Yoshihisa Naruse

On Pitching: Lotte vs Chunichi, Interleague Games 5 & 6

I originally wrote this post as “On Pitching: Lotte vs Kyojin, Interleague Games 3 & 4”. It was a bit of a sarcastic title as there was little pitching to be found in that series. Actually, Naruse was quite decent in Saturday’s 4-2 loss in Tokyo Dome, if you look past the three HRs he gave up – which were, incidentally, numbers 14, 15, and 16 on the year. I was at Tokyo Dome on Sunday for Lotte’s 10-8 loss – yet again, the pitching was purely to blame as Lotte hurlers coughed up 5 HRs. Ohmine took the loss on 4 ER but he actually pitched much better than his replacement, Kodai Matsumoto. The 1st inning HR Ohmine gave up to Abe was probably the biggest HR I have ever seen in person. It was listed at 145m (~475ft) and I don’t doubt that for a second.

Despite the 5 HRs given up the Lotte offense made a go of it and tried to wipe out a 6 run deficit in the 9th with blasts of their own. Nishioka started with a 2-run shot (scoring Aono, making his first appearance at ichi-gun since 2007) and Kim Tae Kyun hit his second of the night into the left field stands. The rally would fall two runs short, though. [Click for more]

On the First Quarter of 2010

Every once in a while I try to fake being a Real Baseball Writer – I’ll whip out a stat or two, try to argue a point, basically do something other than waste a whole bunch of bandwidth with obsessive amounts of photos and snide comments. (OK – you are now thinking “Yeah right, when

For The Love of 52 Yen Burgers

If you look back at my recent postings you’ll see a criticism of our new Korean slugger Kim Tae Kyun. To quote myself: Some trends are bothering me a bit – the main one is Kim Tae Kyun’s issues in the cleanup spot. He’s played nice defense and is second in the league in walks

All Kinds of Ways to Win

There are two basic kinds of blowouts. There’s the sort where one team beats the crap out of the other in the first, then sits in the dugout drinking wine and relaxing for the next day’s game. I went to the quintessential example of this sort of game two years ago in Nagano – Seibu

Fast Out of the Gate

The first series of the 2010 season vs Orix is in the books, and it was a GREAT one for Lotte. Three games in Osaka, 3 wins for the Marines. 25 runs scored on 43 hits. Last year Lotte didn’t win their first game in Osaka until August, this year the guys took the first