We Love Marines

Tag: Kazuya Fukuura

  • Stop the Madness: Live Blog, Lotte vs Seibu, 29 April

    I went to the Seibu/Lotte game in Tokorozawa last night but I was in a foul mood after the game, so I didn’t blog. After a nice run in first, Lotte has lost 6 of 8 (4 of the last 5) including a close one with Seibu last night.

    Lotte got on the board first with an RBI single by Imae, but an Osaki blast to deep left tied it and 2 runs in the Seibu 5th won it for the home Lions. With the loss Lotte drops out of first for the first time in many weeks.

    The two runs in the 5th were very close to not scoring as Kataoka just barely beat out an infield single to first with two outs. If he doesn’t game is tied and anything can happen. Takashi Ogino almost cranked a 2-run HR to deep right but it was caught right at the top of the fence.

    But TODAY, anything can happen – our starting pitcher is Ryoji Katsuki, 6th round draft pick in 2008. It’s his NPB ichi-gun debut, let’s see how it goes!

    Incidentally, I ran into the Katsuki Lady from Ishigaki at Seibu Dome last night. She kept bugging me if had taken any pictures of Katsuki. I tried to tell her “He’s not here” but she was insistent. Anyway, she ran up to me when she saw me last night, wearing a Katsuki jersey of course.

    First Inning
    Quick, quick out of the gate! Ogino pokes a meaty one-out triple, Iguchi walks, and Tae Kyun singles in Ogino! Ohmatsu smashes a double to score Iguchi, and Tae Kyun scores on a FC to Kataoka by Saburo. Seibu starter Tanaka is reeling. But Fukkura lets him off the hook with a double play. Still, a nice 3-0 start to the game.

    Katsuki gets off to a nice start – ground out, center fly, center fly. He’s throwing mostly fastballs with not great velocity but they have enough on them to get the necessary outs. 3-0 Lotte.

    Second Inning
    Tsuyoshi triples with two outs and Ogino draws a walk. He steals second, but Iguchi grounds to Nakajima to end the inning with no runs in.

    Katsuki gives up his first ichi-gun hit – it’s unfortunately a fat curve to “Second Helping” Nakamura. Ogino gives chase and climbs the fence but can’t reel it in. Katsuki gets the next two outs and looks like he gets Ishii to pop out for out three, but (I think, I couldn’t 100% understand the explanation) he is ruled to have made a move off the rubber before coming to the plate, so the out is nullified. Katsuki walks Ishii and Hosokawa before striking out Osaki to end it. 3-1 Lotte.

    Third Inning
    A two out single by Saburo and a walk by Fukuura set the stage – Satozaki singles up the middle to get the run back. Imae strikes out to end the inning but the run pushes it back to a 4-1 lead!

    Very, very dangerous inning from Katsuki. Singles by Kataoka and Kuriyama lead off the inning and Katsuki plugs Nakajima on the elbow to load it up for Nakamura. Katsuki gets him out on a three-pitch K (out pitch a very nice inside fastball). Brown lofts a fly to Saburo that scores Kataoka but is out two, and Takayama grounds out to end the inning. 4-2 Lotte.

    Fourth Inning
    Tanaka is out; Okamoto is in. How will Lotte do?

    Tsuyoshi walk, Ogino on via Nakajima error (it was forced by Ogino’s speed – Nakajima knew he had to get a quick release to get out Ogino and he just rushed it offline), Iguchi RBI single, Runners advance on WP, Ogino scores on another WP, Tae Kyun RBI single, Ohmatsu ground-out, Saburo RBI double. That’s how! Nice, nice inning – it’s a 6 run lead!

    Ogino got pretty unlucky this inning, though it didn’t affect anything. The first WP skipped all the way into the dugout. Ogino crossed home but was sent back since the ball went dead. He scored anyway so no worries!

    Ishii leads off with a single but Uemoto (pinch hitting for Hosokawa) grounds into a DP. Osaki quickly grounds out to end the inning – 8-2 Lotte!

    Fifth Inning
    A Tsuyoshi walk, Iguchi single, and Tae Kyun timely single all contribute to yet another run – and a 7 run lead!

    But Katsuki gets himself into all sorts of trouble in the 5th, thanks to four straight singles. That scores two, but very gutty pitching by Katsuki gets the team out of the jam and limits what could have been a huge inning to just the two runs. 9-4 Lotte after 5.

    It’s hard to imagine how Katsuki comes out for the 6th – I think Nishimura would have pulled him if it were the 6th or if we didn’t have such a large lead. But he has to keep Katsuki in in that situation to give him a chance at his first win, doesn’t he?

    Sixth Inning
    Nogami comes in for Okamoto. Hits by Fukuura and Satozaki are wasted as Imae grounds into an inning-ending DP.

    Sure enough, Ohtani is in for Katsuki. Nice day for the rookie – not dominating by any means but he did enough to get his team in a position to win; that’s all he needs to do. For the record, he had 5 IP, 4 ER on 8 hits and 4 walks with 3 Ks – good enough if the bullpen does its job.

    Ohtani does his job – perfect 3 up, 3 down on only 7 pitches. Good stuff! Still 9-4 Lotte.

    Seventh Inning
    Single by Tsuyoshi and a walk by Ogino are again wasted as Iguchi flies out, Tae Kyun strikes out (after being up 3-0) and Tsuyoshi gets thrown out at third trying to steal. For a Speedostar he sure picks bad spots to run – but hey, you can get away with this when up by 5.

    Ohtani was much, much worse in the bottom of the 7th, as he took 13 pitches to get the Seibu order out 1-2-3. What a slacker! 9-4 Lotte.

    Eighth Inning
    A 1-2-3 Lotte 8th broken up by a Saburo infield single that was probably an error by Nakajima. The game moves along very quickly with a big lead!

    Strange play in the top – Ohmatsu leans over the plate a bit after a called strike and Uemoto throws the ball off his helmet, knocking it off. Not sure if I’ve seen that one before!

    Akichika Yamada takes over for Ohtani. This is followed by much quick searching – “Who the hell is Akichika?” Apparently he hasn’t pitched significantly since 2004 with Daiei. The things you don’t know!

    Takayama says “Hello!” to Akichika by drilling his 4th pitch into the left field stands. Oops! Akichika settles down nicely – he sends down Ishii, Uemoto, and Osaki in order. It’s now 9-5 Lotte heading into the

    Ninth Inning
    Imae draws a walk, Tsuyoshi singles, and Ogino makes a very bad attempt at a sacrifice bunt. How bad? He drops it too good – he beats the throw to first. What kind of excuse for a sacrifice is that??? Did I mention he’s my New Favorite Player this year?

    Anyway, Iguchi pops out to first, Tae Kyun drives a deep fly to score Imae, and Ohmatsu can’t beat a slow roller and is out at first. It’s another run, but could have been more. And yes, I want to see something like 34982 runs scored against Seibu; 10 simply will not do.

    Kobayashi is in, as is Heiuchi for Tae Kyun and Minami for Saburo. Kobayashi continues the good work he’s done all year – strikeout of Kataoka, grounder by Kuriyama, (walk to Nakajima), and Nakamura pops out to end it! Game, set! A lovely 10-5 Lotte victory!

    Katsuki is the obvious hero for his first victory, though really Kim Tae Kyun should have been a second hero. Why? 3-5 with 4 RBI – 4 RBI coming in 4 separate at bats, too. It’s probably the best game I’ve seen from him yet this year!

    So Lotte loses the series but ends on a very good note. I think the attendance today was more than the combined attendance on Tuesday and Wednesday, so really it’s kind of like they won the series. Right? Right?????

    Lotte is back in a tie for first again and is off to Fukuoka to face Daiei. We need a good showing to move back into sole possession of first!

    I’m not sure how the rotation works for the Hawks series as Ono and Kawagoe may still be out. It’s probably Ohmine/Naruse/Ono (if he’s back). Edit: It’s Ohmine tomorrow. It’s time for Lotte to take a series from Daiei!

    If you’ve never seen it before, the Pacific League posts all game highlights on You Tube. Here’s the highlight reel for this game.

  • On the Impermanence of Baseball

    Or, perhaps more fittingly, the permanence of weather variations in Chiba – the more things change, the more they stay the same.

    Tickets in hand for tonight’s game with Orix – looking forward to the first home game in a week. Weather: temps dropping. People supposed to go to the game with me: dropping out. Wisely, it seemed – rain in the air, temps dropping down, down. It seemed like snow a possibility. Then at 4:15, the email: game cancelled due to weather. It’s spring in Chiba; we expect these things.

    Rather than duck off to the stadium a couple of friends and I stopped off at the Outback across from my office (and near-ish the stadium). It was pretty empty when we came in but gradually filled up. After a while I saw a familiar looking face leaving the restroom. I grab my baseball reference book…. hmm, yep. It’s Aarom Baldiris. I make an excuse to wander over to his table; he’s sitting with Alex Cabrera and Jon Leicester. I say hello and chat for a minute or so, let them know I am a Lotte fan but good luck anyway. So even when I don’t go to the baseball game the baseball comes to me.

    Life for Lotte has been “Ho hum, more of the same” – after last weekend’s successful series against Seibu Lotte travelled to Sapporo for the first away series with the Fighters of 2010. 3 games – Karakawa, Ohmine, and Kawagoe on the hill – 3 victories. Tuesday’s game was a 10-inning thriller that featured Lotte turning a 3-1 deficit into a 7-3 advantage, only to fritter away that lead and go to extra innings. In extra innings Fukuura pinch hit and smacked a long bomb off reliever Urufu (OK, it’s Wolfe, but it’s written in Japanese as Urufu for mysterious reasons) and Kobayashi mopped up the 10th for the victory, 8-7.

    Wednesday’s game was an absolutely stereotypical start from Ohmine – complete game, 4-Ks, 6-walks, 155 pitches in a 6-1 victory. Isn’t that how every start goes? We may regret all these 140-150 pitch starts Nishimura is allowing in September when our starters’ arms turn to melted butter, but for now it’s working peachily.

    Thursday’s game was a gritty affair with Kawagoe keeping Nippon Ham to 3 runs while the game-sealing RBIs were delivered by Imaoka via bases-loaded single. That’s two guys basically kicked to the curb in the offseason by their former teams contributing mightily to a first place team. Who knows how these things will work some days?

    I’ve wondered why Nishimura has kept Kawagoe in the 6th starter role while letting Ryoji Katsuki stew in ni-gun. Kawagoe is 36, the oldest man in ichi-gun (only Hori is older on the roster) and was never what you would call an above-average starter while Katsuki is 26 and doing great in ni-gun (last year 9-3 with a 2.45 ERA, 7 Ks/9 and a WHIP of around 1; this year so far he’s got a 1.80 ERA, almost 9 Ks/9 and a WHIP of 0.90). But while Kawagoe had an awful start a week ago, his other two starts have been solid; how can you really complain?

    I figure there must be more moves to be made, personnel wise – last week Lotte sold reliever Kawasaki to Hanshin. I liked Kawasaki, he struck me as an fun guy and was quite decent for most of last year. We’re now down a pitcher, we still have one free foreign player slot – is there an overseas move in the works?

    One thing for sure is looking more permanent – with this week’s sweep Lotte moves to a strong 15-5-1. Nothing to complain about there, that’s for sure.

  • Advanced Statistical Analysis® and The Men of Lotte

    I used Advanced Statistical Analysis® (ASA) to see into the Pacific League future. One cannot deny statistical trends – they are truth incarnate, as if history is already written.

    Here’s what we know after the first weekend of the Pacific League future; specifically, Our Marines’s Future:

    – We will win 96 games this year.
    – Unfortunately, ASA® shows Orix will win 144. It’s science, cannot be denied.
    – Fortunately, Seibu will lose 96 games.
    – Ohmatsu’s 48 HR and .500 BA will lead to a new burger at Chiba Marine’s Lotteria, but it will still not be as tasty as the now-defunct Bobby Burger.
    – Kim Tae Kyun will strike out 336 times, including every time he faces Wakui. (Er, this better be a joke, heh heh heh)
    – Rookie CF Takashi Ogino will continue to blow my mind with slick defense and sick, sick baserunning.
    – Now 20-year old Karakawa, THE Baby-Faced Killer, will live up to his immense potential and make Pa-league batters look like fools. Pencil him in for 200+ strikeouts, says ASA®.
    – Naruse will revert to 2007/late 2009 form and return to the top-flight of NPB pitchers, especially now that he’s got that “Throw a game-losing fat pitch down the pike on a 3-0 count” out of the way.
    – I will be damn entertained.

    Everyone: The 2010 NPB baseball season is well and truly underway, and Our Chiba Lotte Marines went on the road and took two out of three from the hated Lions, on their turf. As far as season beginnings go it’s not better than Orix’s home sweep of Rakuten, but it’s pretty damn good. Here’s what happened:

    Game 1 – Naruse vs Wakui, a great matchup of young aces and former high school team mates. Seibu Dome, lovely late-winter day threatening to turn into spring. As I mentioned on the day of the game, the place was jam packed well before the gates even opened. Don’t believe me? Check out the line-up to get in in the lead photo (which is after about half the people in line in front of me already went in) or this one, taken 1.5 hours before the gates opened.

    Nothing better than a game on a lovely day

    Zoikes!

    Seibu Dome always strikes me as one of those places in the “Sounds like a great idea, horrid in practice” category. Take a ball park (check), put it in a lovely natural setting (check), give it super-convenient public transportation access (check), open it to the air so everyone can enjoy the beautiful setting in the splendor of nature (oops). It was 19-20 degrees and sunny outside and it felt like a tomb inside. That stupid semi-opaque roof knocks all the pleasantness out of the park, really. It also makes the dome a horrible place for photography, so I didn’t take too many photos. (My camera revolted against the poor photo conditions, it took a header off the seat next to me and fell lens-first about 4 feet to the concrete below. Fortunately no damage other than some ugly cosmetic damage.)

    The game itself was quite exciting with everyone in super-revved up ultra-fandom mode. Well, except many of us Lotte supporters as all – literally ALL – of the ouenka changed in the off season so a very low percentage of the fans knew all, or even any of the songs. The chap next to me with the copy of the new lyrics was popular indeed.

    Super Revved-Up Ultra Fandom, Lotte Style
    Super Revved-Up Ultra Fandom, Seibu Style

    Naruse came blasting out of the gate, throwing the first 3 2/3 innings in perfect style until and error by Imae allowed a baserunner. Naruse kept the no-hitter until the 6th inning and only gave up three hits in total. He went 8 innings and rung up 8Ks. Unfortunately, 2 of those three hits…. Well.

    Lotte got on the board first, though they blew a super prime scoring chance in the third with a bases-loaded, no out chance. Wakui is a mean and stingy dude when he’s on the hill, though, and he got out of the jam with no damage. He didn’t get away with it in the 5th, though, as Imae stroked a 1-out single and was immediately driven in by a red-hot Tsuyoshi, who dropped a double to left. It was a nifty bit of base running for Imae as he scored all the way from first very easily.

    Naruse gave up a single in the first to end the no-no (as I mentioned), and he coughed up the lead when Nakajima destroyed a pitch to deep center in the 7th. It was a no-doubt smash and tied it up at one each. Two batters later, new import Dee Brown took a fat pitch over the middle on a 3-0 count and deposited it into the right field stands. Ergh. It barely cleared the fence, but barely is just bad enough – 2-1 Seibu.

    That’s how the game ended as Lotte couldn’t get anything else off Wakui. To add insult to injury, ex-Marines all-purpose bullpen guru Sikorski closed out the 9th for the save. Ouch. It was a very entertaining game, though, despite the loss. Tsuyoshi (3-5 with an RBI) and Naruse were definitely the shining stars for Lotte. New and pricey import 1B Kim Tae Kyun, not so much – he went 0-4 with Ks in all 4 ABs. Surely it was just nerves, though, as this is the same slugger who beat up on the world’s best in the WBC last year and hit .370+ in preseason action this year. The hits will come.

    Naruse, before the rain of HRs

    Game 2 – I already made a too-lengthy post about this game that I am sure nobody read all the way through (Totally unlike THIS too-long post that nobody will read all the way through. Totally.) Let’s just remind you it was Lotte’s turn for turnabout – a 2-1 victory with great pitching from Shunsuke, Hattori, and Yabuta and great clutch hitting from the inimitable Ohmatsu.

    Game 3 – Ah, Game 3. The Baby-Faced Killer sneaks up on another unsuspecting team. He looks like such a nice young gentleman (Nay, he IS such a nice young gentleman – he put up with my repeated badgering of him during Spring Camp in Ishigaki, hanging around to chat and take pictures with me long after everyone else had left.) but on the mound he is an assassin of the deadliest stripe, a steely-eyed destroyer of batting strokes and lofty aspirations. His performance in his season debut was über-manly, an 11 K masterwork of speeds changed, corners painted, knees buckled and hearts broken.

    Young Karakawa laid waste to Seibu bats with near-unerring precision. For the first 5 innings he was as dominant as a pitcher could be – 8 Ks and nary a baserunner on the paths. It was, statistically and emotionally, a perfect start to the season. The rest of his performance was merely great – 2 runs allowed on 5 total hits and a complete game victory.

    Yes, victory. For unlike last year – where if you recall the Baby-Faced Killer faced cruel and unusual punishment from silent Lotte bats behind wonderful start after wonderful start – Our Marines gave Karakawa a cornucopia of offensive delights. The hits and the runs; they came in bunches, and they came all game. 13 runs in total on 16 big hits. It’s the sort of offensive backing that a start of Karakawa’s caliber deserved to receive.

    Heroes were impossible to single out, there were so many. How about Fukuura’s 2-4 with 3 RBI, incuding a solo shot to deep right for his 100th dinger of his career? Maybe Tsuyoshi’s 3 RBI on a deep sac fly and a stand-up triple? Maybe Saburo with his solo shot in the 9th? Imaoka, dragged off the scrap heap and infused with new life, poking a single to left in his first AB and scoring a few batters later? Heiuchi with a 2-RBI pinch hit single? Sato’s 2-5? Ohmatsu’s 3-5?

    No, for me the shining star on offense was rookie first round pick Takashi Ogino. He came into spring camp with the center field slot wide open. Hayakawa was gone, sold to the BayStars in the offseason, and Hayasaka looked primed to get the starting gig. Ogino beat him out for the role, though, and with this weekend’s series he showed he was ready to shine.

    On defense, he roamed center with big loping strides, seemingly never out of position and hoovering everything poked his way. On offense – on the basepaths – he showed he can be a true force.

    4th inning, 2 outs. Ogino is in the box and the bases are empty. He pokes a single to right-center, maybe halfway between second and the fence. It’s nicely hit, drops in easily. RF Sato picks it up efficiently, looks up – holy crap, Ogino is racing around first like he hopped on a dirt bike! He’s going for two on a well-hit single to shallow right! And…. he’s in, easily! I won’t fib, I think the breath came out of my lungs in shock. It was a really audacious bit of baserunning to bite off that much with the game still in doubt. But victory only comes to the brave, right? It was the aggressive, confident play of a winner.

    Who knows how rookies pan out. But my, what a nice debut! For the record, Ogino was 5-11 with a 1.007 OPS in the series. ASA® shows me if we get a goodly chunk of that production this year out of the top of the lineup we may really win 96.

  • Street Fighting Days, Part 3

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    This is it – my last game of 2009. Sad. I can’t make the 6 October grand finale and the Seibu games are all mid week and far away. So – fin. The blog’s not done for the year by any means but I won’t even be able to watch the last 3 games live easily, so this is pretty much the last hurrah. How did it end up?

    A good start to the day for me – my favorite pitcher is on the hill, the one and only Baby-Faced Killer, Karakawa. He got beat up in Sendai (a game I took many pictures of but have yet to write up – argh!) but I knew he’d be better for this one. Right? Right?

    The scene: after the thrill-o-rama Saturday afternoon I went out for drinks, dinner, and karaoke, so it took a vast wellspring of willpower to drag me out of bed early. But it’s the last game of the season, which has magical powers to negate all the drinking, singing, and dinner-ing from the previous night. Baseball: cure for anything you care to mention.

    So the game was destined to be a complicated logistical beast. 2 tickets for two friends (front row, 3B side), 2 tickets for me and another friend (1B reserved A), friend with two kids (2nd story unreserved). Sure to be a blast! All things I’ve enjoyed were in order:

    – Random conversations with people I never met, check
    – Tasty grub from Texas Tacos, check
    – Not-so-random conversations with people I have apparently met before but don’t remember, check
    – Baseball, oh yeah

    It was nice running into people I’ve chatted with all over the place this year. People from Sendai, Koshien, various games in Chiba. Really nice to enjoy one last game this year together.

    As for the game itself, well, it’s a bit of a beast to describe. We tried a little switcheroo again to see if we could somehow move more of us into the third base field wing – success! So I was able to get a ton of nice pics as it was a bright, sunny day. As I mentioned, my guy Karakawa was hurling so nice weather + nice seats + great friends = good way to end the live viewing season.

    The Baby-Faced Killer, slinging
    The Baby-Faced Killer, slinging

    Too bad the game couldn’t live up to all that. Karakawa might be a bit gassed this late in the season as he is still quite a young guy, but for the second game in a row he looked very shaky. In fact it was probably his worst game of the year, with the possible exception of the late June game vs Nippon Ham where he coughed up 5 and didn’t make it out of the 5th. He only gave up 1-run through 6 innings (though on 8 hits), but the 7th inning was a doozy. More on that later.

    As I mentioned in the post on Saturday’s game the contentiousness from that game spilled over into this one. The outfield ouendan did not like being chastized by Tsuyoshi, and there were several anti-Tsuyoshi banners in the outfield (I assume the “You’re only pretending to be good” was directed at him). On top of that, as he came to bat to lead off the game, the outfield ouendan refused to cheer at all. Uh-oh.

    A chorus of yelling began, and it coalesced into the rest of the stadium (the 98% not in the hardcore ouendan section) chanting “Tsuyoshi! Tsuyoshi!” loudly. It was probably louder than the average player cheer even though all the fans weren’t in sync and were missing the drums. Tsuyoshi, for his part, struck out to start the game.

    The cheers started proper with Hori, who got the start at DH in the second slot. To celebrate, he clubbed a dinger into right! It was his 4th on the year in his 22nd – 22nd! – year for the Marines. Good stuff! A 1-1 tie after the first*.

    Round the bases and enjoy that trot, Koichi!
    Round the bases and enjoy that trot, Koichi!


    *note that I conveniently forgot to mention the run Orix scored in the top of the first!

    In the bottom of the second, Benny (who made the start in left) smacked one over the right field fences for his seventh of the year! He was immediately pulled for Hayakawa (who moved to center), and according to post-game reports had a bit of an injured knee. It’s safe to say it seems likely his tenure with Lotte will be over at year’s end, and quite possibly this was his last at bat for the Marines. If so, it couldn’t have ended better for one of my favorite players!

    Benny makes the home run trot - hopefully not for the last time as a Marines player
    Benny makes the home run trot – hopefully not for the last time as a Marines player

    Bottom 3 – who comes to the plate but Tsuyoshi? Again, the outfield ouendan are silent, again the rest of the fans rise up to cheer. Tsuyoshi belts a double down the left field line and the place erupts! He moves to third on Hori’s ground-out, which brings up Fukuura. Fukuura hits a foul fly down the third base side – coming right my way, actually. Kitagawa is running over and makes a sweet sliding catch – but Tsuyoshi is smart, he sees that Kitagawa has to slide for the play so he tags up and races home, just beating a throw from Kitagawa! 3-1 Lotte on a pure hustle play.

    As Tsuyoshi stood on third, the guy sitting next to me yelled “Tsuyoshi! The gaiya fans won’t cheer for you but we naiya fans will!”

    Kitagawa gives a bit of an 'oh well!' smile after Tsuyoshi's heady play
    Kitagawa gives a bit of an ‘oh well!’ smile after Tsuyoshi’s heady play

    As the Marines players come out to their defensive positions for the top of the 4th most of the fans give Tsuyoshi a huge cheer – much bigger than normal.

    Tsuyoshi raises his hat in thanks
    Tsuyoshi raises his hat in thanks

    In the bottom of the fourth Lotte made a great show at putting this thing away. Singles by Imae and Minami with one out got the inning going, and Masahiko Tanaka brought in the first run with a clutch single!

    Imae makes a nice slide to third as he comes from first on Minami's single
    Imae makes a nice slide to third as he comes from first on Minami’s single

    Up next was… yeah, Tsuyoshi. The scene is much the same as the first two at bats, though the adhoc cheers of the 98% who are cheering him seem louder. He smacks a deep center fly that scored Minami – another run in! The ageless Hori pokes a double to score one more, as does Fukuura. It’s a 7-1 game after 4 innings, and it looks like the sweep can come on full cruise control.

    Cool flips for joy at the big Lotte lead
    Cool flips for joy at the big Lotte lead

    Looks. Key word there. Unfortunately – uncharacteristically, for sure – Karakawa takes the game off cruise control and drives it right over a cliff, tumbling end-over-end, slowly erupting into flames…. OK, I think I’ve stretched that far enough. The lead was still 6 runs as the 7th rolled around, but in that horrible 7th Orix recorded 8 – 8! – straight hits, all with two outs. My daddy always told me it’s so difficult to keep runs from scoring when giving up 8 straight hits in an inning, and by gum he was right. Karakawa gave up the first 5 of those hits before getting pulled for Nemoto, who gave up two more without carding and out and was finally relieved by my guy Uchi, who also gave up a hit but mercifully got the 3rd out. The damage was most definitely done, though – 7-7 game after the top of the 7th.

    Uchi finally puts a stop to all the madness
    Uchi finally puts a stop to all the madness

    Has Karakawa just gotten tired late in the season? That’s two poor starts in a row. Very surprising.

    Meanwhile on the Lotte side of things, the Orix bullpen went into maximum-security prison lockdown mode, getting out ***22*** consecutive Lotte batters after Satozaki’s leadoff hit in the 5th. This was “highlighted” by Orix rightly Vogelsong striking out all six Marines batters he faced. One might think the offense was a bit shell-shocked by how it all came apart in the 7th.

    The bad blood between fan groups really boiled over in the bottom of the 9th. The game was still tied at 7 each, and with one out Tsuyoshi came to the plate with a chance to win it. Once again, no cheers, songs, chants, or otherwise emanate from the outfield ouendan. The infield fans are now totally pissed. After the ad-hoc cheering and subsequent ground-out by number 7, the infield fans, pretty much en masse, start booing… the outfield fans. “Go away! Go away! Go away!” Thumbs down, the whole shebang. Even the left-field overflow fans and most of the fans in right were booing the main ouendan. Ugly stuff.

    Perhaps realizing they might have pushed things a bit far, the ouendan cheered Hori with zest – and two outs in the ninth. Most of the fans ignored the outfield fans’ cheers and cheered on their own. Hori, for his part, struck out – perhaps unsurprisingly.

    Extra innings. The bullpens clear – Ogino, Sikorski, Itoh all come in, all get the job done by not allowing Orix to score. As mentioned before, so does the Orix pen. So it’s the bottom of the 12th, the last chance to salvage something other than a tie. Heiuchi strikes out to start off the inning, bringing up Mr Controversy in another game winning situation. Over the last few innings noticeably fewer fans have been cheering along, and with number 7 up at the plate again, the same scene repeats itself. Tsuyoshi will not let it affect him – he smashes a drive down the left field line! Maybe more than any other time this year he digs very, very deep, rounding second like a man possessed.

    The look of effort on the face of a man possessed
    The look of effort on the face of a man possessed

    It’s bedlam as Tsuyoshi makes that slide into third. Safe!!!! Everybody is screaming, high-fiving, TSUYOSHI!!!!

    Safe in the bottom of the 12th
    Safe in the bottom of the 12th

    Only one out, very swift runner on third. What will Bobby do? SQUEEZE! Hori’s at the plate and he drops down a bunt! We jump from our seats as Tsuyoshi races home… but it rolls foul. 1-0, runner and batter reset – ANOTHER SQUEEZE! Tsuyoshi’s racing down the line but the pitch was more like a pitch-out. Hori doesn’t want to leave Tsuyoshi caught out coming home so he quite literally dives for the ball, barely gets a bat on it, uh oh, pops it up – caught – and Tsuyoshi is nowhere near third. Throw to the base, DP, game, set.

    Hori lunges for the last pitch of the game
    Hori lunges for the last pitch of the game

    Damn.

    I’m pretty bummed after the game. My favorite pitcher threw a stinker, we had a chance to win and it didn’t work out (though I loved the guts). I was most bummed by the turmoil in the stands for my last game of the year. I was really hoping for one last team effort – cheering at a Lotte game is most definitely a team activity, all hands in – and we just didn’t get that.

    I understand why all the outfield fans were upset and protesting – I’m sure if you took a poll of hardcore Lotte fans you’d find 98% in agreement with the foul opinions on the front office. After all, over 100,000 of us signed the petition to keep Bobby here for 2010. I just don’t like the game disruption, myself. And I really don’t like the refusal to cheer Tsuyoshi. He’s a prima donna, and he’s always out due to “injury”, and he’s made a hell of a lot of errors at short this year, but he’s still one of our best players and still a part of the team. I dunno. It just seems to me for what was likely to be most people’s last home game of the year we all would have been better served by just savoring the game, the team, the memories – cheering for a great win for old time’s sake.

    If I really wanted to protest, I would have reserved a bunch of seats, unfurled a banner at the beginning of the game, laid it on the seats, and left. Vote with your feet.

    The good news is this post is written after the mid-week Seibu series, and as I watched those games on TV I saw the fans giving it their manic best like we usually do. Too bad I couldn’t be there to help.

    I am going to fill in some of the earlier games with tons of pictures and stories from the road – better memories! And of course I will have more posts as the season winds down. For now, here’s some more photos from Sunday’s action.

    Orix outfielder Omura warms up before the inning
    Orix outfielder Omura warms up before the inning
    Imae makes a nice catch
    Imae makes a nice catch
    Ogino keeps the Buffaloes from scoring in the 8th and 9th
    Ogino keeps the Buffaloes from scoring in the 8th and 9th
    Ikki, up close and personal
    Ikki, up close and personal

  • Street Fighting Days, Part 2

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    The second game of the final Orix-sen showed up on a lovely – but hot – late September day. It was a festival day, with much singing and dancing both inside and outside the stadium. The game itself was spirited as well – both on and off the diamond. The balls were flying out of the park and the pitching staff showed real guts as Lotte pulled out a 6-2 victory over the visiting Buffaloes.

    A day game: a real novelty these days. Saturday’s game was the first day game since late June – really! All of the home games in July and August were night/twilight games and so far in September every home game has been a weekday game. The last home day series was a rainy affair, so really this was the first time to bask in the sun at the ballpark since the Hanshin series in mid-June. (Well, I made a few road trips, but still)

    We love Marines, but Aono? That's some optimism.
    We love Marines, but Aono? That’s some optimism.

    We showed up plenty early to soak up the atmosphere of the final home stand. The stadium wasn’t all that crowded despite the announced attendance of 25K+, so I was able to pull the seat switcheroo and snag a pair of front row seats. It’s amazing where you can go with a bunch of old tickets and acting like you know where you’re going.

    Bobby V signed many autographs before the game, too!

    Signing away for all the fans
    Signing away for all the fans

    On the hill for our Marines was Naoyuki Shimizu who, quite honestly, has had a very disappointing season to this point with an ERA in the mid 4’s and not so many wins. He’s been erratic at best, definitely not as solid as he has proven to be in his career. On this day, though, he was quite solid – scattering 10 hits in 7+ innings of work but limiting the runs scored to only two, giving the team a great chance at victory.

    Shimizu battles early in the game
    Shimizu battles early in the game

    The Lotte offense grabbed the game from the get-go to take an early lead. Getting things started was today’s hero, Tsuyoshi. He smacked a dinger into the right center stands from the leadoff spot to put Lotte up 1-0 before the first home out was recorded.

    Celebrating Tsuyoshi's big leadoff HR
    Celebrating Tsuyoshi’s big leadoff HR

    Fukuura continued his hot September with a blast of his own in the third. From my seat I didn’t think it was going out but it kept on sailing, right into the right field stands. 2-0 after 3.

    Fukuura's teammates just can't get enough
    Fukuura’s teammates just can’t get enough

    In the 4th, Imae and Hayakawa both singled with two outs to set up Tsuyoshi – he bangs a double to center, scoring both men easily! 4-0 Lotte after 4.

    Shimizu loaded the bases in the 5th and gave up two on ground-outs to make it a 4-2 game. He would cruise through the 6th and 7th innings before getting into a real jam in the top of the 8th. Shimoyama led off with a single and Rhodes doubled him to third – runners on second and third with nobody out. Bobby wasn’t taking any chances, in comes Ogino to put out the fire. Ogino was super hot in the early part of the season but went through an awful stretch, but here in the late part of the season he’s come back around to be quite effective as of late. This game was no exception – he gets out the next three batters to end the Orix scoring chance and keep it at 4-2.

    Ogino making short work of the Orix offense
    Ogino making short work of the Orix offense

    Lotte could use some insurance runs, and insurance runs they got off of the bat of seldom-used Minami, who smashed a homer to deep right with Ohmatsu on to make it 6-2. Sikorski came in in the top of the 9th to seal the victory, and he did just great after a leadoff walk. Another nice win for Lotte over Orix! I talked to one of my friends in the stands after the game, she commented “Rare win, eh?” I guess it has been this year against Orix. But you know, as awful as the team played early in the season against Orix they finished the series on a tear – winning the last four decisions to end up with a 9-14-1 record against the Buffaloes. Considering the record was 2-11 at one point…

    So the players of the game were Tsuyoshi (obviously) and Ogino (for such a meaty performance in the 8th).

    Tsuyoshi and Ogino high five fans after the nice win
    Tsuyoshi and Ogino high five fans after the nice win

    The game was far from controversy free, though. (Unfortunately, perhaps) As with Friday’s game, the stands were filled with anti-front office protest banners. At the bottom of the 7th after the singing of We Love Marines Haykawa came to bat. Instead of starting the cheers for Hayakawa the ouendan started anti-front office chants. As this continued and no cheers for the players started the infield fans started yelling at the outfield fans. The lady next to me shouted “Shut up! So annoying!” as did many other fans. Eventually the ouendan started to cheer for Hayakawa, but after he struck out the ouendan started it again during Tsuyoshi’s at bat. This pissed off the infield fans more, and most of the people sitted next to me were yelling at the ouendan.

    So the game ends; Tsuyoshi and Ogino are the players of the game as I mentioned. After Tsuyoshi is interviewed, he grabs the microphone and talks to the outfield fans directly, asking them to take down their signs, not use such language as there are many kids around. Some cheers, and silence from the outfield. As Ogino and Tsuyoshi run to the outfield the outfield ouendan don’t sing Tsuyoshi’s song, and the rest of the fans must improvise. Many of the fans near me were still yelling at the outfield fans after the game. Not good – and even more unfortunately, it spills into Sunday’s game.

    But the game itself was great – lovely weather and a lovely victory. I took hundreds of pics, and I’ll just post the rest at the bottom of this page.

    Hashimoto is devastated by his ground-out
    Hashimoto is devastated by his ground-out
    Cheerleaders doing what cheerleaders do best!
    Cheerleaders doing what cheerleaders do best!
    Close play at first, but believe me, Fukuura's got that ball first
    Close play at first, but believe me, Fukuura’s got that ball first
    Kakunaka warms up on the sidelines
    Kakunaka warms up on the sidelines
    Fukuura takes his lead at first
    Fukuura takes his lead at first
    We have a Heiuchi sighting!
    We have a Heiuchi sighting!
    Always helps to actually make it to second when trying to steal second
    Always helps to actually make it to second when trying to steal second

  • Street Fighting Days, Part 1

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    It’s been a while since I’ve posted (ahem! again.) At least I have a good excuse – I was on the road last weekend for the Sendai series and on holiday after that, so blogging fell a bit by the wayside. I’ve also got – no joke – 4000+ pictures to go through from the past 2 weeks. I’ve been just wearing out my shutter! So I’m going to get caught up on all the recent action – it’s been a great month for the team record as we are as of this writing guaranteed the first, nay, the only winning month of the season. It’s been a horrible month for everything else as Lotte was mathematically eliminated with the 20 September loss to Rakuten and is officially, intractably, locked into 5th place in the Pacific League. Not what we had hoped for – no, expected. Also… well, that will be explained in Parts 2 and 3 of this series on the Orix series.

    SO, on Friday night Orix came to town for the final three game set with Lotte of the 2009 campaign. It’s incidentally my final three home games, for sure, of 2009 – there is one more, a makeup game for the recent Rakuten rainout, but I absolutely can’t come. This series was quite important to me – I’m not ready for the Lotte season to be over but the schedule says it must.

    SO SO, Bobby handed the ball off to our young Naruse to get a win and help end this season on a strong note. Naruse, as you may have noticed, has been positively brilliant as of late, winning his last 3 starts and last 5 decisions coming into this game. That streak would continue as Naruse threw easily his best effort of the year – a complete game, 12-K, 2-hitter that was more dominant than even that impressive line sounds.

    Best I got of Naruse on Friday, sorry!
    Best I got of Naruse on Friday, sorry!

    There was only a single by Rhodes in the second and a double by Ikki in the 8th to drop in for hits off Naruse. Lotte unleashed an 11-hit attack off of Orix starter Kishida, eventually running up 5 runs off of the righty. Leading the offense were Ohmatsu, who went 3-4 with a solo shot, Benny (2 for 3 with a walk), and Hayasaka (1 for 3 with an RBI sac fly).

    Ohmatsu enjoys himself in right
    Ohmatsu enjoys himself in right

    Most of the Lotte scoring came in the 4-run 6th inning. In that frame the Marines loaded the bases with a pair of singles by Ohmatsu and Hashimoto and a walk by Benny. Imae brought the first run home with a nice RBI single, Kakunaka drew a bases-loaded walk, and Hayasaka and Tsuyoshi sacrificed to bring home the other runs. All in all a very efficient evening, and with Naruse as strong as he was those 6 runs would easily hold up.

    Hayasaka scores in the 5th for the first run
    Hayasaka scores in the 5th for the first run

    The game wasn’t very well attended at all, actually – I suppose not much of a surprise for a weekday matchup between the 5th and 6th place teams late in the season, but being the last full homestand I would have thought more would show up. What did show up were many anti-front office banners, which were periodically raised around the outfield. That’s actually the reason for the name of this post – a reason that will become a bit more apparent in parts 2 and 3 about Saturday and Sunday’s games.

    Fukuura jokes around with Hayasaka before Friday's game
    Fukuura jokes around with Hayasaka before Friday’s game
    Benny warms up before his 2-3 performance
    Benny warms up before his 2-3 performance

  • Live Blog: Lotte vs Nippon Ham, 13 Sep

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    It’s a lovely day, the sun is shining and Lotte has their first 4 game winning streak of the year. What the heck, let’s do another live blog!

    The starting lineups
    For Lotte: Tsuyoshi (short), Hayasaka (left), Fukuura (first), Iguchi (second), Ohmatsu (right), Hashimoto (DH), Imae (third), Satozaki (catcher), and Hayakawa (center).

    For Nippon Ham:     Tanaka (second), Hichori (left), Inaba (right), Takahashi (first), Sledge (DH), Koyano (third), Itoi (center), Nioka (short), and Tsuruoka (catcher).

    Shingo Ono gets the start for Lotte vs The Hurling Darvish. Ono won his last outing last weekend versus Orix but hadn’t had a win in a month prior. The last time I live blogged an Ono start he was brilliant at Seibu but still took the loss. That has nothing to do with today, of course (or so I will tell myself). Darvish has been typical dominating Darvish this year with a 1.74 ERA and a 14-5 record, but he’s been out for close to a month with a sore shoulder. How will he respond?

    The action
    First Inning
    A lovely start for Lotte as Tsuyoshi singles to open the game. He swipes second and Hayasaka bunts him to third. An early run against Darvish would be great. Fukuura lifts one to Hichori in left, the speedy Tsuyoshi is tagging, running…. Egads, he’s easily out. Instead of an early run the inning is over.

    Not a good start for Ono. Tanaka smacks one down the line that Fukuura snags, but Ono is too slow to the bad and Tanaka makes it to first a microsecond prior to Fukuura’s throw. Fukuura had the ball in plenty of time but Ono wasn’t there – an infield hit. Hichori sacrifices Tanaka to second and Inaba grounds out to Iguchi but Takahashi singles to center to score Tanaka. 1-0 Fighters.

    Second Inning
    Almost something brewing for our guys. Darvish overpowers Iguchi for out one. Ohmatsu singles to center, and Hashimoto hits a nice gapper —- caught by Itoi in a great running catch. Grr. Imae pops out to Takahashi to end the inning with no score.

    Koyano grounds out to Iguchi to start Nippon Ham’s inning, but Itoi and Nioka follow him up with back-to-back doubles; 2-0 Nippon Ham. Tsuruoka grounds out to Imae but Tanak draws a walk. 1st and 2nd with two outs and Hichori at the plate – he lines back to Ono to end the inning.

    Third Inning
    Every time you watch a broadcast on TV you see the same damn commercials. On BS12 (who carries a ton of Lotte games) you get the AXA Direct ads with chick with a dent in her fender, the phalanx of geeky insurance dudes sure to help you get your money, and the supernaturally chipper chica imploring you to call now. I hate those ads.

    Gaora’s got the Sony Sonpo ads with the tiara people. I used to think these ads weren’t all that bad but watching them between EVERY inning has made them just as annoying as the AXA Direct ads. I never would have thought that a few months ago.

    ANYWAY, Lotte goes three up, three down in the third as Satozaki, Hayakawa, and Tsuyoshi are retired in order. Bad trend, man.

    Ono gives up two more singles by Takahashi and Koyano but nobody comes home, which is all that matters. The score stays at 2-0.

    Fourth Inning
    Nothing doing for Lotte. Strikeouts by Hayasaka and Fukuura and a ground-out by Iguchi.

    Nothing doing for Nippon Ham either – two fly-outs and Ono’s first K, Tanaka’s the victim. 2-0 after 4.

    Fifth Inning
    Ohmatsu, Hashimoto, Imae up, Ohmatsu, Hashimoto, Imae down. Darvish is definitely in a groove.

    Ono’s doing well himself – he gives up a walk to Takahashi but otherwise gets everyone out. Still 2-0.

    Sixth Inning
    Satozaki plays Darvish Pinball, ricocheting a ball off Darvish’s ankle and legging it out for a hit. Nothing else doing from the Lotte lineup, though, so no threat to score.

    Itoi doubles with one out but Ono gets out Nioka and strikes out Tsuruoke to end the inning. The game zips along, but Lotte is still down 2 runs.

    Lucky 7
    Iguchi hits a one-out double to the right field gap. Ohmatsu pops weakly to third and Hashimoto gives a ball a big jump but has a bit too much under it – it dies at the track for out three.

    A three up, three down frame for Ono. Pity about the early runs, he’s pitched great since then.

    Eighth Inning
    Finally, an opening! With one out Satozaki drills one high off the right field wall, barely missing a homer. He ends up at second, though. Hayakawa pops out to first in foul territory, but Tsuyoshi is there to pick up the team! He smacks a double that scores Satozaki and brings Lotte within one! Hayasaka strikes out to end the inning but Lotte is within one swing of the bat.

    More commercials – the Zurich commercial with the wiggling girl in the front seat of the car like there’s ants on it is pretty annoying as well. She’s suppose to be cute but instead she just makes you think “Would you please sit still?!?” The batting aid commercial with Derek Jeter always cracks me up. His voice is dubbed by someone whose voice doesn’t even come close to matching Jeter’s voice or looks. I don’t know why a commercial wasn’t made with, oh, I don’t know, one of the hundreds of local baseball stars.

    Two quick outs by Ono then a quick blast to left by Koyano. Sheesh, there goes the hard fought run – 3-1 Fighters, and on to the ninth.

    Ninth Inning
    Takeda is in – I believe he’s perfect on the season in save situations, so it’s a tough situation. It starts well – Fukuura reaches first on an error. Iguchi lifts a fly to right for out one. Ohmatsu smashes one down the line but Koyano makes a nifty quick snag of it and fires to second to get out two. Hashimoto steps up and delivers a single to right! Ohmatsu’s at third, two outs… But Imae grounds out easily to short to end the game and the series.

    I suppose I shouldn’t be disappointed but I wanted to see the sweep. Two out of three is still nice but it does reduce our long shot chances at the climax series to really long shot chances. Lotte comes home for a three game set with Seibu, so at least we have a chance to make the Lions’s life miserable.

  • Live Blog: Lotte vs Nippon Ham, 12 September

    Who knew it was so cold in Sapporo in September?
    Who knew it was so cold in Sapporo in September?

    I made plans to go to Yomiuriland to see Lotte’s ni-gun take on the Giants ni-gun but the weather looks truly foul (both out the window and on radar), so I’ve decided to stay in and do another Live Blog.

    Some notes about last night’s game as I didn’t make a blog posting. Lotte took the first game of the three game set vs the Fighters at Sapporo Dome 3-2, which is the first road win for the Marines against Nippon Ham this year. What an awful drought that has been! The game was a tight affair as Naoyuki Shimizu dueled with Shugo Fujii. Shimizu got the better of the Fighters, going 7 strong innings while yielding both runs on 7 hits (with 6 K’s). Saburo hit a solo homer in the 4th off of Fujii to take the early lead. Nippon Ham took the lead in the bottom of the 4th with a timely double by Takahashi and an RBI ground-out by Koyano.

    Lotte tied it in the 5th with a jack to left by Minami (I saw him in the dugout on Thursday, which I believe was his first ichi-gun appearance of the year). Minami’s got fewer than 100 ichi-gun PA’s in his career and that’s only his second HR; very nice to get it in such a tough place to play. Fukuura broke the tie in the 6th with a timely single to make it 3-2, which it is how it would finish. Ogino and Sikorski get the job done in the 8th and 9th, respectively.

    So the stage is set for today’s matchup between Yagi and my favorite, Karakawa. The Baby-Faced Killer is back on the hill looking to FINALLY get his 5th win of the year. He’s got a 3.06 ERA in 17 starts this year. Shouldn’t that get you more than 4 wins? He’s undoubtedly the hardest-luck pitcher on our team, if not in the league.

    The starting lineups:
    For Lotte – Tsuyoshi (short), Imae (3rd), Saburo (center), Iguchi (2nd), Ohmatsu (left), Satozaki (catcher), Benny (DH), Fukuura (1st), and Minami (right).

    For Nippon Ham – Tanaka (2nd), Itoi (center), Inaba (right), Takahashi (1st), Sledge (left), Koyano (3rd), Nioka (DH), Tsuroka (catcher), Kaneko (short)

    First Inning
    Two quick outs by Tsuyoshi and Imae, then Saburo laces a double down the left field line. Iguchi gives it a big jump to center – it’s really well hit and deep, but Itoi makes a running catch at the fence to end the inning.

    Tanaka lines to Ohmatsu in left to start the bottom of the first for Nippon Ham. Karakawa then mows down Itoi and Inaba swinging to end the inning. Very strong start for Karakawa!

    Second Inning
    Ohmatsu strikes out swinging. Satozaki crushes one off the top of the center field fence, Itoi reels it in off the bounce and nails Sato at second. The camera wasn’t on him after it left his bat, did he slow down to admire it? Anyway, he’s out. Benny flies out to end the second.

    Takahashi grounds out to Fukuura for the first out, but Sledge drops a single to right in front of Minami. Koyano lines out to Minami for out two. Nioka hits a first pitch curve from Karakawa between Iguchi and Tsuyoshi for a single, and Tsuruoka hits a liner that’s snagged by a leaping Iguchi for out three. 0-0 after two.

    Third Inning
    Ute Fukuura, Ute Fukuura – and he does, up the middle. Minami tries to bunt him over and pops the first attempt back to the fence, pokes at the second even though it’s nowhere near the strike zone, and settles for a GIDP. A dire at-bat indeed. With two outs Tsuyoshi singles through the left side – wouldn’t it have been nice to have a runner on? Not that it matters, as Imae floats a little pop that’s snagged by Tanaka for out three.

    A nice swinging K of Kaneko to start the 3rd. Tanaka pops a foul fly, Imae is running to the fence – he hauls it in with a very nice little basket catch. Itoi pops to Ohmatsu to end the third. Still 0-0.

    Fourth Inning
    Saburo must have eaten his natto this morning – he blasts one into the Marines ouendan to give Lotte the first lead of the game! That’s 3 HR in the past 4 games and 21 on the year, 5th in the Pacific League. He’s been sick lately and it hasn’t hurt his game one bit. When did he turn into a slugger? Ground-outs by Iguchi and Ohmatsu and a pop out by Satozaki end the Lotte 4th.

    Karakawa is cruising now. Ground-outs by Inaba and Sledge and a swinging K by Takahashi send the Fighters down in order. 4 K’s for #19, and a 1-0 Lotte lead!

    Fifth Inning
    Benny floats a single to center to lead off the fifth. Fukuura drops a lovely bunt to sac him to second, Minami lines to Inaba to send Benny to third. The stage is set with Tsuyoshi at the plate – and he stares at strike three zipping by. Three outs, change.

    Grounder by Koyano to Iguchi and a swinging third strike by Nioka – 10 in a row for the Baby-Faced Killer. A 5 pitch walk to Tsuruoka ends that string, but Kaneko conveniently grounds out to Karakawa to end the inning. Very nice outing for Karakawa, as is the norm. I will ask again, as it bears worth repeating over and over – why does he only have 4 wins on the season?!?

    Sixth Inning
    Imae leads with a double that’s just under the glove of a sprinting Itoi. Up next is the white-hot Saburo – can he deliver again? He’s down 2-0 early but works the count full, waiting for his pitch. He gets it – a slap single up the middle past a diving Kaneko! A one-man offensive powerhouse, he puts Lotte up 2-0! Iguchi lines to Sledge in left, and Ohmatsu lines to Tanaka, who whips it to first, but Saburo is back in time. Satozaki pokes a single through the left side bringing up Benny – he grounds one to Koyano to end the inning. Nice run, and it might be enough with Karakawa hot as he is.

    Interestingly (well, interestingly to me) – my browser wants to correct my mistyping of grounders to gerunds. Maybe Benny did Grounding or Outing to third? I amuse myself.

    A grounder to Tsuyoshi that just nips Tanaka at first, nice. Itoi lines one to Ohmatsu for out two, and Inaba flies to Saburo for the third out. Karakawa is cruising so well I could almost autotext the Fighters’s frames. 2-0 after 6.

    Lucky 7
    A ground-out by Fukuura is followed by a Minami walk. Tsuyoshi flies to center and Nashida-kantoku is making a change. Out is Yagi and in is Tanimoto. He gets Imae swinging on a filthy fork ball in the dirt for strike three.

    Takahashi grounds to Tsuyoshi, who makes a nice pick on a difficult ball to get the out. Sledge pops to Imae, who’s playing where Tsuyoshi would normally be thanks to a mega-shift to the right. A liner by Koyano to Minami ends the inning. 17 batters in a row without a hit, only interrupted by the 5th inning walk. Still 2-0 Lotte!

    Eighth Inning
    Sensei!!! Saburo blasts another deep ball off the fence where Itoi can’t get it. He’s easily in for a double, but limps off with a leg injury. Hopefully it’s not too bad, but he’s missed some time with injuries lately, so it’s of course a concern. Hayakawa fills in as pinch runner. Iguchi hits a flare to center and Tanaka makes a great jumping catch to reel it in. That was a lot of ground to cover, excellent play. Tanimoto is out and in comes Miyanishi. Ohmatsu greets him with a double to right, scoring Hayakawa easily and making it a 3-0 game! Sato singles to put runners on the corner with only one out. Benny’s at the plate with a chance to bring in another run – he pops one to right, plenty deep for Ohmatsu to score from third! 4-0 Lotte. Fukuura cracks a double and Satozaki is (very unwisely) coming home. Out by 5 or 6 steps, at least, second time he’s been thrown out on the bases today. But Lotte gets some much-needed insurance – a 4 run lead with Karakawa on the hill has got to be golden.

    Nioka singles to left for the Fighters’s first hit since the second. Inada is pinch-hitting for Tsuruoka, and he grounds one to Iguchi, who charges and flips to Tsuyoshi at second – except he is a bit off in his flip and Tsuyoshi barely, barely holds on to both ball and bag. Tsuboi pinch hits for Kaneko and singles to left – 1st and 2nd with one out.

    See, here’s why insurance runs are nice – Tanaka lines one down the right field line scoring Inada. Can Karakawa dig deep to get out of the jam? A grounder by Itoi to Iguchi – he flips to Tsuyoshi for one but there’s no throw to first. Another run is in to make it 4-2. Fighters fans are really hyped up with Inaba at the plate – the Inaba jump is in full swing, making the cameras get all jiggly. We must quiet them. Inaba lifts one deeeep to left, but it’s short of the fence – Ohmatsu is under it and hauls it in for out three. Nippon Ham gets the two runs back but Lotte still has a 2 run lead, 4-2. On to the ninth!

    Ninth Inning
    Hisashi Takeda is in, as is is Hayasaka (for Minami). Hayasaka greets Takeda with… a liner to Iiyama (replacing Kaneko at short). Tsuyoshi grounds out to second for out two, and Imae grounds back to Takeda for a very quick Lotte frame. It’s down to the bottom of the ninth, and Lotte must protect this lead and get Karakawa the win!

    Sikorski is tasked with shutting down the Fighters bats. It doesn’t start well – Takahashi smashes one down the first base line and it pops off the bag, way high. Safe at first with slugger Sledge coming up. But Sledge grounds to Fukuura, who flips to Tsuyoshi, who whips it back to Sikorski for two! Niiiice. Koyano at the plate – Brian gets ahead 2-0 and whips a nasty changeup right by the swinging Koyano for strike three! A 4-2 Lotte win!!!!

    The Baby-Faced Killer strikes again, and gets the WIN finally! 8 IP, 2 ER on 5 hits, 5 Ks and only one walk in 130 pitches. Very nice indeed. One can’t ignore the one-man wrecking crew contributions of the awesome Saburo – 4-4 with 2 RBI and an HR. That guarantees the series win for Lotte – an amazing turnaround in fortunes as it’s the second series win in a row for Lotte vs the Fighters, and the 4th consecutive series win. It also runs Lotte’s record for the month to 8-3. Mathematically they are still alive for the 3rd spot… (How stupidly optimistic is that?) 16.5 back of first with 19 to play – let’s do it! (OK, more like 11 back of 3rd with 19 to play)

    Nippon Ham, on the other hand, is reeling. That’s 6 in a row for the Fighters, but Softbank is also losing as of this writing so they won’t lose any ground at the top. That probably doesn’t make Fighters fans feel any better, though.

  • Immovable Force vs Movable Object

    Nasty stuff from Naruse
    Nasty stuff from Naruse

    Lotte starter Yoshihisa Naruse as of late has been The Feared One. He has not been the man lurking in the shadows, sneaking up on poor, unsuspecting Pa-League batters. Oh no. He’s been the crocodile in the pond, chomping everything in sight and leaving nothing but tears and woe. Let’s look at the evidence – since the calendar turned to August young Naruse has won 4 of his 5 starts coming into Thursday’s game (with a no decision in the fifth). His last start at home versus Nippon Ham was a pure masterpiece – a complete game, 154 pitch, 13 K 1-run beat down. His stuff was about as dominant as a pitcher’s stuff could be (remember, Nippon Ham rules not only the Pa League standings this year but 3 of the top 5 and 5 of the top 11 batters in the league).

    Thursday’s game was quite as good as that performance but it was still damn good as Naruse pitched another complete game victory, scattering 2 runs (both very early on) on 8 hits and an astounding 12 K’s to pick up his 5th win in the last 6 starts. In addition to the 5 wins since the start of August he sports a 2.06 ERA and 9.75 K/9. Memories of his 16-1 campaign in 2007, indeed. Did I mention he doesn’t turn 24 until next month?

    I pilfered a pair of primo seats – possibly the most primo in the house – for Thursday’s game as John and I sat right next to the Daiei dugout. You’ll have to excuse the rather large amount of photos of Daiei photos this post as I had to take advantage of being so close to their bench. We were also surrounded by a bunch of Daiei fans including a rather loud gent and his child sitting directly behind us. He was a fan of Daiei’s starting pitcher, Shota Ohba.

    Ohba practices the sweetest spots for Lotte batters
    Ohba practices the sweetest spots for Lotte batters

    Quite creatively, while Ohba was on the mound this gent would yell – get this – “SHOTA!” Repeatedly. And again. “SHOOOOTTAAAAA!” Sigh.

    Early on, the ambient Daiei fandom had much to cheer. Honda led off the game with a single off of Naruse, and Kawasaki bunted him to second. Former Lotte 2B and general nice guy Jose Ortiz got the scoring started with a clutch single to score Honda from second. 1-0 Daiei after one.

    Jose Ortiz contemplates the loveliness of Chiba Marine and Lotte Fandom
    Jose Ortiz contemplates the loveliness of Chiba Marine and Lotte Fandom

    In the second Naruse looked just a wee bit shaky. A single by Hasegawa was followed by a deeeeep blast to deeeeep left by Tanoue. 3-0 Daiei after 2.

    For his part, SHOTA! kept the Lotte bats in check early, giving up a double to Ohmatsu in the second by allowing no runs and striking out 3. This, of course, led to much SHOOOOTTTTAAAAA! In the Lotte third I realized I couldn’t let this stand, for nobody out-louds me. As Tsuyoshi came to the plate to lead off the third another SHOOOOTTTTAAAA! was screamed, so I uncorked my best TSUYOSHI, causing much giggling among the Daiei fans. I turned to the SHOTA! fan to laugh with him but he stared ahead, grimly, joyless. But quieter.

    Ohmatsu waits on the pitch from SHOTA!!!!
    Ohmatsu waits on the pitch from SHOTA!!!!

    He should be glad BENNY wasn’t in the lineup.

    Tsuyoshi clearly heard me and responded in kind, singling to start the inning. That would go for naught this third inning but he would remember Lotte fandom and repay the cheers later – more on that soon.

    Naruse was woken up by the Tanoue homer and turned the heat up to 11. Over the subsequent 7 innings Naruse scattered only 4 hits and struck out 10, totally throwing a wet blanket on the Daiei attack. At no point in time past the 2nd inning would a reasonable person have said that Daiei had a scoring chance – that’s shutting a team down. Could the Lotte offense rise to support their flamethrowing young lefty?

    It’s now the bottom of the 4th, and SHOTA! is still on the hill. Fukuura leads off the frame with a nice double to left. Imae doubles to right and Nishimura holds Fukuura at third – runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. It’s SHOTA! versus Hayakawa – oops, HAYAKAWA!!! – I must do my part! Hayakawa sure does his part – he singles to right to score Fukuura for Lotte’s first run of the night. Up next is Tsuyoshi! – he remembers the uplifting cheers of the faithful and delivers an RBI groundout that scores Imae. It’s a one run game, folks!

    Imae gets the sign from Nishimura. It says 'Hit!'
    Imae gets the sign from Nishimura. It says ‘Hit!’
    The sign works - it's a hit!
    The sign works – it’s a hit!

    SHOTA!!! has managed to cough up 100+ pitches in 4 innings of work, so Akiyama-Kantoku pulls him for Ohtonari. My ears appreciate this greatly, as do the Lotte bats. Ohmatsu bids him hello with a single to right, Sato singles to center, and with one out Fukuura delivers a clutch RBI single! It’s a 3-3 game now.

    Possibly the only pic I have of Sato with a bat still in his hands
    Possibly the only pic I have of Sato with a bat still in his hands

    It’s the 6th, and more goodness is served to the plate of Lotte bats. Tsuyoshi walks and swipes second, and Saburo also draws a walk. Satoh replaces Ohtonari, and Bobby pinch-hits Hashimoto for Iguchi, John says “He must have a hunch.” A nice hunch indeed as Hashimoto delivers a tie-breaking single to score Tsuyoshi! 4-3 after 6.

    What’s that you say? More? Sure, there’s more! In the 7th Satozaki doubles to right but is tragically cut down trying to stretch it to third. Nice hustle, though.

    Yeah, he got the tag in there, dammit.
    Yeah, he got the tag in there, dammit.

    The effort is appreciated by all, except the very very quiet Daiei fans in my section. Notice I haven’t mentioned the SHOTA! fan? Quiet as a church mouse. Heh. Not me, though – I’m loud as ever. Fukuura draws a walk and Imae grounds to short – two outs. Hayakawa’s at the plate – blammo! An RBI double by the light-hitting but speedy outfielder! Up next is Tsuyoshi, still awash in the adulation of the adoring fans. The moon smiles upon Tsuyoshi, and he obliterates a pitch from Satoh into the frenzied Lotte ouendan! 7 unanswered runs, and a 7-3 lead!

    Smoosh!
    Smoosh!
    'Come home, son, we've saved a plate for you.'
    ‘Come home, son, we’ve saved a plate for you.’

    Lotte caps the scoring in the bottom of the 8th with a bases-loaded HBP on Fukuura – 8-3. That’s how it would end as Lotte takes the game and the series! Next is on to Sapporo for a weekend set with the Fighters – can Lotte finally break through versus Nippon Ham?

  • Fight the Fighting Fighters!

    ham_banner

    What’s this I see? Not one, but TWO victories versus the Fighters? Indeed, what you have heard is true, as this week the first place Nippon Ham Fighters swaggered in to town but took two out of three on the chin from our plucky Marines. It is – quite obviously, as anyone who follows Lotte this year will know – the first series win for our guys against the boys from Up North.

    In fact, the Fighters had taken the last 9 games these two teams had met, so Tuesday’s 9-2 victory was quite sweet. Yuta Ohmine won his second consecutive start and again got massive run support as the Lotte bats powered for 4 homers. Tsuyoshi led of the first with a solo shot, Iguchi hit his 14th of the year (he had 10 in early May – a massive power drought indeed) with Imae on in the second. Saburo and Satozaki each hit solo shots in the 5th and 6th innings – Sato’s blast so huge it went off the back wall in left. The other 4 runs were brought in by a 2-run Hashimoto double and a 2-run Ohmatsu single.

    For Ohmine’s part, he game up run-scoring doubles to Itoi and Kaneko in the second but nothing else for his 7 innings of work. Ogino and Kawasaki each pitched a scoreless inning in relief.

    All in all a very nice little beat-down, just enough to get some mojo back.

    Wednesday was a different story. I came to the game totally unprepared, no camera, no uniform, no towel, no Team 26 card – nothing but my lungs to yell support for Lotte. It was a special promotion night as well, black uniform night. Recently the team has been selling repros of the pre-championship years road unis (the all-black with silver lettering) so all were encouraged to wear black unis for this game. Free 40th anniversary towels , too. I have a sentimental attachment to these old unis as in the first game I ever saw Lotte play they were wearing these, so to me they are what I think if when I think of “Lotte Road Unis”. (Doesn’t hurt that I wear an original uni from this period as my road uni).

    Anyway, the game on Wednesday was the opposite of Tuesday’s blast-o-rama. Fighters starter Brian Sweeney shut down the Lotte bats over 7 innings of 4 hit ball. Nippon Ham got 2 in the second off of a Kaneko double and another in the third via a Koyano RBI single. Lotte starter Kobayashi pitched fairly other than that, giving up 10 hits but striking out 10 as well. On Tuesday that would have been enough to win but not on Wednesday, as Nippon Ham takes the second game of the series 3-1.

    I got into a texting duel with Deanna from the Marinerds blog – she was in the Fighters gaiya and I was directly opposite her behind the Lotte dugout. It was like the modern equivalent of an early 80’s street corner rap battle – meaningless and fun. I think my buddy Patrick, with whom I was enjoying the fine late summer evening at the ballpark, wondered who the hell I was texting all game.

    Lotte did manage to get a late run off a Saburo pinch-hit double in the 8th, but there was really nothing else doing as the Fighters staff kept an wet blanket on top of the offense.

    Thursday’s game was supposed to be a possibly rainy affair but the weather was pretty good all day and the game went off without a hitch. (Well, there was a hitch for me as I was at work too late to show up as planned, grr) This was a very good thing, too, as the Lotte bats yet again came alive, racing out to an early 6-0 lead and cruising to a 7-1 victory. A very nice win to take the series!

    It was A Tale of Two Pitching Staffs – Fighters started Tadano gave up three in the first off a Saburo RBI double and a a Benny 2-RBI gapper. In the second Lotte added two more with a timely RBI single by Ohmatsu. Tadano uncorked a wild pitch to score Saburo from 3rd and make it 5-0. In the 3rd Tadano dropped another WP with Fukuura on third – he scores to make it 6-0.

    Lotte’s starter Naruse was simply amazing. He went the distance in this one on 154 pitches, giving up only 6 hits and one run while striking out an awesome 13 Fighters batters. The only run came off a solo shot by Fighters rookie catcher Ono.

    Lotte added another insurance run with a timely single by Ohmatsu to score Tsuyoshi from third, but Naruse wouldn’t need the extra support.

    Mark my words, if Lotte had put up 7 runs in more games and gotten complete game one-run starts more often, they might have won just a few more games this season. It’s great to see Naruse turn it on at the end of the season, too – he’s gone at least 7 in every start the past few months. He’s also won 4 of his last 5 starts, quietly dropping his ERA to 3.60 and notching his 8th win. Hopefully it bodes well for next year – it’s difficult to remember sometimes he’s still only 23.

    Up next is a trip to Kobe and Skymark for a set with Orix. After this week’s breakthrough series I suspect the guys will keep up the good play and take the second series in a row!