On Saturday the bullpen couldn’t back up Karakawa’s six and a third, one run performance. Little by little, the Nippon Ham Fighters picked away at Lotte’s 2-0 lead to win in sayonara fashion. The final score would read Fighters 3 – Marines 2 in 10x inning.
It’s been a rough month in Lotteland – a terrible, loss-filled disaster of a July. On Wednesday night Our Marines, behind steady pitching and strong veteran leadership, broke a 5 game losing streak and ended July on a stirring note via a strong 6-1 victory over Nippon Ham at QVC.
Talk about your unexpected surprises! We’ve been lamenting the lack of quality starters in the Lotte rotation for ages now, and it seems we may have had one in our midst the whole time and not known it. Quality? You want quality? My buddy Takuya Furuya – plucked from ni-gun and the bullpen, making his first career ichi-gun start – utterly and completely dominated Orix in Osaka, decisively grabbing a 7-0 victory in one-hit style.
Tonight at the Kyocera Dome, Lotte bats launched a 10-hit barrage against Orix starter Chihiro Kaneko – 2 doubles, a triple, and throwing in 2 walks for good measure. The Baby-Faced Killer took the mound for Our Marines, looking at times super sharp, holding Orix to hits in only two innings and recording 10 outs in a row at one point. I don’t even have to tell you how this one ended up, do I? Orix 4, Lotte 1.
