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Tag: Takahiro Fujioka

  • Rival Series 1: Lotte @ Seibu, 25-27 July 2014

    rival-sm

    Series Preview:

    Our Marines went 3-2-1 versus SoftBank during a 6 game home-and-home stretch, with the Chiba portion occurring before the All-Star holiday and the Kyushu set coming after. The four days off in between the games provided some time to reflect on the 2014 Marines, and it seems entirely possible that we hit rock bottom at ten games under .500 in mid-July. Sure a 3-2-1 stretch doesn’t exactly inspire thoughts of unabashed optimism, but the tide seems to be shifting in a more competitive direction. The tied game was the only game of the six in which we didn’t claim the lead at least once. Keeping in mind, this is versus a team that’s preparing itself for a late summer pennant race.

    Another boost for Our Marines came off the field with free agent signing Alfredo Despaigne earlier in the week. We’re four games out of the post-season heading into this weekend. Maybe the slugger from Cuba is just the man we need to help us catch the 3rd place Fighters, but first we must get past the 4th place Lions. That brings us to this weekend’s rival series with the Lions at the Seibu Dome. The Lions jumped a half game in front of us on Wednesday, but this weekend we have the chance to leap frog them back into 4th place before Despaigne’s debut. We’re not going anywhere though without some more reliable pitching, perhaps the potential returns of Wakui and/or Naruse this weekend can provide that. Fingers crossed.

     

    Game 1 – Lotte WINS 3-2

    Lotte: Takahiro Fujioka (5-5 3.86) @ Seibu: Ryohei Fujiwara (2-3 3.79)

    [expand title=”Continue Reading” trigclass=”noarrow” excerptpos=”above-trigger” alt=”Click to Expand” tag=”b” excerpt=”By: Craig Roberts Fujioka threw six innings of three-hit two-run ball to lead Our Marines to victory over Seibu on Friday night. All five runs in the game came in the 2nd inning, with Our Marines getting the lion’s share and the 3-2 lead. The score stayed that way until the final out when Nishino closed out the Lions for his 21st save. Take away that one inning hiccup, and Fujioka nearly shut down the Lions for the remaining five innings pitched. He allowed just one hit outside of that 2nd inning, retiring 12 batters in a row during one stretch, and 14 out of the last 15 batters he faced. He was pulled after 6 IP and 94 pitches, and the bullpen took it from there.”]

    Imae got the scoring started with an opposite field home run to right field leading off the 2nd inning to make it 1-0. Cruz followed with a base hit to center, and on a 3-0 pitch Tamura sacrificed him over to second. Ohmatsu was hit by a pitch, putting runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out for leadoff man Katoh. Katoh smoked a ground ball past the diving 3rd baseman Asamura and down the left field line. Cruz scored to make it 2-0 on the Katoh RBI double. With Daichi up next, Seibu starter Fujiwara uncorked a wild pitch that brought Ohmatsu home from 3rd. 3-0 Lotte! Daichi and Iguchi both grounded out after that, failing to bring Katoh home from 3rd.

    Seibu came back with a couple of runs of their own in the home half. Asamura drew a lead off walk, and the next batter Ernesto Mejia destroyed a Fujioka offering and sent it very deep to left field for a 2 run home run. 0 outs and the lead is cut to 3-2. Asamura came up next and struck a base hit into left. After a Morimoto sac bunt, Fujioka retired the next two batters to end the inning. We’re out of the inning, but at the time it seeemd all the early scoring wouldn’t bode well for either starting pitcher. Little did we know, the home run to Mejia would basically be the only Fujioka mistake of the game.

    We know now that Fujioka wouldn’t allow another base runner until the 6th. Our Marines did have some chances to add to the lead, but ended up stranding a total of 12 base runners in the game. The game started with a couple of stranded runners in the 1st inning after a Daichi 1-out double and Iguchi 1-out walk. Other chances included a 1-out bases loaded chance in the 3rd and a 1-out 2-on chance in the 5th. Both innings ended with the number 8 & 9 hitter Tamura and Ohmatsu making the last two outs. We got into the Seibu bullpen when Fujiwara was pulled with 2 out in the 5th. After Takekuma finished off the 5th, former Marine Hiroyuki Kobayashi made an appearance and threw a scoreless 6th after walking 2 with 2 out.

    The Lotte bullpen handled the rest, but not without some Seibu chances. Masuda gave up 2 singles, but also got 2 strike outs for a scoreless 7th. Ohtani allowed a 2-out single, but nothing more in the 8th. Finally, Nishino closed out the game on a Sumtani ground out to 3rd, but not before a 2-out single and uncontested stolen base put the tying run in scoring position.
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    [expand title=” Game 1 digest from Pacific League TV” trigclass=”noarrow” notitle=”true”]

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    [expand title=” Game 1 Box Score in English” trigclass=”noarrow” notitle=”true”]

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    Game 2 – Lotte Loses 5-3

    Lotte: Hideaki Wakui (3-8 4.52) @ Seibu: Greg Reynolds (0-5 5.52)

    [expand title=”Continue Reading” trigclass=”noarrow” excerptpos=”above-trigger” alt=”Click to Expand” tag=”b” excerpt=”By: Craig Roberts If anything, Saturday’s game was eventful. We had a score of run saving defensive plays, two close plays at the plate, a big blown call, and a manager ejection. Unfortunately for Our Marines, almost all of those things went against us. In the end, Wakui took the loss and Our Marines fell 5-3.”]

    Wakui was far from sharp early on, a 31 pitch first inning being an indication of that. If not for two Huffman plays – The first a running over-the-shoulder catch near the wall in left center. The other a diving catch to take 3 runs off the board with the bases loaded and 2 out. – Wakui may not have gotten out of the first inning. He settled down a bit, going 1-2-3 in the 2nd and allowing just a walk in the 3rd, but was still at 56 pitches after 3.

    Sayonara Itoh, from baseball-pr.com
    Sayonara Itoh, from baseball-pr.com
    Lotte finally struck off Lions starter Reynolds in the 4th inning. Iguchi led off and got on base via a soft liner to 2nd that was dropped and booted by Kaneko for an error. Fukuura got aboard via a bloop hit into shallow left, and Huffman loaded the bases on a base hit to right. Cruz was up with the bases loaded 0-out chance and grounded a ball between 3rd base and short stop. The SS Watanabe reached and got a glove on the ball, but couldn’t secure it. Everyone advances a base and Cruz gets credit for an RBI IF single. 1-0 Lotte. Nemoto followed with a deep drive to center that was barely tracked down by a retreating Akiyama. The ball is plenty deep to score a tagging Fukuura to make it 2-0 Marines on the Nemo sac fly. Cruz advanced to 3rd on the play, setting up a Kawamoto RBI squeeze bunt to notch the total to 3-0 Chiba. That’s two games in a row that Our Marines jumped out to an early 3-0 lead.

    The Lions answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the 4th on a very close play at the plate, an RBI single by Sumitani that made it 3-1. A Nakamura solo home run in the 5th inning brought them even closer at 3-2.

    It was in the bottom of the 6th that the ticking Wakui time bomb finally went off. He allowed a single, sac bunt, and walk to start the inning. Next up, the number 9 hitter Kaneko drove both those runners home with a two run triple to right center. Lions take the lead 4-3. Wakui thought he had strike three when the next batter Akiyama swung at a ball in the dirt. The umpire immediately called it a dead ball foul as Kawamoto went to pick up the ball and fire to first to complete the out. They didn’t show a clear replay, but it appeared it was a swing and a miss. Itoh comes out to argue and gets tossed. Adding insult to injury, Akiyama takes advantage of his second chance and slaps a base hit past a diving Daichi at short and into left to score Kaneko from 3rd. 5-3. Wakui is pulled after 109 pitches in favor of Ueno. After Ueno allowed a hit, the inning mercifully ended when Matsunaga came in and induced a double play.

    All the scoring is done at this point partially thanks to some nice defensive plays by the Lions. Huffman was robbed of his 3rd straight hit and possibly 2 RBI on a line drive leaping catch by 3rd baseman Asamura with 2 on to end the 5th. Seibu left fielder Kuriyama timed his jump perfectly against the left field wall and robbed Katoh of an extra bases RBI to end the 6th. The 8th ended on a play at the plate when Cruz was thrown out trying to score from 2nd on a Nemoto base hit to left. Give credit to the Lions for making the plays and getting Greg Reynolds his first NPB win.

    As a side note on Reynolds*, his control was on-and-off during and after the big 3rd inning, with a lot of 3 ball counts. Itoh really let him off the hook after a lead off walk to Okada in the 5th. Instead of letting his number two batter and captain hit, Itoh called for a bunt, electing to give a free out to a pitcher that just allowed a lead off walk to a historically nonthreatening Okada. The move led to another quick out, a walk, and eventually the 3rd out.

    *But, mostly on Itoh
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    [expand title=” Game 2 digest from Pacific League TV” trigclass=”noarrow” notitle=”true”]

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    [expand title=” Game 2 Box Score in English” trigclass=”noarrow” notitle=”true”]

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    Game 3 – Lotte WINS 5-3

    Lotte: Yoshihisa Naruse (5-6 5.21) @ Seibu: Takayuki Kishi (8-3 2.61)

    [expand title=”Continue Reading” trigclass=”noarrow” excerptpos=”above-trigger” alt=”Click to Expand” tag=”b” excerpt=”By: Craig Roberts The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Kishi is the no hitter he threw against us in May. Katoh made sure that wouldn’t happen again, swinging at the first pitch he saw for a single. After another loss to Kishi in July, it took until the 9th inning on Sunday and some late heroics by Huffman and Fukuura to finally get revenge on Kishi and the Lions.”]

    Things did not start so well for Our Marines. Naruse was back, but once again he was paired with Kanazawa to catch. The statistical disparity between Naruse’s starts with Kanazawa versus any other catcher has been well documented by Steve on Twitter.* The first inning saw more of the same: 4 hits, 2 walks and an early 3-0 Lions lead. The inning ended with the bases loaded, but the damage had been done.

    *3.60 ERA, 3 HR, 1.35 WHIP in 9 games with other catchers. 9.43 ERA, 7 HR, 2.05 WHIP in 4 games with Kanazawa.

    Things turned around after that. Naruse threw 5 more innings, allowing just 3 more hits, 2 more walks, while striking out 5. The 3rd and 4th innings ended with a man in scoring position, as did the 6th. Naruse’s efforts to keep us in the game paid dividends in the end. Naruse’s final pitch was a force out to short with runners on the corners to escape the 6th with the score still tied. Wait, still tied?

    Yes, after 5 innings of 1 hit ball versus Kishi, the Lotte bats finally woke up for a 3 run 6th. Kanazawa broke the spell with a leadoff solo home run to right. 3-1. Katoh hit a soft liner over the 2nd baseman to get aboard with 1 out. Daichi then put runners on the corners with a base hit through the right side of the infield. Imae delivered with a base hit through the left side to score Katoh. 3-2. Saburo delivered in much the same way, a base hit through the left side of his own to score Daichi. Tied at 3! Huffman and Nemoto fanned to end the inning, but that’s all right as we went from being 1-hit to tied at 3 in one inning.

    Masuda came in for Naruse and pitched a 1-2-3 7th. The combination of Ohtani and Matsunaga got us through the 8th after a lead off single. Lotte went hitless through the 7th & 8th, so we headed to the 9th.

    Saburo led off the 9th, just checking his swing on a 3-2 pitch to get aboard with a walk versus Kishi. With Kishi now at 104 pitches Chad Huffman came to the plate. Huff (8 for 18 with 2 HRs, 2 2Bs, 3 BB in his last 5 games) smoked a ball past the lunging left fielder and into the gap. Saburo scored from first, and Huff is in safe at 3rd with a go ahead RBI triple. 4-3! Huff is lifted for a pinch runner, as he gets a warm ovation from the Lotte faithful and an enthusiastic greeting from his teammates in the dugout. Lotte legend Fukuura is in to pinch hit for Nemoto, and with the smooth Fukuura swing he one hops a ball into left. PR Ishimine scores from 3rd. 5-3! The Lotte bats made 3 straight outs after that, so we headed to the bottom of the 9th.

    Nishino was in to close versus the top of the Lions order. Akiyama led off with a high chopper over Imae and into left. Akiyama advanced on a pitch that bounced in front of home and off Kanzazawa. Next, Watanabe grounded out for the 1st out. Next up, Kuriyama rolled a ball toward third base. The only play was to hope it rolled foul, but it didn’t. Uh oh, runners on the corners, 1 out, go-ahead run at the plate in the form of cleanup man Nakamura. Nakamura, already with a HR in the series, popped out foul to Imae for out number two. Up next was Mejia, also with a HR in the series, but Nishino struck him out on a 3-2 pitch to end the game. Lotte wins!!!
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    [expand title=” Game 3 digest from Pacific League TV” trigclass=”noarrow” notitle=”true”]

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    [expand title=” HUFFMAN HERO INTERVIEW” trigclass=”noarrow” notitle=”true”]

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    [expand title=” Game 3 Box Score in English” trigclass=”noarrow” notitle=”true”]

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  • Interleague Series 10: Lotte @ DeNA, 17-18 June 2014

    Interleague Series 10: Lotte @ DeNA, 17-18 June 2014

    from tbs.co.jp
    from tbs.co.jp
    Series Preview:

    At least the offense has woken up – we can definitely say that about recent efforts as Lotte hitters have managed to get on base frequently and even score a few as of late. The bullpen is starting to worry – a lot – as many previously reliable arms have run into surprising difficulties. Just the same as last year, we at WLM are worried about bullpen overuse. Sure, part of that is the at times quite poor starting pitching, but really it’s a matter of Itoh-kantoku making a conscious choice to trust his pen for way more innings than is probably prudent.

    Suffice it to say, this series in Yokohama is tough to predict. One might think a warming up Chiba offense could give Yokohama arms fits, but it didn’t play out that way two weeks ago at QVC. The starting pitching is full of intrigue as Yuta Ohmine makes a surprise start in Game 2, with New New Lefty Ace Fujioka in Game 2.

     

    [expand title=” Game 1 – Lotte wins 6-4 (Click to Expand)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=” Lotte: Yuta Ohmine (NR) @ DeNA: Yasutomo Kubo (4-4, 4.80 ERA)

    By Steve Novosel The wonderful pitching matchup between Former Great Lotte Hope Yuta Ohmine and Former Former Great Lotte Hope Yasutomo Kubo produced an early pitching duel, until some unbelievable plays and less-than-optimal bullpen work threw the entire outcome into doubt. Chiba’s mistakes ultimately were fewer than the BayStars’s mistakes as Our Marines prevailed by a 6-4 margin.”]

    As I harped on quite a bit last year, I was the last man riding the Yuta Ohmine bandwagon after everyone else had (wisely) jumped off several years before. I figured, hey, a 25 year old former first round pick with great stuff still but piles of mental toughness issues could make for a fine reclamation project, right? And for a while last year I looked brilliant as Yuta was fantastic in ni-gun and in his first ichi-gun game threw a wonderful complete game victory.

    After that – a reversion to old habits, and a demotion back to ni-gun. This year has been no better as Ohmine has been stuck in ni-gun and quite frankly not very good there (ERA near 5, 1.41 WHIP). But since Karakawa and Naruse have been exiled, arms are needed and here is Ohmine’s second third fourth I lost count chance. Here’s the kicker – Yuta was really good this game. No, seriously!

    First Half Pitching Duel
    Ohmine’s counterpart on the mound brings a nostalgic smile to my face – former Lotte rookie of the year Kubo, member of the 2005 Nippon Series champs and former teammate of Ohmine when he was just a wee lad.

    Kubo was in full control the first 5 innings, as Chiba could manage just 4 hits and no runs in that time while Kubo punched out 6 in those early frames.

    from marines.co.jp
    from marines.co.jp
    Ohmine was just about as good – 4 hits and 4 Ks in the first 6 innings – except for one big mistake, a fat pitch to the light hitting Ide in bottom 5, a pitch that Ide knocked into the right field stand for a 2-0 DeNA lead. Old Ohmine would fall apart after such a mistake but he was just grand for the 6th inning and could have gone very deep before the impatient Itoh pulled him in the 7th. Final line, a very reasonable 6 1/3, 4 hits, 2 ER on just 83 pitches. He’ll get more chances for sure.

    Second Half Crazy Ball
    Top 6 – Captain Daichi smacks a one-out double to right. After a first-pitch Iguchi ground out, Imae drew a walk to bring hot Kakunaka to the plate. And hot Kakunaka continues the hot hitting with a hot double to left, scoring a hotly streaking Daichi for the first Lotte run. Braz in with a chance to add on – and yeah, he does! Sort of! Kubo uncorks a ball in the dirt, catcher Kurobane can’t get it, Imae races home to tie the game – WAIT, Kurobane misses with the throw to Kubo at home, Kakunaka scores as well! It’s not quite the three-run wild pitch of yore, but it’s the very rare 2-run wild pitch and a 3-2 Lotte lead.

    Top 7 – T OGINO reaches via one out single, and after almost getting picked off he barely, barely steals second whence Iguchi drives him the heck in. 4-2 Lotte, and Itoh says “That’s enough, boys!” and eases off the throttle, pulling Iguchi (for Hosoya), Braz (for Saburo), and Huffman (for Okada). This did not work at all.

    Bottom 8 – Carlos Rosa in and quickly it’s two outs, but on out three he and Imae are confused over who should field a short bouncer, and ultimately neither got to it. Kajitani pinch hit – RBI double, hoo boy. That’s it for Rosa, in comes Furuya, who immediately gives up the game tying hit to Ishikawa. Zoiks. Furuya continued to be out of sorts as well, walking a pair of batters to load the bases for Tamura. Itoh went to Ueno to get this vital out, and oh did he! A punch out, further damage prevented, a tie game going to the 9th.

    Top 9 – Cruz and Daichi singled (with a sac bunt in between) for runners on the corners with just one out. BIG chance time – time for our clutch number three batter Iguchi no, he got pulled for no reason, remember? It’s Hosoya, and Itoh pulls Kei for Nemo. Nemoto chops a Sosa offering right up the third base line. Kanazawa (pinch running for Cruz) was on his way home and surely out, but new 3B Gourriel fumbled the glove-hand transfer and just tossed the ball in the air! Everyone safe, 5-4 Lotte lead! And after Imae lashed a liner deep, Daichi scored for the 6th run.

    All that was left was for Nishino to do what Nishino does, and he done did that thing in 1-2-3 fashion. A nice bit of work to fight back from the early deficit and the disappointment of the DeNA comeback.

    [/expand]

    [expand title=” Game 2 – Lotte loses 11-6 (Click to Expand)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=” Lotte: Takahiro Fujioka (4-2, 2.51 ERA) @ DeNA: Shoichi Ino (7-3, 3.70 ERA)

    By Steve Novosel You may take a look at that score and think that this game was somewhat enjoyable. After all, a lot of runs scored can make for an interesting game, right? Not in this case. I’ve seen half of the 63 games played so far in person and most of the others on TV, and to me this was the least enjoyable of the lot. Yuk.”]

    Mr YukPart of that stems from the disappointment of a bad outing by New New Lefty Ace Fujioka – only his second bad start of the year. Part of it comes from the fact that none of the other pitchers had any more success, either. But most of it comes from the fact that our best players were not beat by and large by the best DeNA had to offer, but by role players and guys on the back side of their careers. The whole episode just left a very sour taste in this Lotte fan’s mouth, and judging by the reaction on Twitter during the game, I am not the only one.

    I should have guessed we were in for a long haul in the first inning as leadoff T OGINO double and subsequent Daichi single led to exactly zero runs. How? Ogino tagged on a foul fly out (the second out) and was easily thrown out at the plate. Honestly, I don’t know how unless the jump was really poor, but replays never showed the tag at third. Shocking.

    In the second and sixth innings – a pair of crucial double plays killed Chiba rallies. Sure, Our Marines plated 6 in the game but it could – and should – have been so much more.

    Scoring only 6 wasn’t the problem, though. The real problem was Fujioka, then Kimura, then Hattori just could not get outs. I mentioned in Fujioka’s last start – the best of his career, as I said at the time – that he exuded a confident mien that we just hadn’t seen in recent times. This game, I haven’t seen him so flustered all year. First inning, a double by Gourriel and a homer by former Seibu utility man Goto gave DeNA a 2-0 lead. Second inning – 4 more DeNA hits and the score was 4-0. 3rd inning – Fujioka lost Tamura from an 0-2 count to a walk, and the next batter Ide hit ANOTHER homer – second in two days – for the 5th and 6th runs. Fujioka was so flustered at this point in the game that he balked not once but twice with Tamura on. I’ve never seen that from him.

    For a moment it looked like it would be game on as Chiba put four consecutive baserunners on in the third punctuated by RBI doubles from Ogino (his third multi-hit game in the last 5) and Daichi (Daichi – 3 modasho in 3 games, 13-27 in his last 6 games) for three runs, but that was basically it for the offense threat until the game was way, way out of hand. Yes, there were 5 hits total in innings 4-6 for Chiba to get the pot warming up, but Ino and Yokohama never let the pot boil over.

    On the other hand, Yokohama’s pot boiled over and made a huge mess on the scoreboard. For the 4th inning Kimura took over for Fujioka, and Kanazawa for Yoshida, but nothing changed. 4th inning – 4 hits for 3 runs and a 9-3 DeNA lead. 6th inning – bases loaded walk to make it 10-3. 7th inning – Goto RBI double (4-5 with 4 RBI on the evening. Goto! Really!) and an 11-3 score.

    The Chiba bats tried to make it a bit more interesting in the 8th as a Kanazawa double and Ishimine single scored 3 runs, but that only narrowed the gap to 5 runs.

    I realize that Itoh-kantoku blamed Yoshida for Fujioka’s troubles since both were pulled at the same time, but Kanazawa wasn’t the answer either. I have to wonder why Emura was not inserted in the 4th with the game only a three run deficit and Itoh determined to pull Yoshida. All season the catchers with the lowest pitcher ERA have been Yoshida and Emura so it seems logical that if one is not being played, the other should be.
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    One game win, one game lose – this is the recent fate of the 2014 Chiba Lotte Marines. How will this cycle be snapped? Perhaps this weekend in Nagoya Dome?

  • Interleague Series 8: Hanshin @ Lotte, 11-12 June 2014

    Interleague Series 8: Hanshin @ Lotte, 11-12 June 2014

    QVC

    Series Preview
     
    This month has been a disaster so far in Lotteland. The pitching has been pretty suspect at times, and when the pitching is not suspect the bats have mostly remained silent. Chiba has lost 7 of the last 9, it is time for the talent we all know is here to start showing what they can do. No need for dominance, competence will do just fine.

    After the abbreviated 2 game road trip, it’s back to QVC for Lotte and a rematch with Hanshin. The hot Fujioka and the mercurial Wakui should be the starters – but I’m not worried about the starters. I want to see runs, and I want to see them come in bunches.

     

    [expand title=” Game 1 – Lotte WINS 8-3 (Click to Expand)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=” Hanshin: Shintaro Fujinami (4-3, 3.16 ERA) @ Lotte: Takahiro Fujioka (3-2, 2.86 ERA)

    By Steve Novosel Young lefty Fujioka has been piping hot as of late, and on this very wet Wednesday at QVC Fujioka fired what is arguably the best pitching performance of his career as the bats capitalized on all sorts of opportunities to crank out a lovely 8-3 win.”]

    from marines.co.jp
    from marines.co.jp
    I say “arguably” the best pitching performance of his career – Fujioka did have a 10 K, 1-run complete game in his third career appearance – but that’s the only start of his career that can hold a candle to what he did in the steady rain on Wednesday. I’ll spoil any suspense for ya – how do you like:

    7 IP, 3 H (all doubles, interestingly), 1 BB, 0 runs (earned or otherwise), 11 K.

    I like it A LOT. Fujioka is such a pleasure to watch when he’s in a rhythm, too – spinning off his right foot, throwing arm still raised when he makes a great pitch, and that 1000 watt smile when he makes something good happen. We saw this in abundance on Wednesday.

    Pretty quietly, Fujioka has turned himself into one of the best pitchers in NPB this year. “REALLY, Steve? Come on now, don’t be a homer.” No, really, I’m not being a homer here. A strong argument could be made for Fujioka as the PL pitcher of the month in May (it went to Kishi), and if you remove his one poor outing of the year (8 ER in 4.1 at Seibu back in early April) his ERA is a stellar 1.36. This month it’s 0.64.

    Fujioka also knows the frustration of poor run support, as his last start was a loss in what we now term “The Yamaguchi game” – the 1-0 shutout at home vs DeNA. With hot-and-even-younger phenom Fujinami on the bump for Hanshin, the risk was there that Fujioka could yet again get little support.

    No. Not this time. Our Marines managed 8 runs off just 7 hits (with 4 BB and a HBP playing major contributing roles). That’s a far cry from the “one run on 10 hits” nonsense we’ve seen a lot of lately. How it went down was pretty simple.

    Second Inning

    Kakunaka doubled with one out, and with two outs Hanshin 1B Gomez booted a sure out off the bat of Nemoto – Kakunaka in easily, and Lotte led early 1-0.

    Third Inning

    With one out, Okada and Daichi both singled (with both stealing bases in the inning as well). After an Iguchi K, Saburo walked to load the sacks for Kakunaka. This time, no double from Kakunaka, but he came from the depths of an 0-2 count, fouled off a pair of pitches before taking a ball of his leg to push in the second run of the game. Bases still loaded with Gori coming up – and he doubled to the left center gap. A pair of runs in, 4-0 Lotte!

    Seventh Inning

    Fujinami left after 5, Tsutsui in. Tsutsui, well, he was not good at all in this frame. A leadoff single by Huffman followed by a pair of outs to Okada and Daichi (sac bunt and sac fly – Huff to 3rd) – then the walk parade began. First Iguchi, then Saburo (both on 3-2 counts) to load the bases – and yet another walk on a 3-2 count to Kakunaka, 5-0 Chiba. Gori up again – he gapped a 1-0 fastball to right this time, and he goes all the way to third. Three Men of Lotte in, it’s an 8-0 laugher. What a welcome sight!

    Masuda took over for Fujioka in the 8th and got pretty well hammered, which is where those three Hanshin runs came from. But after the Gori triple, this one was not in doubt, but just for good measure Nishino nailed the victory down with a perfect 9 pitch 9th inning.

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    [expand title=” Game 2 – Lotte Loses 8-7 (Click to Expand)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=” Hanshin: Suguru Iwazaki (2-3, 3.50 ERA) @ Lotte: Hideaki Wakui (2-6, 4.01 ERA)

    By Steve Novosel Given my ranting and raving reputation, you’d think a game where the pitching blew an early 3-run lead and in the late innings a 2-run lead would leave me fuming. But this one? No, not really. I’m upset about this loss for sure, but the way Our Marines played this game should be admired, not criticized.”]

    Chiba jumped on Hanshin starter Iwasaki right from the get go. A T OGINO triple plus 4 straight hits from Iguchi, Imae, Kakunaka, and Huffman gave Our Marines a first inning 3-0 lead. If the starter were Wednesday’s Fujioka, I’d be ready to kick back with a nice beverage and enjoy the relaxing win, but no, the starter was Wakui.

    I’ve been sitting a bit on the fence about Wakui this year – his stats are by no means good, and his ERA is the third worst among PL qualifiers, but certainly earlier in the year I thought his pitching was on average better than what his stats showed. Now, I am not so sure, as at times Wakui looks rather lost out there. This start was another prime example of this – 2 great, perfect innings followed by a gradual and inexorable deterioration. It started in the 4th inning as a single, a walk, and a timely hit by Takahiro Arai led to the first Hanshin run of the game, but still a 3-1 Lotte lead.

    In the 5th, things got much, much worse. A Fujii leadoff single ended up in a run as Uemoto drove him in with a double, and after a walk to Ogata Wakui tossed a pretty fat pitch to the very dangerous Gomez, who bombed it to deep center for a no-doubt 3 run jack. The early 3 run lead was all gone, and the Tigers led 5-3.

    Notice how I haven’t mentioned any Lotte scoring? That’s because innings 2-5 followed the recent formula of “plenty of baserunners, few runs”. Despite 6 baserunners on 4 hits and a pair of walks in that time, Lotte could not plate anyone, and after the side went down in order in the 6th, well, I must admit the mood was not good.

    Where the game started to turn was in top 7. Furuya came in for Wakui and struggled more than a little bit – a single, an error by Furuya on a sac bunt attempt, and a HBP loaded the bases for Murton. He drove a ball into the left center gap, but Huff-n-Hustle tracked it down and laid out for a spectacular diving catch to end the inning.

    That wonderful play, I think, turned the mood of the game completely. Ando came in for the Hanshin in the 7th, and right away the Chiba bats got to work. Iguchi singled, Imae doubled down the right field line, and with no outs the scorching hot Kakunaka stepped in and belted a 2-run, game tying double! Still no outs – for some reason Itoh decided to PH for Huff with Okada, who simply sac bunted (preview: this seemingly minor substitution probably was the key play of the game in retrospect). Cochito Cruz in – he crushes a low liner that Murton doesn’t even try to get to – it’s over the fence for a 2-run, come from behind dinger! Superb batting for Cruz, and a bit of revenge as his recent injury came against Hanshin.

    All the bullpen has got to do is hold the lead – and of course the bullpen has been the strength of Our Marines for years. But this night, oh no. The normally reliable Carlos Rosa, lowest ERA on the team, was not good at all. A pair of no out singles started things for Hanshin, but a quick pop to first by Fujii and a strikeout of PH Sekimoto made it look like Chiba would escape. But after a walk to Uemoto to load the bases, Itoh went to the pen and brought in Matsunaga to face the lefty Ogata. Naturally, Wada-kantoku also went to his bench and brought in the much better hitting, much more experienced Ryota Arai (a righty). Matsunaga’s first pitch is driven by Arai – it dove into shallow center by Okada made a good break on it, dove, got it in his glove, and dropped it. Just dropped it. That’s 3 runs right there, the two run lead gone, 8-7 Hanshin.

    You know from the score listed above that that’s how it ended. Lotte did have a chance in the 9th thanks to a Kakunaka leadoff single but there were no more miracles in store, and the Tigers walked off the field victorious.

    I mentioned up front that Chiba should be proud of how they played, and indeed they should be. The Okada substitution and missed hero catch was clearly the key to the game, and we need to ask ourselves what should be the correct moves be for this situation? One, should the hot hitting, strong defense Huffman stay in to swing away in a tie game? The sac bunt was meaningless in retrospect as it was negated by the subsequent Cruz homer, but if Huff stayed in and gotten on base (very possible given badly Ando was pitching and how well Huff was playing) the HR would have been a 3 run homer. I understand setting up the sac fly, but I have to wonder if it’s not preferable to just let the players play in that situation.

    In the 8th – the Okada non-catch really needs to be discussed a bit further. 2 outs and the bases loaded with a 2 run lead – if you play that ball off the turf 2 runs would score (most likely, but not certainly) but definitely all three would not score. Instead Okada tried to make a hero play, and it says so much about Okada’s skill that everyone fully expected him to come up with that ball. Can we criticize that choice? I suppose, but for me I love the attempt to end the inning with no runs. I really like when the players’ first thoughts are to get to that ball and use their athletic ability to make a play. To me it shows extreme confidence in one’s abilities and even though not diving for it might have been a less risky play (especially in retrospect) I think Okada should be praised for what he tried to do. He’ll make that catch at least 9 times out of 10, I feel.

    [/expand]

  • Interleague Series 5: DeNA @ Lotte, 31 May – 1 June 2014

    Mr Yuk Series Preview:

    Our Marines head back home after a four game interleague road trip that took us to Koshien and Hiroshima. We split two games in each series, yet our 6-2 interleague record still leads NPB. The BayStars make the trip to the other side of Tokyo Bay for this weekend’s series at QVC. DeNA currently resides in the CL basement, with Seibu being the only other team in NPB with a worse record. Speaking of the standings, we start the weekend tied for 3rd in the PL with the Fighters. The Fighters and Marines have identical records, with Lotte leading the season series at 7-2. All-Star voting has commenced, the weather is warming up, and the calendar turns to June. It’s starting to feel a bit like summer, let’s hope Our Marines heat back up as well.

     

    [expand title=” Game 1 – Lotte LOSES 4-1 (Click to Expand)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=” DeNA: Guillermo Moscoso (3-5 4.40) @ Lotte: Ayumu Ishikawa (4-2 2.95)

    By: Craig Roberts Matsunaga is charged with today’s loss to Yokohama, but it’d be a stretch to say he’s entirely to blame. True, the go ahead run did score on a Matsunaga wild pitch in the 8th. It didn’t help that Masuda gave up two DeNA insurance runs the following inning though. Of course, you’re also not going to win many games when you only score one run on three hits.”]

    from marines.co.jp
    from marines.co.jp
    Ayumu Ishikawa certainly did enough in his start to put us in a position to win. Ayu allowed only 1 run in his 6 innings pitched, coming on a Tony Blanco 2-out RBI single in the 1st inning. After a pair of two out singles in the 2nd, Ishikawa went on a stretch of 11 consecutive retired batters, which in itself included a mini-stretch of 4 straight strike outs. Itoh-kantoku elected not to bring the rookie out to start the 7th, so his day finished with 6IP, 5 hits, 7K’s, 0BB, 1ER on 92 pitches.

    Ishikawa left with the score tied at one. The bats had nothing going early, managing only a walk and a caught stealing in innings 1-4. We finally got our first hit off Yokohama starter Guillermo Moscoso, a leadoff double by Imae to get things started in the 5th. Imae would score after a Kakunaka sac bunt and Nemoto RBI single to tie things up at one.

    Ohtani had a little trouble in relief of Ishikawa, getting himself into a 2 out 2 on jam in the 7th. Mastunaga was called upon to get us out of the jam, and he did exactly that getting the leadoff man Aranami to ground out on a chopper back to the mound to end the inning. The Lotte bats found themselves in position to take the lead in the bottom of the inning. A throwing error allowed Imae to reach on a grounder to second to lead things off.* A Kakunaka sac bunt and Nemoto walk later, and we had a 2 on 1 out chance. However, Katoh and Saburo (PH for Emura) struck out for the 2nd and 3rd outs to send us down quietly.

    *It was actually a nice diving stop by the 2B Ishikawa, but his throw to first was way over the outstretched glove of the 188cm tall first baseman Blanco.

    Matsunaga’s hero status was short lived, as he took us on a bit of a wild ride in the 8th inning. The wild ride unfortunately resulted with us going off a cliff. Matsunaga hit Ishikawa with a pitch to lead off the inning, but connected with Daichi on a nice force out at second on a bunt attempt for the first out. A Blanco single to center put runners on the corners, with Kajitani just sliding in safely at 3rd. Matsunaga got out number 2 on a Kinjo fly out to right that was too shallow to score the run, but that’s when we headed toward the cliff. Kanazawa entered the game after the starting catcher Emura was pinch hit for in the previous inning. In the next AB, Matsunaga almost threw a 1-2 pitch past Kanazawa on a ball outside with Kanazawa set up inside. Huh. The next pitch Kanazawa set up inside again, and this time Matsunaga threw it a bit too far in and low. The ball goes under Kanazawa’s glove and through his legs. The run scores from third as the ball goes to the backstop. Matsunaga was charged with a wild pitch on a ball that just skimmed the dirt, but Kanazawa tips his cap in perhaps an acknowledgement of fault. Who knows? Either way, it’s a 2-1 Bay Stars lead and that’s pretty much the game.

    Matsunaga ended up walking the batter Shirasaki, and gave up a hit to the next batter Yamazaki to load up the bases. A Kurobane fly out to center ended the inning though. Lotte went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 8th, and Yokohama tacked on two more runs off Masuda in the 9th. Pinch hitter Otosaka led off the 9th versus Masuda, and in his first CAREER PLATE APPERANCE he hit a solo home run to right. A two out Yanagida single scored the second run to force Lotte to face a 3 run deficit in the 9th. Kakunaka drew a two out walk to give us a glimmer of hope, but Nemoto struck out swinging to end the game.

    [/expand]
    [expand title=” Game 2 – Lotte Loses 1-0 (Click to Expand)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=” DeNA: Shun Yamaguchi (0-1 7.62) @ Lotte: Takahiro Fujioka (3-1 3.12)

    By Steve Novosel The only thing worse than scoring 1 run on 3 hits versus the second worst pitching team in NPB, at home? Scoring 0 runs on 5 hits the very next day. Yup, 1 total run and 8 total hits versus DeNA earns this series the very first Yuk button of the year.”]

    The key number to take away from this game – other than 0 – is 68. That’s the total number of pitches Lotte starter Fujioka threw on this Sunday. You may be asking “Steve, did he get injured? Why so low? That’s probably 4 innings, max, given how inefficient Fujioka tends to be.” No, folks – that’s 68 pitches in 7+ innings! From Fujioka! Yes, he gave up quite a few hits – 7 to be precise – and a pair of walks (one of which was basically intentional), but he also quit messing around and threw strikes. Fujioka did give up one earned run, but in my opinion it should have been an error on Imae, for Gori misplayed a ball right at him with two outs in the 3rd inning, and that ball represented the only run of the game.

    Carlos Rosa and Nishino were also decent in relief. Nope, the pitching was absolutely not an issue today – I could have seen Fujioka go the distance very easily.

    But that’s all the positive comments I have to make.

    Negative? Oh yeah, I have PLENTY of those. Yokohama starter Shun Yamaguchi hasn’t started a game in 7 years, and this year was sporting a lovely 7.62 ERA coming into June. But this day? The Chiba bats made him look simply magical as the first five innings featured a single hit. That hit was an infield single by Emura. Sure, in the 6th inning Our Marines might have gotten something going if not for two great plays at first by Blanco, but really, there’s not much excuse for not hanging a bunch of runs on Yamaguchi, and I would imagine every DeNA fan would say the same.

    After Yamaguchi left in the 7th, the bats fared just slightly better, but just enough to be truly frustrating. 7th inning, leadoff single by Braz (PR by Ishimine) – a Nemoto bunt sends him to second where he is stranded. 8th inning, a two out single by Daichi and a walk to Kakunaka – Imae ground out. And most egregiously, in the 9th inning Ishimine led off with a towering double off the center field fence, but Nemoto couldn’t move him over, Saburo struck out on 3 pitches (first two looking), and Iguchi watched the last pitch of the game sail by for a called third strike.

    I’m trying to think of good reasons to be patient at the plate, down by one in the 9th with no force in effect and a runner in scoring position, but I got nothing. The ball needs to be put in play, period. It was just a poor performance at the plate, and a terribly disappointing return home.
    [/expand]

    One has to ask at this point, which team is the real Lotte? The team with two 6 game win streaks in the past month, or the team that seems to lose everything else? I really have no idea.

  • Interleague Series 3: Lotte @ Hanshin, 25-26 May 2014

    Interleague Series 3: Lotte @ Hanshin, 25-26 May 2014

    from Wikipedia

    The start of interleague could not be any better for Our Marines. The 4 game sweep of Yakult and Kyojin means Chiba has won 5 in a row. The pitching last series was great, and the bats have kept up the efficient production. Can everyone keep it up as the team hits the road?

    I’ve made a conscious decision not to attend these games despite really enjoying Koshien. It’s because every time I head to Hyogo, we lose. So let’s see if staying away helps they guys win. Hey, we all gotta make sacrifices! I’m sure the rest of the Lotte family will show up in huge numbers as always, roaring like a jet engine.

    [expand title=” Game 1 – Lotte WINS 5-2 (Click to Expand)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=” Lotte: Takahiro Fujioka (2-1, 3.22 ERA) @ Hanshin: Minoru Iwata (3-0, 1.24 ERA)

    By Steve Novosel 4-0 in interleague, 5 game winning streak? Slap another W on the pile, as Lotte rode the great start by Fujioka and the hot hitting of Saburo, Cruz, and T OGINO to a lovely 5-2 victory. It seems my decision to watch from home was a good one.

    “]

    I can’t say enough good about Fujioka’s start. Sure, his command was not always precise – that’s one of his weaknesses, normally – but his stuff was pretty spectacular. All day Hanshin hitters had little idea if a ball would break into the zone or stay well out of it. There was a stretch in the second inning where Fujioka caught Gomez and Murton looking on the same high curve in consecutive at bats. In fact, if Itoh had not kept Fujioka in for 125 pitches an attempt to let him go the distance, we’d be talking about the 7 innings of shutout ball that our hopefully future ace tossed.

    Let’s rewind.

    from Kyodo news
    from Kyodo news
    The day started on a dodgy note for Our Marines, as Daichi singled with one out in the first, but was thrown out as the second part of a strike-em-out, throw-em-out DP. A 1-2-3 inning for the Chiba bats followed in the second, but fortunately Fujioka sent down the first 6 Tigers hitters in order, so a 0-0 game after 2.

    Top 3 – Kakunaka drew a leadoff walk from Hanshin starter Iwata, and Katoh sac’ed him to third. Emura (starting at catcher for the third game in a row) hit a grounder to Ryota Arai at third, but Ryota muffed it – Emura and Kakunaka safe on the corners. That brought up Kansai native T OGINO – and he smacks a double to left to plate Kakunaka and open the scoring at 1-0 Lotte. The guys weren’t done, though – a two-out walk by Iguchi brought DH Saburo to the plate – he singles to right center. Emura in, OGINO in, 3-0 Chiba after 3!

    The very next inning, Lotte had yet another big chance as Imae led off with a single and Kakunaka followed with a double – runners on second and third, no outs for Katoh. He smashes a tough ball right in the dirt at Ryota, but he manages to get a glove on it this time and fire home to nail Imae. Inning still on, though – but Emura grounds into a rally killing double play.

    Fujioka got himself in a huge mess in the bottom of the 4th, as a walk and a pair of singles loaded the sacks with just one out. Ryota blooped a ball to shallow left center, but Cruz makes a stunningly good play on the ball to glove it for out two, and Tsuruoka popped to Daichi to end the threat.

    Let’s go to the 7th. Iwata’s still in, but not for long as a pair of singles by Ogino (2-5 with an RBI and 2 runs scored) and Iguchi led to Iwata being swapped for Tsuru.

    This went well.

    Saburo was up next and cranked a deep fly to center. Hauled in by Yamato, but plenty deep to bring in Ogino and run the score to 4-0 Chiba. Cruz was bating in the 5th spot – he belts a liner just past the outstretched glove of Murton1 in left, Hosoya (PR for Iguchi) in easily, Cruz standing up at third! That 3-0 lead turned into a 5-0 Lotte advantage.

    1Of course Chono wins the WLM Least Favorite CL player award, but Murton’s a close second. So it is with great joy that I mention that a reasonably good fielder would likely have caught that ball. Murton just isn’t that guy, though.

    Given the quality of the Chiba pen, that should have been more than enough support, and indeed it was. Fujioka got credited with 2 earnies in the 8th after being given the green light to pitch on into the 8th, despite sitting on 113 pitches. A quick walk and a double convinced Itoh to go to Rosa, who allowed both inherited runners to score and make it a 5-2 game. Really not much doubt at this point, though, as Nishino shut the door on the game with a 12 pitch perfect 9th frame.

    That’s 6 in a row for the Men of Lotte – can they make it 7 on Monday night? If the weather holds – a big if – it’s Wakui vs Fujinami.

    [/expand]

    [expand title=” Game 2 – Lotte Loses 2-0″ trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=” Lotte:Hideaki Wakui (2-5, 4.13 ERA) @ Hanshin: Shintaro Fujinami (2-3, 4.15 ERA)

    By Steve Novosel The 6 game winning streak and perfect interleague record – over. It was bound to happen sooner or later. The minds of Lotte fans are not on this single game today, though, but on the health of Luis Cruz, who took a pitch off his wrist late in the game. Let’s hope he’s OK.

    “]

    Unfortunately for Our Marines, there’s not a whole lot to talk about in this game anyway. Wakui got start and had a typically Wakui start – generally quite good, generally good enough to win, but loser for the 6th time this year due to one poor inning. That inning was the 4th, when a walk, RBI double by Gomez, single, and Fukudome sac fly led to a pair of runs and all this game’s scoring. Take out that inning, Wakui’s outing is 7 innings of 4 hit, no run ball (plus 6 Ks and a pair of walks) – excellent start. Even with that inning it’s a quality start.

    Wakui ended being the only Chiba pitcher, going the entire 8 innings on 121 pitches.

    Super second year pitcher Fujinami threw for Hanshin, and I’m quite sure he found little stressful in his outing as he induced Chiba batters to hit into a variety of groundouts and fly balls all night, never really getting much of a chance going.

    As I mentioned up front, the real news from this game involves Luis Cruz, who took a pitch off the wrist that Fujinami missed with quite badly. Cruz went down immediately in obvious pain, and he was unable to even make it to first base. Preliminary reports is that there is a suspected fracture at or near his wrist, though it still needs to be confirmed with a follow-up examination at the hospital on Wednesday.

    We’ve become big fans of Luis, both for his skills at the plate and in the field, and I think losing him for any extended time will be a tough blow. Let’s hope it’s not as bad as it seems.

    [/expand]

  • Lotte @ Fighters, 16-18 May 2014

    022 Series Preview:

    Our Marines are 4-9 so far in May, as they head up north for a three game set in Sapporo. The roster changes and constant lineup tinkering have really ratcheted up this month, with the pre-game announcements accounting half the fun of following the team. It’s anyone’s guess which positions players will start this weekend, where they’ll be positioned, and in what spot they’ll bat in the lineup.

    At least we have a grasp on the probable pitchers. Naruse, Fujioka, Ishikawa, in that order, should be taking the hill this weekend. The Fighters and Marines have recently switched places in the PL standings, with Nippon Ham taking over third place at the expense of Chiba Lotte, who now sit in 4th. I know it’s mid-May, but we’re just going to dig ourselves deeper down the PL ranks if we don’t start to turn things around this weekend.

    [expand title=” Game 1 – Lotte LOSES 11-1 (Click to Expand)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=” Lotte: Yoshihisa Naruse (3-3. 3.26) @ Fighters: Masaru Nakamura (0-0. 11.25)

    By: Craig Roberts Nothing to see here folks. Naruse, 5 innings pitched, 9 earned runs, 4 home runs allowed. It was 6-0 after the first inning, 9-1 after the second frame. We had 4 hits, the lone run coming on a Saburo 2nd inning solo shot. Need I say more?
    “]

    No, not really. That’s two blowout loses in the row. I should add that Kimura pitched 3 innings of one run ball in his first appearance of the year. Nakamura threw a solid 7 innings for Nippon Ham, and the Fighters made a couple of nice plays in the field too…not that it factored much in the outcome. To quote Steve’s Love Marines twitter account, Naruse basically threw BP in those first two innings. That’s pretty much the story on our end.

    [/expand]

    [expand title=” Game 2 – Lotte LOSES 2x – 1 (Click to Expand)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=” Lotte: Takahiro Fujioka (2-1, 3.52) @ Fighters: Hiroshi Hirano (2-0, 3.03)

    By: Craig Roberts Our Marines dropped their third straight game Saturday afternoon. After losing by a combined score of 18-2 in our last two games, we lost this one in sayonara fashion, going down 2-1 in the 11th. Fuijoka threw 5 2/3 of 1-run ball, with the bullpen contributing 4 2/3 of 1-run ball as well. Our offense could only answer with one run on 11 hits and 14 men on base. We had chances, but a lack of timely hitting and a couple of baserunning miscues held us to just one run for the third straight game. “]

    Nippon Ham employed some extra help on Saturday
    Nippon Ham employed some extra help on Saturday
    The game started with a couple of missed opportunities on both ends. Okada and Kakunaka each hit singles to put two Marines on with 1 out in the first. The next two batters, Saburo and Imae, struck out to end the chance though. The Fighters almost had a run in the home half on a fly ball to center, but Okada nailed a very speedy Yoh Daikan on a tag up attempt play-at-the-plate for the 2nd and 3rd outs.

    The Fighters scored the first run of the game on an Ohbiki single to make it 1-0 in the 2nd. Lotte finally responded in the 5th. Okada was on first base with two out and Saburo at the plate. Okada put himself into scoring position by swiping second so swiftly he didn’t even draw a throw. That set up Saburo, who hit a hard grounder between third and short and into left field. Okada scores, and Saburo is somehow thrown out heading back to first on a throw from home. Inning over, but tie game 1-1.

    Fujioka was replaced by Uchi, leaving runners on the corners with 2 out in the 6th. After a walk to load ‘em up, Uchi got Sugiya to ground to 2nd to keep it tied at 1. Our Marines had another chance in the 7th, but failed to score a run for the third time in three chances with a runner a scoring position and 1-out or less.

    Uchi stayed in for a scoreless 7th. Masuda worked around a leadoff walk for a scoreless 8th. Nishino struck out the side (the top of the Fighters lineup no less) on 10 pitches in the 9th. That sent this one to extras.

    Okada led us off in the 10th with a single, but was thrown out attempting to steal second with one out to erase any real scoring chance. Carlos Rosa pitched a 1-2-3 bottom half to send it to the 11th.

    Cruz made up for going 0 for his first 4 with a 2-out double to give us a chance in the 11th. Hosoya Kei followed with a chopper to third. The second bounce went under the 3rd basemen Kondoh’s glove, as Cruz rounded third and headed home. The first hop took such a high bounce though that the short stop Ohbiki, cleverly backing up his 3rd baseman, had time to get toward the line and cut the ball off from reaching left field. Cruz was stuck between home and third, and was eventually tagged out in a run down. 3 outs.

    Matsunaga came in to pitch the 11th. With one out and no one on, he gave up a deep fly to left off that bat off Ohno. The ball cleared the wall and the Fighters celebrated in sayonara style. Game over 2-1 Ham.

    Game notes:

    -Fujioka: 5 2/3 IP, 103P, 8H, 4K, 3BB, 1 ER. He remained 2-1 in the no decision and lowered his ERA to 3.22.

    -Okada had three singles for his first modasho of the year.

    -Saburo had two hits and walk, and his 6 for his last 11. He raised his BA up to .330 – in only just over 70% of Lotte games played, thus disqualifying his from a spot among the top 5 averages in the PL.

    [/expand]

    [expand title=” Game 3 – Lotte WINS 4-3 (Click to Expand)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=” Lotte: Ayumu Ishikawa (3-2 3.40) @ Fighters: Luis Mendoza (2-5 3.22)

    By Steve Novosel The first portion of the Pacific League 2014 season ended today with a rather stunning comeback win at Sapporo by Our Marines. Hey, I’m just as surprised as you are.”]

    Rookie Ishikawa got the start again, and after getting lit up in his last two starts he was… acceptable. OK, so 9 hits is not really acceptable but by the statistical definition of Quality Start (6 IP, 3 ER or less) this fit the bill. More importantly, he kept a Chiba team that has been struggling mightily to score runs in the game.

    Early Innings
    Great start by the Chiba bats in this one, as the guys got to Hamu starter Luis Mendoza right off the bat. Super swift Okada reached via the infield single to lead off the game and was driven in via a 2-out Saburo double. Luis Cruz (batting in the 5th spot and starting at 3rd) brought Saburo home with a double down the right field line off his compatriot – an early 2-0 Chiba lead.

    In his last game, Ishikawa was roughed up from the get-go, and by all indications it seemed he would go the same route on this day as after just 11 pitches and 3 straight hits, Hamu scored their first run to cut the lead to 2-1 Lotte. But Ishikawa got the next three batters in order to end the scoring threat.

    In the bottom of the second, former Lotte fieldhand Satoken led off with a double and scored on a two-out infield hit by Nishikawa. It absolutely needs to be mentioned that if Cruz had been playing short instead of third, Nishikawa would have been out, but Daichi’s arm is not as strong as Cruz’s so Nishikawa beat the throw – tie game after two.

    Middle Frames
    For the most part, those two early runs were all the Men of Lotte would manage to scrape out versus the first year pitcher from Mexico. In fact, for Mendoza’s final 7 innings all Lotte could accomplish was an infield single (Kakunaka), reaching via an error (Cruz), and a “double” by Okada in the 8th (really, just very poor communication between Nakata/Yoh/Ohbiki) – none of those runners would score.

    Ishikawa continued with what turned out to be a reasonable strategy of allowing the occasional hit but not any runs – he finished the afternoon with 9 hits as I mentioned, but no walks and 5 Ks, allowing just those 2 early runs1. The 77 pitches thrown is an eminently reasonable concession to the reality of Ishikawa being a bit exhausted – and 6 innings of work is plenty with the quality of the Lotte pen.

    1The box score is actually pretty inscrutable for this one – look at the pair of doubles by Nakata and Kondoh in the 6th, yet no runs. How? Nakata was parked on second after his leadoff double – Miranda lofted a pop to Kakunaka in left, Kakunaka noticed Nakata sipping on an iced tea near second base but not actually on it, fired the ball in, tagged out. Not Sho’s finest hour.

    screen cap via @the_hereford
    screen cap via @the_hereford
    Late Drama
    Ohtani took over for Ishikawa and fired a 1-2-3 7th, and in fact 4-5 of the 8th for good measure before allowing a single to Nakata. Itoh went to the pen and brought in Saturday’s goat Matsunaga. Our second year lefty issued a pass to Miranda (not the worst thing) – Nakata raced to third after Yoshida allowed ball 4 to roll by. Light hitting Iiyama smashed a deep ball into the left/center gap – apparently something even Okada could not snag, Nakata in easily and the tie broken. 3-2 Hamu. Grrrrrr.

    I tell ya I was feeling pretty down at this point, given the lack of offensive spark as of late (to this point, only 4 runs scored by Chiba total in the series). Mendoza was gone after 115 pitches, in came Masui to face Cruz. Second pitch from Masui – big fat jack to deep left by Cruz – and a 3-3 game! Wow, who could have seen that coming?

    Masui is shaken – he walks Daichi on 4 pitches. He gets Nemoto to ground out, but Daichi’s able to advance. The injured Iguchi’s in to pinch hit for Yoshida – free pass. Crotta takes over for Masui. Imae hits a broken bat grounder – both Iguchi and Daichi advance, two out. Okada up. Okada has gutted his way to a pair of hits so far, it’s two outs now and who knows if there will ever be another good opportunity to score. It needs to happen now, but how? What tricks are there to play? A two out squeeze? YES, a TWO-OUT SQUEEZE – Okada JUST beats the throw to first, Daichi is SAFE and Chiba is ahead 4-3!

    Wow!

    Nishino’s in to close it, and Emura in for Yoshida. First batter is Kita – 6 pitch walk, hmm. Nakajima bunts Kita to second, and Nishikawa grounds him over to third. Two outs, this is where a closer earns his keep. Captian Ohbiki is the batter, and Nishino gets behind quickly 3-0. Strike one is looking, Ohbiki gets a bat on the ball to foul it for strike two, and Nishino drops a wonderfully placed fastball on the upper edge of the zone to punch out Ohbiki for strike three!

    [/expand]

    Obviously this is another bad series for Marines – the fifth one in a row dropped – but the sweep was avoided. Up next is the start of interleague play, and the first Kanto Battle as Yakult takes the Keiyo Line to QVC for game 1 on Tuesday.

  • Rakuten @ Lotte, 9-11 May 2014

    QVC Series Preview:

    Wednesday’s win in Osaka halted a four game losing streak, pulling Our Marines back to a game below .500. Lotte followed a six game win streak that earned them a place in the top half of the PL standings by Lotte going 2-5 in their last seven games. We still occupy the third spot in the Pacific League even after the skid, as we prepare to host Rakuten for a three game weekend set at the Q.

    Friday night’s series opener will showcase the front end of both rotations, with Naruse facing off versus Norimoto. Fujioka, fresh off his first win of 2014, should be slated for Saturday’s start. Rookie Ayumu Ishikawa hopes to redeem himself from last Sunday’s tough luck no decision in the series finale on Sunday.

    [expand title=” Game 1 – Lotte LOSES 5-2 (Click to Expand)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=”Rakuten: Takahiro Norimoto (3-3 4.09) @ Lotte: Yoshihisa Naruse (3-2 3.15)

    By: Craig Roberts An Andruw Jones three-run home run was the difference tonight with Rakuten taking the series opener 5-2. All three of Naruse’s earned runs came on that one swing resulting in his third loss of the season, despite a decent seven inning 123 pitch showing. The Lotte offense left ten men on base, with Iguchi and Saburo driving in our only two runs.”]

    Saburo's HR swing.
    Saburo’s HR swing from marines.co.jp
    The teams exchanged first inning errors and runs to start the game, with each team getting one apiece. In the top half of the inning, a Ginji pop up got caught up in the QVC wind. Nemoto back peddled into shallow center to meet the ball and appeared to be under it. The wind caused it to drift deeper into center though, and on the ball’s way down Nemo had to make a couple of frantic steps to reach for it. The pop up ended up landing between Nemo and an on-looking Ogino, with Nemo being charged with an error that put two men on base. Next up, an Andruw Jones sac fly brought in Okajima for the first run.

    Next it was Lotte’s turn benefit from a first inning error. An Ogino single started the inning, with Daichi up next. Daichi’s attempt to sacrifice Ogino to second went even better than planned. Making his first defensive play as a Rakuten Eagle, first baseman John Bowker fielded the bunt and threw to Fujita covering first. Fujita dropped the seemingly routine throw, everyone was safe, and the second basemen was charged with an error. The crowd was just into the first la-la-la’s of “Iguchi Utte” when the next batter Iguchi reached down and sent a pitch over second base and into center. Ogino scores to tie it at 1. Two outs and a Saburo walk later, Ohmatsu grounded out to the pitcher with the bases loaded to end the inning.

    A big 3 run jack by Andruw Jones came in the third to break the tie and make it 4-1. The HR was preceded by a questionable safe call on a Ginji ground ball to second. Nemoto hesitated as he fielded the ball, perhaps considering whether to attempt a tag on the runner from first. The delay gave Ginji enough time to make the play close enough for the umpire to call safe. Not a great defensive night for Nemo, with fellow middle infielder Cruz sitting on the bench. Hmm.

    Saburo answered in the home half with a solo home run to pull us within two runs at 4-2. That would be the end of our offense though, as the homer was followed by 6 inning of scoreless ball for Our Marines. Rakuten tacked on another run when Nemo’s defensive replacement, Ryo Miki, couldn’t handle a ground ball in the 8th. A run scored on what probably should have been the third out, although Miki wasn’t charged with an error. The score stayed 5-2 as Falkenborg closed us out in the 9th for an Eagles victory.

    Game Notes:

    – Naruse’s final line: 7IP, 123P, 7H, 1HR, 5K, 2BB, HBP, 4R, 3ER.

    – Uchi made his first appearance of the year, pitching the 8th in relief. He gave up one run on the Miki misplay. Minami added a scoreless 9th in relief.

    – T. Ogino reached base three times (2H, BB) in the leadoff spot. He is 12 for his last 23. He’s scored at least one run in the last 6 consecutive games, scoring 9 times in total.

    – Saburo is on a mini-tear himself, 5 for his last 7. He had a walk, a double, and the home run to notch his average up to .315.

    [/expand]
    [expand title=” Game 2 – Lotte WINS 4-1 (CLICK TO EXPAND)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=”Rakuten: Takahiro Shiomi (2-2 4.88) @ Lotte: Takahiro Fujioka (1-1 4.18)

    By: Craig Roberts Saturday afternoon had a bit of everything for Marines fans to enjoy. Fujioka had his best start of the year. We had some timely hitting. The bullpen threw two shutout innings. There were even some nice defensive plays. Those are some winning ingredients, and a win is exactly what Our Marines cooked up Saturday afternoon.”]

     
    Pitching & Defense:

    Most Lotte fans were more than happy with Fujioka’s last two starts, 5 2/3 innings pitched with 1 and 0 earned runs respectively. Well, we got a 7 inning 1 run gem today on an efficient 99 pitches thrown. Not bad for a guy who started the year 7th on the starting pitching depth chart.

    After a 1-2-3 first, innings 2 and 3 were a bit rocky. Luckily, Andruw Jones is too damn slow to even attempt to score from first on a two out double that reached the wall, keeping Rakuten off the board in the 2nd. The Eagles did get a run in the 3rd on a Nishida solo shot to left. Fujioka hit the next batter Fujita, but induced a Kaz Matsui 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. Beyond that, Fujioka scattered just two hits and a walk for the remainder of the day. We turned another 4-6-3 to end the 6th inning, and Fujioka finished his day with a trio of groundouts in a 3-up-3-down 7th inning.

    Carlos Rosa sent the Eagles down in order in the 8th, and Nishino got around a walk by ending the game on a 3-6-3 Bowker double play in the 9th. The defense also played a part in the Fujioka winning effort. Ogino made a nice shoe string catch to end the first, and Luiz Cruz made a couple of fine plays at short.

    Here’s a couple of Cruz clips:
    CLICK HERE FOR CLIP 1
    CLICK HERE FOR CLIP 2

     
    At the Plate:

    Our first run came in the second inning. Imae drew a two out walk, and Cruz brought him in with a timely double into left center. Cruz lined a 1-0 pitch into the gap, well past the diving left fielder Nakashima for the double. That made it 1-0 Lotte at the time.

    Our biggest inning was a 2 run 5th, with all the production coming with two outs. Yoshida got things started with a hot shot to third that ate up Kaz Matsui on its way to left field. Ogino followed suit by sending a liner over the head of Matsui and down the line for a double. With two runners in scoring position Captain Daichi came to the plate. He sent an arching single over an outstretch Fujita at second base and into right. Bowker fielded it cleanly on the first hop and threw it home with his momentum headed in, but was no match for a speedy Ogino who scored standing up from second. The 2 runs broke a 1-1 tie to make it a 3-1 ballgame.

    We had a 1 out bases loaded chance in the 6th and a 2 out bases loaded chance in the 8th, but only came away with one additional run. Nemoto was able to beat out a double play ball to convert the chance in the 6th. That scored our fourth run and gave us the final tally of 4-1 Marines.

     
    Games Notes:

    – Fujioka’s line: 7IP, 99P, 4H, 1HR, 2K, 2BB, HBP, 1ER.

    – Ogino extended his runs scored steak to 7 games.

    – Saburo and Yoshida each went 2-for-4 with 2 singles.

    [/expand]

    [expand title=” Game 3 – Lotte loses 12-2 (Click to Expand)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=”Rakuten: Wataru Karashima (2-3 1.96) @ Lotte: Ayumu Ishikawa (3-1 2.14)

    By Steve Novosel There are many ways to judge the quality of a ball game, but by basically any standard – save one – this game was simply atrocious.”]

    “What standard is that, Steve?” – I can hear you asking. It’s an important one – did T OGINO do a thing? And yes, yes he did a thing – a solo shot to left in the third. That trimmed the Lotte deficit to a mere 6-1 – again, in the third – and gave brief hope that a comeback could in the making.

    Didn’t happen.

    I lead with that tidbit because it’s quite literally the only thing this game had to recommend it. Oh sure, you could say that rookie Ishikawa threw the first 4 pitches of the game for strikes! Sure, you could say that, and it’d be true! He also gave up hits to the next 4 batters, punctuated by a 3-run shot by new Eagles player John Bowker.

    No, I’m afraid the T OGINO homer is about it for this one. Ishikawa was simply shelled – no dodgy officiating this week. And he wasn’t alone – every arm that went to the hill for Our Marines just got beat up. I had hopes that the pitching could keep Rakuten under 10 runs – nope, they broke through that barrier in the 7th. OK OK – how about… let’s keep them under 20 hits? Nah, Shimauchi’s single up the middle in the 9th was the 20th Eagle hit.

    And sadly for this crazy fan, it was some of my favorite pitchers getting lit up:

    Ishikawa – 3+ IP, 7 ER, 10 H, 2 BB (and the HR)
    Minami – 4 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 1 BB (and another HR)
    Matsunaga – 0 ER in 1 IP, but gave up 2 hits.
    UCHI – 2 ER on 4 hits (including, yes, a dinger)

    Sad.

    And outside the OGINO homer, a pair of Daichi hits, a pair of Imae hits, and a Cruz single (+ RBI via a ground out), the offense was totally impotent, too. Iguchi is slumping hard, as is Ohmatsu. Kiyota – brought up to ichi-gun last Wednesday, sent to ni-gun on Monday. Ishimine got in the game – GIDP.

    Let’s be completely honest, shall we? All this tinkering with the lineup has ruined consistency. The 6 game win streak has now turned into 7 of 10 lost, 3 series in a row dropped. And yet the lineup looks nothing like what this team broke camp with – why? Clearly the tinkering is not only not working, but is quite counterproductive. The best power hitter on the roster has been in ni-gun for a month, the most exciting young outfielder has been there almost as long, and looking at that ni-gun roster, 4 of the top 5 batters in the Eastern League are Men of Lotte, yet they languish in Urawa.

    If there’s going to be tinkering, bring up the young guys and let them play. Stick them in the lineup and let them get experience.

    There’s only 2 more series to get this all figured out before interleague – the three game set at home vs Daiei this week and the weekend set in Sapporo. Somebody needs to come up with a coherent strategy to grow this team, and they need to implement that strategy now. I love this team and I love our players, but this directionless flailing about is pretty hard to watch.

    [/expand]

  • Lotte @ Orix, 8-10 April 2014

    qvc_air So since the REAL start of the season Our Marines are a solid 3-0. Ignore what the official standings say, we’re a forward looking bunch at We Love Marines. This week the guys are heading west to Osaka, putting on their fancy black and red duds, and challenging the blazing hot Buffaloes to a 3 game set.

    Let’s see them keep it up!

    [expand title=” Game 1 (8 Apr) – Lotte Loses 4-0 (click to expand)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=”Lotte: Hideaki Wakui (0-1, 4.76 ERA) @ Orix: Yuki Nishi (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

    By Steve Novosel Young Nishi y Los Búfalos de Orix came into this game super hot – Nishi, great in his first start; Orix, winners of 6 in a row – and they would leave just as hot as they came in as Our Marines could do exactly nothing all night, falling in game 1 of the series, 4-0.”]

    The big question for us Fans of Lotte was, how would our big FA signing Wakui do in his second start? We’ve told you that his first was rather shaky, and I must tell you that yes, this one was as well. Probably shakier, even. One could make a solid case for the first two runs being Not His Fault. In fact, I will do just that. With a pair of Buffs on the pillows, Wakui induced Itoh to pop to left. It wasn’t the easiest play, but Kakunaka was out of position and out three turned into 2-0 Orix. Grr.

    The next runs, though, those were on Wakui. In the third, a single by Hirano and a double by Itoi gave Orix a big chance. Yoshida and Wakui teamed up to get Peña and Teppei to go down swinging, and get Sakaguchi to two strikes before Wakui hung a forkball badly. Sakaguchi wasn’t missing that one – one single later, it’s 4-0 Beefaloos.

    Good thing the Lotte bats were still hot!! Nishi totally shut Our Marines down. I can’t be any more explicit than that. A hit by Daichi in the first, a hit by Kakunaka in the 7th, and not a single baserunner outside those two. 20 batters in a row by Nishi, only 29 total on the night. That’s a 111 pitch, 8 strikeout, no walk 2 hit shutout. Man, I’m jealous!

    Still plenty of chances to win the series. Tomorrow we’ll see New Lefty Ace Furuya battle Kishida. Hopefully there’s more than 2 hits tomorrow!

    [/expand]

    [expand title=” Game 2 (9 Apr) – Lotte WINS 6-3 (click to expand)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=”Lotte: Takyua Furuya (0-1, 3.86 ERA) @ Orix: Mamoru Kishida (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

    By Steve Novosel No worries about offensive woes tonight as the bats arrived a day late from Makuhari and walloped 5 extra base hits and scored 6 to support the always reliable New Lefty Ace Furuya for his first win of the 2014 campaign. A solid team effort in both halves of the innings ensured the Orix winning streak would be snapped and a new Lotte streak begun.”]

    10 games into the season and it’s 10 different starting lineups for Our Marines. Itoh-kantoku went with his best defensive alignment in the infield (Imae/Cruz/Daichi/Iguchi), Kakunaka/Katoh/Kiyota in the OF, Ohmatsu(!!!) at DH, and Satozaki behind the plate for just the third time this season. Let’s look at how the game unfolded.

    from marines.co.jp
    from marines.co.jp
    Top of the 2nd Inning

    Kishida retired the first 5 batters before leaving a slider in the zone for Ohmatsu – Ohmatsu, somewhat left out of Chiba’s plans these last few years – Ohmatsu, without a homer since 2012 – Ohmatsu, yes, Ohmatsu homered. A quick 1-0 Lotte.

    Bottom of the Third

    Adachi drew a one out walk off Furuya, and when the dangerous (and speedy) German hit a grounder to Daichi, Daichi tried to get Adachi at second but instead winged it into left field. Runners were all safe at second and third, perfect position for Hirano to double them in. 2-1 Orix, both runs charged to Furuya, but really, should they have been1?

    1Perhaps according to the rule book yes, they should have been charged to Furuya but sometimes one must look deeper into the classics for a true interpretation. I’m reminded of the words of the great philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell, who once said, “Man, he didn’t deserve that!”

    Top of the Fifth

    Furuya looked phenomenal past that point – hitting his spots and changing speeds to keep the Buffs from adding more to their lead. And that’s great, but Our Marines needed runs. Satozaki got something started with a no-out single to right, and Katoh bunted for a hit with one out. Daichi grounded out to bring up Iguchi, who ripped a deep fly off the left center wall for a 2-run double, and a comeback 3-2 Lotte lead!

    Top of the Sixth

    One run leads are swell, but more is better, and more is what Our Marines got in the 6th. Kakunaka doubled, and Kiyota drew his second walk of the night2. Up came Cruz, silent at the plate since the opening series at Daiei but silent no more, as he banged a double to deep right center to score both Men of Lotte to make it a 5-2 lead.

    2Kiyota went hitless on the night, but drew three walks and is now sporting an impressive .429 OBP (and 1.129 OPS)

    Bottom of the Seventh

    Eh, so the Buffaloes scored a run off Ohtani. Meh. 5-3 game.

    Top of the Eighth

    Kiyota drew a walk – again – and Cruz whipped a double into right-center – again – and Chiba scored – again – to make it a 6-3 game.

    Carlos Rosa came in to set up the win, and Nishino looked smoking hot closing it out to seal the nice victory. Up next is the rubber match, and it’s the first start of the year for the reborn Fujioka. He’s matched up against erratic, sunglass-sporting Kei Igawa. I think Fujioka’s going to look great.
    [/expand]

    [expand title=” Game 3 (10 Apr) – Lotte Loses 6-4 (click to expand)” trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ notitle=”true” excerpt=”Lotte: Takahiro Fujioka (0-0, 0.00 ERA) @ Orix: Kei Igawa (1-1, 3.18 ERA)

    By Steve Novosel Our Marines fought hard in this one – banging out double digit hits and coming from behind – but surprisingly the bullpen couldn’t hold a nice lead and Chiba dropped the final game of the series in Osaka.”]

    Fujioka-kun? He wasn’t as great as I was hoping for but he was solid, much better than any start I can remember off the top of my head from last year. And with the bats pretty lively, one would expect that solid would be good enough, but it wasn’t to be. Here’s how it went down.

    Bottom of the Second

    Fujioka squeaked through the first inning despite giving up a 2-out double to Itoi, and in the second Takahashi stroked another double to lead off the frame. This time Fujioka’s luck wouldn’t hold, as Shunta drove in Takahashi with a single to center. 1-0 Orix.

    Top of the Fifth

    Igawa blew through his first pass through the Lotte order pretty easily, but in the 4th the boys got a strong chance by putting runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. Nobody could come home, though, so Cruz‘s bloop double down the left field line (one of many dodgy defensive plays by the Buffaloes in this one) created a chance for the first run of the game for Chiba. Kiyota was due up next, but he was removed (due to a minor injury on an attempted catch, I think) for pinch hitter AJA, who promptly singled up the middle to tie the game. Nice!

    Sixth Inning

    Igawa out, Kaida in. Kakunaka and Saburo singled with one out in the frame, and a Daichi single moved them over (it should have been a double play, honestly, but Betancourt made a poor defensive play and could only get one). Itoh went to the bench and grabbed Nemoto to hit for Yoshida. I was not at all happy with the move, but Nemo lashed a triple to center, scoring both men and giving Lotte a 3-1 lead.

    In the bottom of the inning, though, Fujioka gave one of the runs back with a big bomb to center off the bat of Itoi. Emura had taken over for Yoshida just before, I might add. 3-2 Lotte.

    Seventh Inning

    The guys got the run right back, though, thanks to some more sloppy D by Orix. An Iguchi single, a misplayed ball by Takahashi on an Imae grounder, and a Kakunaka single loaded the bases, and Ohmatsu brought in Iguchi via the ground out. Back to a 2-run 4-2 Lotte edge.

    However, Fujioka left for rookie Yoshihara, and Shohei got himself into a jam. With two outs and runners on the corners due to a walk, double, and groundout, Yoshihara induces the dangerous German into an inning ending grounder… that was barely foul. Right after, blam – 3 run moonshot. YIKES. That’s three home runs in 6 IP for Yoshihara this year, and homers in back-to-back innings with Emura behind the dish. 4-2 lead —> 5-4 deficit.

    Eighth Inning

    Yoshihara was replaced by Matsunaga, and with one out Matsunaga yielded a blast of his own, this time to Pena. Sigh….. 5 runs, all after the 5th, all via the jack. That’s a 6-4 game, and with Orix’s strong pen that’s how it would end.

    [/expand]

    It should have been 2 of 3 this series for Our Marines, honestly, but that can’t be helped now. Time to focus on the next series, a revenge match with Rakuten at QVC. The series kicks off on Friday with Naruse vs Norimoto.

  • 2014 Season Preview: The Pitchers

    2014 Slogan The preaseason is over, the 2014 NPB regular season kicks off this Friday! Let’s take a look at the players who will be starting the season at ichi-gun for Our Marines. First, the pitchers.

    Starting Rotation

    1) Yoshihisa Naruse. Naruse gets the opening day start for the 5th year in a row. He finished the preseason with a sub-2.00 ERA that was sub-1.00 until giving up a pair of runs at Seibu Dome in his last start. He looks much leaner than last year (more like the Naruse we saw in October than April) and is as unflappable as ever. I think he’s going to have a nice year.

    2) Yuki Karakawa. The Baby-Faced Killer got beat up a bit in his first Spring start but was very solid after that. The nice thing is he was getting through the early innings much more efficiently than he had been in previous years. I really want to see him go much deeper in games this year.

    3) Ayumu Ishikawa. First round draft pick and super rookie, Ishikawa made 4 starts this spring and looked really solid in all 4, only giving up 3 earned runs total. He had some issues with blisters on his fingers in his last two starts so I hope that’s not A Thing, because so far when he’s on the hill he looks great.

    4) Hideaki Wakui. He’s our big free agent signing and hope to be an ace-like pitcher, but honestly after a nice first outing he has gotten stomped, repeatedly. The first was an 8-run disaster at home vs Yomiuri, and the second was just on Tuesday at ni-gun, a 7-run beatdown. On top of that, he started the no-game that was cancelled by wind last week and looked pretty poor there, too. He’s thrown a lot in the preseason – 250+ pitches one day at Ishigaki – so he’s probably just a bit tired. We hope. He gets the start in the home opener next week, so we’ll find out then.

    5) Takuya Furuya. New Lefty Ace looked lovely in limited work this spring, giving up just one run in 6 innings. I think he will give much the same performance he did last year; AKA awesome.

    6) Takahiro Fujioka. Really??? Yes. He’s looked good back in the rotation this spring, really he has. He’s going to get another chance to be the solid starter we all know he can be. His key is going to be to attack the batters more especially early, and it looks like he has been doing that so far. We’ll see.

    Waiting in the Wings
    If any of these guys should go down, here’s who will step in. Seth Greisinger is first on the list – he’s only not a starter now because he is injured, and will not be back until May, minimum. After that, look for Kazunari Abe or Hiroki Ueno to fill in as starter, with Yuta Ohmine as a wild card, though patience with Ohmine in the organization seems to have run out. Yuji Nishino could always come back if needed as well. Super duper wild card: Hiroya Kawamitsu, rookie last year who lost the whole season to injury and who has had a nice camp and preseason. He’ll start the year in ni-gun, though.

    Bullpen

    There’s been no announcement (that I have seen, at least) regarding this year’s closer. Nishino has moved to the pen with the anticipation that he can move into that role, but is it official? He wasn’t throwing as closer in the spring much, though he was very solid (9 IP in 7 games, 11 Ks and 2 ER).

    Naoya Masuda didn’t pitch much before going down with an injury. He’s going to start the season at ni-gun but he is throwing and will be back soon.

    Carlos Rosa was perfect this spring to continue his fine work from last year. He’s the other candidate for the closer role, though I think he’ll be best in that same fireman role he had last year.

    Our 4th round draft pick last year, Shohei Yoshihara, has earned a prominent spot in the pen after making 5 scoreless spring appearances (6 IP, 5 K). Yasutaka Hattori also gave up no runs in his 2014 spring and will be the lefty fireman out of the pen.

    Takahiro Matsunaga was quite honestly getting beaten up all spring. I don’t know if this shuffling between the rotation and the pen has messed with his mind or his mechanics, but he has not looked very good so far. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him start out in ni-gun this year.

    Other than the aforementioned Ueno, we can expect to see Tomohisa Otani as middle relief as well this year, much like he did last year. We might also see more of Yuhei Nakaushiro this year, something we’d all like to see.

    Outlook

    It’s extremely good, to be honest. This team was in first or second almost all last year with so many of these guys injured or not on the team, so the new additions plus having everyone back should mean the best pitching staff we’ve seen in Makuhari in quite some time. I am strongly optimistic about this season as it is, and most of that optimism comes from the really solid looking pitching staff.

  • No Revenge – The Silver Medal Push vs Seibu: 1 Oct 2013

    leo
    Game Preview: Fresh off the stirring sayonara win vs the Fighters on Monday, Our Marines play another game at QVC, this one a vital rematch with Seibu. For the last week, the battle for the last two spots in the Climax Series in the Pacific between Our Marines, Daiei, and Seibu has featured comeback after comeback, dramatic strikes and extra inning heroics. What will happen tonight?

    Chiba will be in a great position with a win tonight – 4.5 up on Seibu with 5 to go, at least 1.5 up on the Hawks (depending on their game with Orix). A loss really complicates things.

    The weather looks to be poor but the pitching matchup is intriguing – a resurgent Fujioka gets the call for Lotte.

     

    [expand title=” 1 October – Lotte Loses 4-2″ trigclass=”arrowright” tag=”h24″ expanded=”true” notitle=”true” excerpt=”Seibu: Ken Togame 8-8, 3.38 ERA @ Lotte: Takahiro Fujioka 6-8, 3.88 ERA

    By Steve Novosel To be honest, this game was pretty depressing. Our Marines had some huge early opportunities to put a major hurt on Seibu starter Togame but generally failed to convert, while Lions bats had little resistance in beating up Fujioka. It adds up to a 4-2 Seibu win. “]

    I’ll write up a bit more in the morning. Honestly there was little of value to take away from this game – Chiba was out pitched, out hit, out defensed. We still completely control our own destiny, but this was a bad loss.[/expand]