 game losing streak, and are a perfect 0-5 in the month of July. We now sit 2 games back of Rakuten in second place in the very tightly packed PL standings, with Seibu breathing down our necks 1 game behind us in the third spot.
Our Marines traveled to Sendai for a three game set with the second place Rakuten Golden Eagles, bringing with them a two game lead over Rakuten in the Pacific League. Two blowout losses (by a combined score of 15-4) and a rain-out later, and we are now no longer in sole possession of first place. Two poor outings by Lotte starting pitching are in part what allowed the Eagles to stake their claim for a share of the top spot in the PL. At nearly the half way point of the season, the two teams now find themselves tied with 40-30 records – Lotte has played one additional game resulting in a tie (40-30-1).
