We Love Marines

Tag: Yuta Kimura

  • Lotte @ Rakuten, 16-18 September 2014

    1149_Interior_Kleenex_Stadium_MiyagiSeries Preview

    Last road trip of the year? Yup, last road trip of the year. Hard to believe we’re at that time of year already but indeed it’s true – this series in Sendai makes the last three road games of the 2014 season.

    This series sadly also is the final opportunity for Our Marines to win a season series with a PL team. Chiba has 12 losses (exactly) in every head-to-head matchup except with Rakuten, against whom we have 11. Hey, it’s not much, but it would be nice to be better than at least one PL team.

    Even more sadly, the guys gotta win out to ensure there’s not a losing season. 12 wins in a row, this team is sitting at .500.

    Perhaps the mismatch between preseason hopes and September realities is the toughest part to swallow. Such is baseball.

     

    Game 1 – Lotte does not win, 6-4

    Lotte: Ayumu Ishikawa (8-7, 3.53 ERA) @ Rakuten: Yuki Matsui (2-7, 4.11 ERA)

    [expand title=”Continue Reading” trigclass=”noarrow” excerptpos=”above-trigger” alt=”Click to Expand” tag=”b” excerpt=”By: Steve Novosel Super rookie Ayumu Ishikawa faced even more hyped super rookie Yuki Matsui in Sendai on Tuesday, and the less-successful rookie squeezed out a win in a very sloppy affair. So much for the winning record vs Rakuten. So much for the non-losing season.”]

    Not that the last point wasn’t inevitable, really.

    I can’t pin this one on Ayu, really. Yeah, that 10 hit, 6 runs (4 earned) line isn’t so hot. It’s not. And he dropped himself in a big mess in both the first and second innings – undeniable. But after that, well, I can easily imagine a game where Ishikawa went the distance with just that run, maybe a bit more if things had fallen his way.

    See, the game truly fell apart with some really poor fielding in the 4th. The scene: Our Marines had pulled ahead 3-1 in the 2nd thanks to a bases loaded walk worked by Daichi and a 2-run single by #3 batter Imae. Nice. Nice. Ishikawa ripped through the Rak lineup in 1-2-3 fashin in the third, but gave up a 1-out single in the 4th. Masuda grounded to Aja at first – DP ball! – nope, a boot, everyone safe. You know what’s next – no, not a homer, but a timely Shima single, another error (this one on Gori), a semi-boot by Aja on a squeeze (everyone safe) etc etc etc etc etc. The two run lead, gone, and replaced with a 1-run deficit. Yick.

    It wouldn’t be truthful to say Ayu fell apart after that, but he wasn’t good, and the very-much-struggling Matsui seemed to find inspiration in the sudden reversal of fortune. If he didn’t after the 4th, he sure as heck would after the 5th where Andruw “I’m only trying to hit HRs, I’m not even pretending otherwise” Jones did the only thing he does, smacked a 2-run bomb to left. 6-3 bad guys.

    That lead looked safe as Lotte could do nothing. Nothing, that is, until 2 outs in the 9th, when Gori immolated a pitch off closer Falkenborg to cut the deficit to 6-4. Next pitch – Alfredo almost did the same, bouncing a huge liner off the top of the fence and over for a ground rule double (his 3rd double of the game, and 6th in the past 2 DAYS). HMMM. Next pitch – Cruz foul fly. Oh well.

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    Game 2 – Lotte Loses 2-1

    Lotte: Yuta Ohmine (2-3, 3.65 ERA) @ Rakuten: Takahiro Shiomi (6-6, 4.67 ERA)

    [expand title=”Continue Reading” trigclass=”noarrow” excerptpos=”above-trigger” alt=”Click to Expand” tag=”b” excerpt=”By: Steve Novosel Yuta Ohmine, starting on the road, giving up 2 runs – I like our chances with that sort of start, especially versus the not-very-good Shiomi. But no, the pitching was willing but the bats were not, and Our Marines drop another in K Stadium.”]

    Oh the bats were willing in one sense – 9 Men of Lotte landed safely upon the sacks – but in terms of bringing those men home? Just one lonely run, in the third, courtesy of a leadoff double by AJA and a timely single from (I-Ya-Sa-Sa!) Ishimine. Hey, it was an early 1-0 lead – let’s celebrate!

    Alas, that inning ended abruptly via ye olde Shohei GIDP, as did the first inning (Gori GIDP) and fourth (Alfredo GIDP). Kaku-chan and AJA reached via single in the 5th but Tamura and Ishimine failed to plate them. Some more hits followed, but only one more runner reached scoring position, Okada-as-PR-and-SB-master at second in the 9th.

    Short version: several pots on the stove but the electricity was cut off.

    But Yuta! He got a rather generous 1 run lead (go ask any of the starters in the scoreless streak if they’d be happy with that run and they would surely say YES), right?

    Actually Yuta pitched pretty well for a time tonight. A first inning bases juiced issue, sure, but no damage. Innings 2-4, no worries. But in the 5th, another jam, almost an escape, but then: runs. 2 of them, to be specific, and it surely could have been a lot worse. Shimauchi singled with one out, Nishida grounded out to Daichi for out two, but then, then: runs. As I may have mentioned, 2 of them.

    That was basically it for Ohmine. After a Shima leadoff single to start the sixth, Itoh went to the pen for Matsunaga/Carlos Rosa and they did what needed to be done, but with the bleak scoring environment in the top half of each frame they could only do so much.

    Remember when I said in the series preview that Our Marines had exactly 12 losses vs every PL team but Rakuten? That’s true again. We have 13. Final game in 2014 vs Rakuten is Thursday at K Sta.
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    Game 3 – Lotte is Swept 9-5

    Lotte: Yuta Kimura (0-1, 5.81 ERA) @ Rakuten: Takaaki Yokoyama (1-1, 5.06 ERA)

    [expand title=”Continue Reading” trigclass=”noarrow” excerptpos=”above-trigger” alt=”Click to Expand” tag=”b” excerpt=”By: Steve Novosel Man, was I full of misplaced optimism or what? You would probably think any game Our Marines – famously not a powerful bunch – cranks 4 bombs that there would be a strong chance of winning, but no. Maybe early – definitely early – but a massive bottom 8 by Rakuten shoved Chiba into a hole from which they could not climb out. And the worst part? Lotte now has the worst record in the PL and the most losses in NPB.”]

    I am only going to dwell on positive things – positive things – so I will mention the 2-errors for basically unearned inside-the-park HR and the 5 run collapse by Masuda only in passing. In the course of this game, these are important things but in the grand scheme of things, fighting to not end up with the worst record in Japan, they are irrelevant. More importantly, they are irrelevant going forward, though Masuda’s season ERA of 5.40 is more than a little worrying.

    Anyway.

    Here’s what I want you, dear reader, to remember about this game:

    1) Alfredo Freaking Despaigne. We’ve loved this guy for some time and we very excited to have him join the ballclub. But you know, I think I am going to DEMAND that this team resigns him next year. He’s exciting, he’s game changing, he’s marketable, he’s the sort of player people talk about, a guy fans pay to see. WE NEED ALFREDO next year.

    This game? 2nd inning, first AB – destroys a pitch from Yokoyama to center, solo shot. Next AB, whomps another Yokoyama offering, also to center, solo shot. Next AB, double. It’s almost absurd. He’s now played a full quarter season in Chiba and sports a .293/.353/.617 line with 10 HR and 11 doubles. Project that over a full season and he’d be the PL MVP in a runaway. Sign him. Sign him.

    2) Seiya “Aja” Inoue. He needs no intro, he just needs a chance to play. Tonight Aja got a hold of a pitch for his second dinger of the year. With increased playing time comes more confidence, and he’s gradually showing himself to be the guy at the plate we thought he would be in March.

    Heck, just drop his performances vs Orix and Daiei (mostly early in the season) and you get: 16-48 (.333 BA) with 2 HR and 6 RBI. Solid. I really feel if he were put in a lower pressure situation to start the season and kept in the lineup long enough to get comfortable we’d be talking about him as a strong candidate for rookie of the year.

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  • Rakuten @ Lotte, 5-7 September 2014

    QVC Lucky 7Series Preview:
    Well, it’s official. Now two We Love Marines bloggers have waived the white flag on our 2014 post-season chances. Granted, I reached my conclusion after the first sweep at the hands of the Ham, writing my post-mortem on the August 1st.

    There was a moment of “well…maybe…if…” during a 24 hour window after last Wednesday’s game. We had a chance to sweep Seibu in their home dome and pull within 6.5 games of an idle Hamu on Thursday night. Some _____(insert adjective here) managing and an Ernesto Mejia 8th inning home run later, and it’s up to 7.5 back with 21 games to go. Soon enough it’ll be magic number time.

    Ok, enough negativity from me. I am a Boston guy so forgive me, but I did grow up going into “here comes another championshipless winter” mode every September. Back to Our Marines though, and our unconditional love. It’ll be interesting to see what surprises us await us in the last month of the season. For starters, let’s see if we can take something positive from this weekend’s home series versus the last place Eagles. The trend has been to give some young guys more playing time, so let’s hope that continues. Despaigne’s been back in the lineup too, it’s been a joy watching the Cuban newcomer come into his own and show off that power.

     

    Game 1 – Lotte WINS 5-2

    Rakuten: Takahiro Norimoto (11-8, 3.04) @ Lotte: Yuta Ohmine (1-3, 4.14)

    [expand title=”Continue Reading” trigclass=”noarrow” excerptpos=”above-trigger” alt=”Click to Expand” tag=”b” excerpt=”By: Craig Roberts Yuta Ohimine won his second game of 2014, leading Our Marines with one earned run in 6 1/3 innings pitched. A 2-run home run by Kakunaka, another 2-run shot by Cruz, and a go-ahead RBI triple from Tamura led the way on a night our offense produced twelve hits. The Marines are now winners in four of their last five. “]

    Kakunaka (front) Tamura (back) from marines.co.jp
    Kakunaka (front) Tamura (back) from marines.co.jp
    Things started a bit shaky when an Imae throwing error contributed to Ohmine eventually walking in a run in the 1st inning. Ohimine escaped the inning with the bases loaded and went on to give up just the lone earned run the rest of the night. That came on two walks and a hit leading to a bases loaded Ginji sac fly in the 3rd, giving Rakuten the early 2-0 lead.

    Ohimine allowed 1 hit and 2 walks apiece in innings 1 and 3. Other that though, he allowed just one more base runner on the night, a 1-out 5th inning Okajima single that eventually led to a 6-3 line out double play. A solid win for Yuta for sure.

    The Eagles were held without an extra base hit for the entire night. One of last year’s key players Matsunaga finished off the 7th inning despite allowing 2 hits, making his 2nd appearance in 2 games since missing almost all of August. Ohtani set things up with a scoreless 8th on 1 hit and a 5-3 line out double play1, and Nishino closed the door with a 1-2-3 9th on 5 pitches.

    1Much to my delight, Andruw Jones was involved in both line out double plays.

    Now the offense. A Tamura (2-for-4; single, triple, 1R, 1RBI) lead off single got the offense going in the 5th. Kakunaka was up with 1-out and pulled a ball high and deep into the right field stands for a 2-run HR tying the game 2-2.

    Tamura was key in our go-ahead run in the following inning, this time driving it in. Cruz led off the inning 1st pitch swinging, bouncing a soft liner just fair deep down the left field line for a double. After a Nemoto bunt and Imae groundout, Tamura was up with 2 outs and Cruz on 3rd. Tamura took a 2-1 pitch the other way, lining it into right center and bounding it just through the gap and to the wall. Cruz scores, and Tamura to 3rd on the timely 2-out RBI triple making it 3-2 Lotte on the team’s 10th hit of the game.

    Lotte got some insurance in the 8th inning. Despaigne increased his 1-for-4 streak to 3 games, suitably keeping his batting average at .250 for the 4th straight game.2 Alfredo was lifted for pinch runner Hayasaka, presumably to preserve this stat for my blogging convenience. Up next, Cruz crushed a no-doubt home run to left for his team leading3 15th home run making it 5-2 Marines!

    2 Not to under-sell it, his OPS is at .857. If he qualified, that OPS would lead the qualifiers on the team.

    3 Iguchi is the next closest at 10, with Imae (8), Despaigne (7), Daichi (6), Kakunaka (5) the only other players at 5 or more. Cruz’s 15 HR are especially good coming from a guy who provides MLB-caliber middle-infield defense on a nightly basis
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    Game 2 – Lotte Loses 4-0

    Rakuten: Yasunori Kikuchi (2-0, 2.18 ERA) @ Lotte: Yoshihisa Naruse (8-8, 4.54 ERA)

    [expand title=”Continue Reading” trigclass=”noarrow” excerptpos=”above-trigger” alt=”Click to Expand” tag=”b” excerpt=”By: Craig Roberts Ten men reached base, ten men stranded on base. Thirteenth shutout loss of the year. Naruse had a no hitter through six innings, then gave up a three run 7th. Another loss.”]

    Saturday’s loss featured the usual menu of the 2014 Lotte shortcomings. Yet another game with men LOB reaching the double digits. Our 13th shutout loss means we’ve been shutout in over 10% of the games so far this year. Once again, all it took was one rough inning from an otherwise brilliant start to put our Marines in a seemingly insurmountable hole.

    Naruse was nearly perfect for in first 6 1/3 innings, allowing 0 hits, 1 walk, and striking out 5 on 65 pitches. The next 2/3 innings… 3 hits, 2 walks, 3 runs. Everything went downhill in the 7th after a 1 out Okajima double. Naruse allowed a 1 out walk to Jones, a 2 out walk to Shima, and then an RBI single to Masuda, and 2 run single to Nishida.

    Karakawa pitched the 8th inning, allowing a run on 3 hits, as he vacillates between the pen and the rotation. Rosa struck out 2 in his first appearance in over a week, sending the bottom of the Rakuten lineup down 1-2-3.

    Ten Marines reached base, but only half of those were hits. Tamura drew 3 walks in 3 plate appearances, with Nemoto and Daichi reaching by HPB. Imae had 3 of the 5 Lotte hits, 2 singles and a double. Katoh and Kakunaka each contributed a single for the other 2 Lotte hits. Of the 10 men left on base, 6 were stranded in scoring position.
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    Game 3 – Lotte Loses 4-0

    Rakuten: Wataru Karashima (7-11 3.49 ERA) @ Lotte: Yuta Kimura (0-0, 5.67 ERA)

    [expand title=”Continue Reading” trigclass=”noarrow” excerptpos=”above-trigger” alt=”Click to Expand” tag=”b” excerpt=”By: Craig Roberts Our Marines got shutout for the second straight night, and for the fourth time in the last two weeks. That’s now fourteen shutouts on the season, with tonight’s version brought to you by a 2-hit complete game shutout by Karashima. Kimura was charged with the loss in his first career start. “]

    Photo from Steve
    Photo from Steve
    Once again the Eagles were only able to score runs in a single inning off our starting pitcher, and once again that’s all they needed to do for the win. Kimura pitched a shutout through 3 innings, but allowed a huge 3-run home run to Shintaro Masuda in the 4th inning. He was pulled after 4 on just 76 pitches in the losing effort. Of course, you’re not going to win any games in which you fail to score runs anyway.

    Karakawa replaced Kimura taking the hill for innings 5 through 8. Karakawa allowed a home run of his own to Masuda, an opposite field solo shot in the 7th which gave us the final score of 4-0.

    Meanwhile, Karashima held Our Marines to 2 hits in 9 innings, a Daichi single in the 4th and a Katoh double in the 7th. Speaking of Katoh, he made a great catch to end the 5th inning. Not much more to add to that.

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