Photopost: Shonan Sea Rex @ Lotte Urawa Marines - It Really Ain't Easy Being Glynn

On Saturday, July 11th, I had a rare choice of which ni-gun game to ride my bicycle to -- Fighters vs. Swallows at Yakult Toda, or Shonan Sea Rex (Yokohama's farm team) vs. Marines at Lotte Urawa. Although it seems obvious that as a Fighters fan I should have gone to Toda, I ended up choosing Lotte Urawa for a few reasons: first, there are more seats there. Toda stadium basically has a tiny set of bleacher benches behind home plate and that's it. Second, I had calculated the Searex rotation and figured out that Ryan Glynn was really likely to start for them. I hadn't seen the Searex yet this year -- heck, I haven't been to a Baystars game since the preseason -- and was also kind of hoping to see Takahiro Matsuka, as well as my ni-gun boyfriend Yuki Takamori. It's funny, I have a favorite ni-gun player for Yokohama, but not a favorite ichi-gun player since Takuro left. Maybe Atsushi Kizuka, though it's been forever since I've seen him play.

I rode my bicycle up there -- it's about 6 miles away and took me a little less than an hour -- and got to Lotte Urawa Stadium around 12pm for a 1pm game. Managed to get a front row seat on the first base side, next to a tall Japanese guy who also had a scorecard and a camera. Bet anything he's also a blogger.

This game was just another case of tough luck for Ryan Glynn, really. He was the Sea Rex starter, and for the second straight Saturday in a row, I was watching Yuta Ohmine start for the ni-gun Marines...







And well, it was just not fated to be a good game for Glynn. It's not really his fault, it's mostly the fault of everyone else out there in the field. Glynn threw 8 innings on 114 pitches, walked 1, struck out 6 guys and gave up 1 home run. Well, and he gave up 11 hits, about half of which I have marked as "through a diving 2B" or "past a lunging SS" and so on.

The Marines took a 1-0 lead in the 2nd off a few of those very "past a diving infielder" singles, as Kanazawa singled, Muniz singled and moved Kanazawa to third, and then Aomatsu singled him in. (Okada hit into a fielder's choice and then stole second, but when Nemoto struck out the inning ended with Okada and Muniz on second and third.)

The Searex might have tied up the game in the 3rd if they didn't run themselves out of it. Toshio Saitoh hit a nice single to lead off and then for whatever reason took off stealing on the first pitch to Noriharu Yamazaki, and was out by a mile.



So then of course, Yamazaki hit a single off of Yuta Ohmine's leg, or glove, I'm not sure which, but there was no throw.



Instead, Ohmine decided he was determined to pick Yamazaki off first base.







But it didn't work and ultimately he walked Kajitani instead. Naturally, that was followed up by Hiroaki Ohnishi grounding into a double play. How many ways can you run yourself out of an inning, seriously?

Well, the Marines grounded into a double play to end their half of the 3rd too, so then in the 4th the Searex finally did something. Keijiro "Waseda's Finest" Matsumoto led off with a double, and Yuta Naitoh struck out. Yuki Takamori (!) singled to right, and Matsumoto ran to third -- I had my camera trained on the plate waiting to see Matsumoto score, but he didn't, and I don't know why he held up at third. Toshiyuki Kitagawa also singled to left, and Matsumoto actually DID finally score. 1-1. Atsushi Kita grounded to Nemoto, who threw to short for the force at second, but fortunately the relay to first was not in time for the double play, so Takamori went to third... but with runners at the corners, Toshio Saitoh grounded out for real. All of those runners and only one run.

The real turning point of the game was in the bottom of the 4th. Juan Muniz led off with a simple single to center, and Hiroshi Miyamoto followed it up with another simple single to center. Except, unfortunately, for Keijiro Matsumoto out there in center field, it was apparently not that simple a single to center, and when he went to retrieve it, whoops! Suddenly the ball was not in front of him, OR in his glove, but was infact past him and going back and he had to go run after it and retrieve it out by the wall. Poor, poor Keijiro! In the meantime, Muniz scored, and even Miyamoto was able to score by the time the ball came in.



(Shown above: Miyamoto is sliding into home plate as Muniz and Aomatsu wave him in. Saitoh is Not Amused.)

So that made it 3-1 on a pretty big blunder. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I don't have a shot of Glynn while this comedy of errors was going on. The next two batters were retired on infield grounders, and then Nemoto hit a pop fly to shallow centerfield. People were joking from the stands, "Don't drop it, Keijiro!" but then Noriharu Yamazaki ran back and made the catch anyway. Thanks, Nori.

I dunno, though, that play kind of took the steam out of both teams for a while. The next few innings went by blindingly fast -- the most exciting thing that happened was at one point between innings Shingo Nonaka came out to throw with Yuta Naitoh in right, only Nonaka somehow lost control of the baseballs he was carrying (misthrow?) and had to go chase them down towards the bullpen, and so Yuta Sekiguchi threw with Naitoh instead... everyone in the stands was laughing at Nonaka, and even Sekiguchi yelled out, "Hey Shingo, can you gimme those baseballs so I can take 'em back?"

Kei Hosoya hit a home run over the left-field wall in the 8th inning, which made it 4-1, which is where the game ended. Glynn threw a complete game; Ohmine threw 7 innings with Taiki Nakagoh and Kentaro Hashimoto picking up the 8th and 9th.

Box score here in Japanese.

On the way back from the bullpen, Glynn was walking with his translator, and his translator noticed me and kind of nodded/smiled at me, so I smiled and said, "Tough game, huh Ryan?"

Glynn looked up, kinda smiled back, and nodded. "Yeah."

I think if it hadn't been such a ridiculous series of events, I might have tried to talk to him more, but I didn't really want to be a pain in the butt after such a game.

We've talked about it before on Michael Westbay's site how Glynn is the unluckiest pitcher in Japan, and no matter how well he throws, he always seems to be doomed to lose. It's kind of sad that it's continued with the Searex -- a complete game with 2 runs that were actually his fault, and the team simply can't score any runs, or at least keep themselves out of double plays and getting caught stealing?

Anyway, since this is a photopost, here are some more photos that I took that didn't really fit into the story...


Masato Watanabe working out at first base before the game. (He didn't actually make an appearance in the game, though.)


Keijiro Matsumoto, walking to first.


TA-KA-MO-RI!!!!


Yuki Takamori and Takeshi Kanazawa at first, #62 - #62.


Keiyo Aomatsu high-fiving first-base coach Takenori Daita after hitting his RBI single to put the Marines ahead in the 2nd inning.




Yuji Hata warming up in the bullpen.


Shingo Nonaka running out to play catch or to chase baseballs or something.


Takayuki Kajitani hitting into a 3-6-3 double play and being out at first.


Kajitani, out and further out.


Yuta Naitoh.


Keijiro Matsumoto standing in front of the scoreboard in the bottom of the 8th.


Okay, so this is Takahiro Matsuka, the smartest guy in baseball... no, just kidding. But Matsuka is the 4th man in the history of the NPB to have graduated from Tokyo University and to also play at ichi-gun. It is unclear whether this is more because Tokyo University does not attract students with baseball talent, or because anyone who graduates from Todai probably has better long-term career choices than "pro baseball player", and are unlikely to be unsucky enough to get drafted anyway. Either way, he is special. I wish I could have worked up the nerve to say something to him (since he was looking at me funny). Maybe next time.

(I know that you have to have fairly good English comprehension to actually get IN to Todai, though whether anyone keeps up with it AFTER passing the entrance exams is another story, of course.)


How the mighty have fallen. Yukiya Yokoyama #99 and Michiomi Yoshihara #45. Yokoyama used to be the Fighters' closer before Micheal. He wasn't particularly good. He spent the rest of his career with Yokohama, sometimes being good, sometimes not being particularly good. Actually, I think he's a fine pitcher, just never when I'm watching.


(I meant to try to write this entry while watching today's Fighters-Marines game, but I got way too distracted. Brian had a decent start, and Shota Ohno hit a grand slam!!! and Makoto Kaneko hit TWO home runs! And Hiroki Ueno pitched and I finally got to see him and was really happy! But then Hisashi "World's Smallest Closer" Takeda gave up 3 runs to tie it at 6-6 in the top of the 9th and so the game went on until 6pm. And just when all hope seemed to be lost, and it was 2 outs in the bottom of the 12th with runners at the corners, and 2 strikes on Tomohiro Nioka, he managed to hit a single to the right-center gap which scored a pinch-running Kazuya Murata. Whew. 7-6. Anyway, that's why it didn't get finished until Sunday evening.

Not that it really matters, although today on 7/12, the Searex managed to beat Lotte 11-7. Go figure.)

One Freaking Hit

Seriously. Kazuhito Tadano just nearly pitched a no-hitter against the Chiba Lotte Marines at the Sapporo Dome. He was perfect through 3 innings, walked 4 guys across the next few innings, and got to the top of the 9th with 2 outs with no hits, when Shoitsu Ohmatsu singled to right. The Fighters won the game 4-0.

And to think, I just saw him last Saturday at Kamagaya pitching a semi-shaky start against the minor-league Marines.

This is why I'm a Tadano fan -- the craziest things happen when he's around!

Game Report: Fighters @ Lions - Who the *%&! is Tatsuyuki Uemoto Anyway

The thing that truly makes Seibu somewhat terrifying as a team is that they ALWAYS seem to have a huge reserve of random talented players, hiding in the wings, waiting to be unleashed upon the rest of the world at any given time. Seriously. I don't know how they manage to keep these guys hidden so well, aside from the fact that Tokorozawa is so damn far away that they always have trouble filling the stadium no matter how good the ichi-gun team is, and nobody bothers schlepping out there for ni-gun games either.

(Last weekend, reported attendance for Fighters ni-gun games at Kamagaya: 1557; 1813. Reported attendance for Lions ni-gun games at Seibu 2nd Stadium: 325; 618. Perhaps Seibu makes sure not to have real seats at their stadium in a deliberate attempt to keep anyone from actually learning about their farm team. Hmm.)

I guess it's a good way to keep the regulars on their toes, though, knowing that there are people waiting in the wings in ni-gun to take their jobs should they falter.

Anyway, this game was really frustrating as a Fighters fan, because we sort of go into Darvish starts expecting to win -- he is, after all, currently leading the PL in ERA, wins, and strikeouts -- so when Seibu went ahead 1-0 early on a Takeya "Okawari-kun" Nakamura home run, it was not a good sign, and two innings later the Lions made it 2-0 with a string of hits and an RBI single from Yoshihito Ishii.

One of my friends asked me how you say "Okawari-kun" in English. I was like "Well, for drinks it's refills, but for food we don't really have one word. Some people call him 'Mr. Second Helpings', if that makes any sense." The Lions fans even have a special cheer for him, yelling "Okawari okawari mou ippon!", essentially asking for another plate of homerun.

I was cheering for Makoto Kaneko with some friends in the front row -- we were calling it "Makoto Festival, #8 for the 8th", and he hit a home run in the 5th inning, which was exciting, and then Terrmel Sledge hit a 2-run home run in the 6th which made it 3-2.

However, in the bottom of the 7th, out of nowhere, this Uemoto kid pinch-hits for that Ginjiro kid, and hits a 2-run homer just to the right of centerfield, caught on the fly by a kid with a glove. And the game was 4-3, and I had a sinking feeling that was where it was going to end, and it did. The ending sucked, too, Chikara Onodera has apparently moved back into the closer role this year and is doing an okay job of it -- Tsuboi was pinch-hitting with one out in the top of the 9th, and Kazuya Murata was the runner at first, and Tsuboi hit a liner to second. It was supposed to be a hit-and-run I think, and Murata was already practically at second base by the time the ball smacked into Yasuyuki Kataoka's glove, and he tagged Murata out, and that was the end of the game.



I seriously don't really want to talk about this game because it made me really grumpy. I didn't even stick around for the hero interview (they were announcing it was Uemoto as I was leaving the stadium), I just kind of ran outside and started walking towards the train station as they were asking him "How did it feel to hit a home run off of Yu Darvish?" and such. Grumble.

I was, infact, so pissed off, that I took an axe and cut off manager Hisanobu Watanabe's head:



No, just kidding. It was part of the Lions Classic display, but when are you pissed off and running towards the station and suddenly see a headless Seibu guy standing there, it is a little freaky. From the front it actually looked like this:



Whatever. I didn't go back to the Seibu Dump on Thursday because I had to stay late at my school helping students by doing mock interviews for an English speaking test they have to take this weekend. Good thing, too, because I would not have been happy watching the Fighters get swept by Seibu. Softbank took 2 of 3 from Orix and now they are in sole possession of 1st place instead of us, too.

On a brighter note, however, when I got home from the Seibu Dump that evening, I was so annoyed about the game that I impulsively decided to go buy tickets for two Fighters games in Hokkaido, so that I would finally be committed to actually going up there, dammit. So, I'll be flying up to Hokkaido on July 30th, and I'll be sitting in the left field stands at the Sapporo Dome for the games against Softbank on July 31st and August 1st. I'm hoping to do a Dome tour on the 30th and hit up Hillman's Hangout and such again.

Game Report: Fighters @ Lions - Tanabata Festival

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- no matter how nice you renovate the Seibu Dump to be, it's still going to have the issue of being in a location that is really inconvenient for not only most of the greater Tokyo area to attend a game, but even for most people in Saitama. Usually on weekends you need to show up pretty early to snag a prime piece of outfield turf seating. This is not a problem on weekdays; you can spread out as much as you want and it's rarely crowded, but you still have to actually schlep out there. For me, even running from train to train and making the quickest connections possible, the earliest I could arrive at the station was 6:09, for a 6pm game.

So by the time I got out there, get a ticket, get a sandwich, and get into the stadium, it was already towards the end of the first inning and the score was 2-2. The bad part is that I missed seeing Shinji Takahashi hit a home run off of Lions starter Takayuki Kishi. The good part is that I didn't see Itokazu walk two and hit one of the first three batters, loading the bases for Seibu (Yoshihito Ishii doubled to drive in those two runs).

As previously mentioned (but I deleted the post in favor of this one), Fighters starter Keisaku Itokazu forgot his uniform and borrowed one from Brian Sweeney...


(photo from Sankei Sports)

And unfortunately, I think the jersey carried Sweeney's bad luck at the Seibu Dome with it. I sat with some of my friends in the back for the first few innings, and one of them (Akki) is a huge Sweeney fan, so when everyone was yelling "Ganbare ganbare Itokazu!" he was yelling "Ganbare ganbare Sweeney!"

Anyway, the Fighters got out to another lead fairly quickly in the 2nd inning. Yoshihiro Satoh, in his very first ichi-gun at-bat of the year, hit a home run to right field. I was surprised enough to see him out there because I'd just watched him all weekend at Kamagaya, but Jason Botts was sent down and Satoh was sent up. Crazy. 3-2.

In the top of the third, Itoi walked, and Inaba singled to right, pretty much a hit-and-run since Itoi was at second base by the time the ball left the infield. Shinji Takahashi hit a pop fly to left, and despite Ozaki charging and throwing in, Itoi was faster and scored. 4-2.

However, the Lions quickly closed that gap in the bottom of the 4th. Yoshihito Ishii was hit on the leg by a pitch, and then GG Satoh hit a long fly ball to right field which looked like a home run, but instead it hit the wall along with Inaba, for a double. Ozaki walked, so the bases were loaded with no outs yet again. Itokazu momentarily got lucky when Taka Miura lined back to the mound (one out) and Itokazu threw to third base to double off Ishii, who had started to run and didn't get back in time (two outs). However, Ginjiro Sumitani singled to center after that, scoring GG Satoh, and in the meantime Itoi's throw back home was relayed OVER the plate, so in the meantime Ozaki scored as well and Ginjiro made it all the way to third. 4-4.

I went down to the front to cheer for the 5th inning, but in the bottom half, Hiroyuki Nakajima singled and then Okawari-kun Nakamura hit a home run to left field, making it 6-4. Itokazu came out of the game at that point and Ken Miyamoto replaced him.

Miyamoto, Ejiri, and Miyanishi kept the Lions from scoring for the rest of the game, but Takayuki Kishi ALSO kept the Fighters from scoring for the rest of the game and ended up with a complete game win, and was the game hero as well. I actually don't have much to say about the rest of the game; I spent most of it talking to people about when they are travelling to various cities, since I'm trying to figure out when to go to Hokkaido and Sendai and so on.



It was a quick game. We were out of the stadium a few minutes before 9pm, so I went around for a few minutes looking at all the Tanabata stuff I'd been too much in a hurry to look at before the game. (Tanabata is a summer festival of sorts, held on July 7th.)

One of the things people do is write wishes on pieces of paper and then tie them to branches, making colorful decorations. They had papers at the Dome, so I even wrote one (I couldn't think of anything to wish for though, so I wrote "いい天気がほしい", which means "I wish for good weather"). Most people wrote baseball-related ones. One of my friends who loves outfielder Tomochika Tsuboi had written one of "I hope Tsuboi plays in tonight's game and does well". He pinch-hit a single in the 9th inning, so I guess she got her wish, sort of.


Some of the tanabata papers.


An older guy attaches his paper to the tree.


Seibu players all wrote tanabata wish papers.


Here's Hiram Bocachica's paper.


Paper lanterns strung above the walkway going towards the Seibu Dome.


In the middle of the 5th or 6th inning, they also told us that the starting pitchers for Wednesday's game would be Darvish and Nishiguchi, so it's back to the Seibu Dump tonight for me!

Game Report / Photopost: Ni-gun Marines vs. Fighters @ Kamagaya

On Saturday, I told most people at Kamagaya that I'd be back on Sunday (July 5th), so I sort of felt obligated to go again.

This time, since I'd actually warned people of my incoming presence, they saved me a seat. And by "they" I mean Ojisan, and by "a seat" I mean "a seat RIGHT BEHIND HOME PLATE IN THE FRONT ROW". It wasn't the best place to take photos due to the thick iron fence they put up there, but it was one heck of a vantage point to watch the pitching from, and the Fighters' starter was Shaggy Shugo Fujii.

But first, Ojisan also gave me his ticket to the day's sign-kai, so I got more shikishi signed. This time it was Yachiho Hoshino and Atsushi Ugumori signing stuff, who were more interesting than Yoshikawa and Ichikawa were. Hoshino draws a star as part of signing his name (since "hoshi" is star), and Ugumori actually just scrawls "Ugu #65", which is fair considering his name 鵜久森 is really difficult to write.


(The guy in the middle is a random fan who won a drawing to pose with the players, I think.)

After that, I went around saying hello to people. See, at Kamagaya, I've come to the conclusion that what goes through people's heads when they see me wandering through the stands can be broken down something like this:

5% - "A white girl? Must be one of the players' wives!"
50% - "How on earth did a poor gaijin wander all the way out here? And why does she have a signed Fighters jersey with a kanji name on the back?"
15% - "Hey, it's THAT GAIJIN. I've seen her on TV and at games around Kanto and such."
30% - "Deanna-san! How are you?"

Fortunately, the latter category has enough people in it at this point that I slowly get to know the people in the other categories through them.

Though then, while going back to my seat after buying lunch, who should I run into but Shane Sakata! She was at the game with some friends of hers and Lenn's from Hawaii, so I got to chat with them in English for a bit, AND they gave me a box of macadamia nut chocolates, which were freaking fantastic, if a bit melty. It's tough to get decent milk chocolate here; normal chocolate in Japan is kind of bittersweet.

And as if that wasn't more than enough excitement, then there was a baseball game, too.

The starting pitchers were


Shaggy Shugo Fujii for the Fighters, and


Kazunari Abe for the Marines. I keep thinking he's like 16 years old.

And yeah, I took advantage of my spot behind home plate to try to get those "ball being released from the pitcher's hand" shots. You can pretty much only take them from that perspective, so I thought it'd be a fun challenge for the day.

Lotte got off to a pretty quick start against the Fighters, anyway. Shunichi Nemoto picked up where he left off on Saturday and hit a double to left, and then Ken Shinzato bunted him to third. (Sho Nakata, playing first, didn't even bother charging the ball, which should give you an idea of how slow he is.) Ryusuke Minami then singled to left, scoring Nemoto. 1-0. Kei Hosoya broke his bat grounding out to short, which moved Minami to second, and then Akira Ohtsuka hit a line drive to left field, which dropped behind Yoshihiro Satoh, and then as he and Yoh scrambled to recover it, Ohtsuka ran and ran and ran and managed to make it all the way to third (barely):



Which scored Minami, 2-0. Takuma Sadaoka struck out after that to end the inning.

The Fighters got two quick outs in the bottom of the 1st and then DH Luis Jimenez hit a single to right field. Sho Nakata managed to lay off a whole bunch of low pitches and walked, and then Ryota Imanari walked into the batter's box, and took the very first pitch he saw and BLAM! sent it over the right-field wall. It was so close to the foul pole I worried that it actually WAS foul, but no, it was a genuine 3-run home run. 3-2!


Ryota SMASH!


High-fives back in the dugout...


...and outside the dugout.

Yes, with a 3-4-5 of Jimenez-Nakata-Imanari, who would have predicted that Ryota was going to be the one to hit the home run? But that's just the way things worked out. Satoh followed it up with a double and was then stranded on base as Ohhira struck out.

(Actually, Ojisan filmed the entire thing -- you can see video in this entry about the game, from Sho Nakata's at-bat to Ryota hitting the home run. I swear he was sitting next to me and I don't even remember seeing him filming, probably because I was too busy taking photos.)

Lotte wasn't too happy about not having the lead anymore, so in the top of the 2nd they took it back with two solo home runs by Aomatsu and Nemoto. I only have the post-HR high-five shots, but...


Aomatsu comes home. (You can see Nemoto on the right getting ready to high-five him.)


Nemoto comes home.

So that made it 4-3, which is where it would stay for a really long time.

The Marines nearly scored another run in the top of the third -- with two outs, Akira Ohtsuka hit a single, a line drive shot right over Shugo Fujii's outstretched glove, and he moved up to second base when Takuma Sadaoka hit an infield single, Kenshi Sugiya falling down as he snagged the ball, unable to stand up in time to make the play. Takumi Kohbe followed that up with a single to center, and Chon-so Yoh charged the ball and threw it in. Akira Ohtsuka charged the plate, but the ball beat him there and he did a crazy somersault to try to avoid the tag, but in doing so avoided the plate and was eventually tagged out anyway as he lie sprawling on the ground, ending the inning.


Ohtsuka runs home. Go go Ohtsuka-Akira!


"Okay, okay, I give up, just tag me already! Oh, my aching back..."

Apparently Abe-kun was only pitching two innings, and Takuya Furuya replaced him on the mound for Lotte for the next four innings, and the Fighters were helpless against him. Seriously, it was kind of embarrassing, he notched 6 strikeouts in 4 innings and only gave up a walk and two hits.

Here's some gratuitous Furuya shots, including more "ball-leaving-the-hand" attempts:







In the top of the 4th, the Marines put the first runner on when rightfielder Ohhira dropped Aomatsu's fly ball to right... and then Aomatsu managed to get himself picked off second on a pitchout to Masato Watanabe. Masato then walked... and when Shunichi Nemoto hit a liner back to the mound, Fujii caught it and threw to first to double off Masato, who wasn't quite quick enough running back to the bag. Sho Nakata was actually dragged off the bag fielding the throw, but somehow Masato was called out anyway, I'm not really sure how that worked. I guess he was on the bag long enough, or in time, or whatever.


Sho Nakata pretending he knows how to play first base.


Shugo Fujii walks off the mound for the last time with Ryota Imanari, at the end of the fourth.

Ryo Sakakibara took over on the mound for the 5th and 6th innings. I hadn't seen him pitch in a long time, but he did pretty well -- 6 up, 6 down, and the 6th inning was even three strikeouts in a row. Quite nice.




Ryo Sakakibara, who pitched the 5th and 6th innings.




Yataro Sakamoto, who pitched the 7th and 8th innings for the Fighters. (He gave up two walks, to Hosoya and Ohtsuka, but was otherwise fine.)

Before the Fighters' Lucky 7, there was Cubby Taiso again, and it was very cute again:



And then Taiki Nakagoh took the mound for Lotte, and promptly walked Takayuki Takaguchi, and then misplayed a grounder by Takuya Nakashima (it was a sac bunt and Nakashima was safe at first as the throw drew Masato Watanabe off the bag). Chon-so Yoh bunted them both up to second and third and things were beginning to look good for the Fighters... so the Marines replaced Nakagoh with lefty relief pitcher Kodai Matsumoto, who struck out Takahiro Imanami and got a groundout from Luis Jimenez. Doh.


Matsumoto pitching.


Matsumoto being coached.

It was about at this point that I went up to chat with Shane Sakata for two innings or so, so I don't really have many photos of the last parts of the game. Takayuki Kanamori pitched the 9th for the Fighters, and gave up two runs to Lotte. I thought they were unearned since Miyamoto reached base when Sho Nakata booted the ball on a grounder to first with Kanamori covering, and then with two outs, Shunichi Nemoto hit a single which moved Miyamoto up, and then Ken Shinzato hit a double which scored Nemoto and Miyamoto, making it 6-3.

Kentaro Hashimoto, who had taken over on the mound for the final out of the 8th, also pitched the 9th for Lotte. Hashimoto came over from Hanshin in the Yasutomo Kubo trade, and is a right-handed reliever. Takaguchi singled, and then Nakashima and Yoh both struck out. With Imanami at bat, the Fighters down 6-3 with two outs in the ninth, Takaguchi just kind of ran to second and nobody tried to stop him, and then Imanami managed to hit a double to center, scoring Takaguchi. 6-4! But then Luis Jimenez struck out on a checked third strike to end the game there.



Box score on NPB's site.

After the game I went player-stalking with my friends. I got photos with a few players again, but there was super-strong wind and so I look like crap because the wind was blowing in my face. I was still happy to catch these guys though -- Sunaga because now I've gotten my photo with all the Urawa Gakuin guys, and Yohei just because I like him and usually he runs away from us.


Me with Hideki Sunaga.


Me with Yohei Kaneko.

I also saw a friend of mine who works for the Fighters, who's helped me with fan club stuff all along when I can't figure out things in Japanese, but who I hadn't seen in person since last March's fan festival. So that was also good.

And well... these didn't fit into the story but I feel like posting them anyway to finish out the photopost:


Shunichi Nemoto


Takumi Kohbe


Chon-so Yoh


Akira Ohtsuka


Kenshi Sugiya


Now I am off to the Fighters-Lions game in an hour or two, hopefully!

Photopost: Kamagaya, July 4th, Marines vs. Fighters

Last year on the 4th of July I celebrated my Americanness by going to the immigration office to do the paperwork to live in Japan for another year. This year, I spent the 4th of July watching baseball, which is arguably more American, although I didn't see any other Americans all day, unless you count Lenn Sakata, and I didn't talk to him anyway.

I got to Kamagaya station in time for the first bus to the field, and yet the place was already pretty crowded, since a lot of people drive there from around Chiba. But a few nice people gave me a ticket to the sign-kai table going on, and I happened to bring shikishi for once, so I ran outside and got them signed by Mitsuo Yoshikawa and Suguru Ichikawa! That was pretty cool.



After that I spent an hour basically wandering around and saying hi to people and talking to friends and taking photos and eating food and all. At one point, Keisuke Tanimoto and Romash Tasuku Dass (pitchers for the Fighters) wandered into the food court, which was pretty wacky. I took a photo but it didn't really come out.

Anyway, there was a game. It featured the following starting pitchers...


Kazuhito Tadano for the Fighters, and


Yuta Ohmine for the Marines.

Rumor was that if Tadano did well, he'd have a really good shot of being moved up to ichi-gun. I wouldn't say he did poorly but I'm also not sure he was fabulous enough for them to move him up. 5.2 innings, 6 strikeouts, 2 earned runs, that's not too bad, but he allowed a lot of runners. The Marines actually had the bases loaded with no outs in the first, but then he got the next three batters to keep runs from scoring. And they had a lot of guys on in the 3rd too, when they scored the first run of the game off a Nemoto double and a Hosoya double. Tadano also gave up the first home run of the gsme to, of all people, Masato Watanabe.

In the meantime, Ohmine got a lot of strikeouts, BUT then proceeded to lead off the 3rd inning by hitting Yoh with a pitch in the shoulder, and then hitting the next batter Konta in the shin. A series of crazy errors during Satoh's two-out at-bat were what scored Konta and Imanami (the latter had tried to bunt up the first two, but succeeded in getting Yoh out on the force at third instead). First, the Fighters' Yoshihiro Satoh hit the ball to left field, but then the Marines' Kenji Satoh, who was playing left, ran out for the ball... and dropped it. So Konta scored, Imanami went to third, and then as they threw in the ball from left, it also MISSED the first baseman and kept going, so eventually the Fighters' Satoh ended up at third, and Imanami also scored, and neither run was earned for Ohmine.

That made it 2-1, and Masato's homerun made it 2-2.

Tadano threw an 0-2 eephus pitch to Takumi Kohbe in the 5th, which was hilarious, and Kohbe struck out on the next pitch and was so pissed off he threw his bat into the ground.

Anyway, in the 6th, Hosoya got on base when the aforementioned Fighters Satoh dropped a fly ball in center, and stole second, and Ohtsuka walked, and then that pesky Masato Watanabe singled to right and drove in Hosoya, making it 3-2, and that's when Tadano came out of the game.

For the record, when Hosoya hit that to center, he actually ran towards 2nd base, then ran back to 1st, and the ball was thrown in by then and he was called safe, but he looked kind of out, and manager Mizukami came out to argue the call. Lotte fans were yelling, "We have a night game to go to in Chiba, hurry up and decide!"

Yachiho Hoshino pitched the top of the 7th inning and gave up a whopping 5 runs to Lotte, including homeruns to Heiuchi (solo leadoff) and Ohtsuka (3-run). 8-2.

Sho Nakata hit a home run in the 8th, a solo shot over the centerfield wall, making it 8-3, not that it really mattered at that point. You can see a box score here for more details; I'll try to add more later, if I have time.



After the game, I went to stalk players with some of my friends, but thanks to the game being long and the last bus out being at 5:19pm, I only got to see a few. I spent a while talking to Luis Jimenez while he was signing stuff, though. He's a nice guy. I made a really dumb comment not realizing his translator was standing right there, too. I swear, I should just stop speaking English altogether. I'm much nicer and much less likely to say something stupid in Japanese (or rather, less likely to say something stupid where I'm aware I'm saying something stupid, instead of just making a language mistake).


Got a photo with Luis, though.


I also caught Yataro Sakamoto and bugged him for a photo. Saitama pride!

Anyway, here are some more photos I took on Saturday. I did say it was a photo post, right?


Toshimasa Konta taking practice swings.


Cubby-mascot reading some of the players' tanabata wishes.


Young infielder Takuya Nakashima.


SE-I-I-CHI! Ohhira, laughing at someone's joke.


Sho Nakata got some kind of weird haircut, not sure if it's since he came down to ni-gun or not.


Ryota Imanari, my favorite Fighters ni-gun kid. Rumor has it that after the all-star break, they might move Shota Ohno down to ni-gun to work on stuff and bring Imanari up. Who knows.


Imanari again.


Shunichi Nemoto watches a ball go flying up.


Takumi Kohbe.


Ryuichi Watanabe warms up with Tadano. But why does his glove say "Ohtsuka"? We don't have a catcher by that name...


Third-base coach Hajime Miki.


Konta running in from the outfield.


Hisao Heiuchi at third base joking around with Miki during a delay.


Masato Watanabe high-fives the dugout after hitting a home run.


Go Go Ohtsuka Akira! (He has the best smile on the Marines, hands down, although Ueno may give him some competition.)


In the 7th inning, they had something called "Cubby Taiso", where kids came on the field to ostensibly do some kind of dance, but in reality just waved noisemakers and did whatever.


I'm off to Kamagaya for Sunday's game. Hope it doesn't rain!

Hiroki Ueno's Ichi-gun Debut

We interrupt this normally totally Fighters-centric blog for a very important announcement about a Lotte pitcher. My 2009 Lotte Ni-Gun Boyfriend, Hiroki Ueno, got called up to ichi-gun yesterday, and when I read about it this morning I startled half of my office by squealing "WHAT?!" aloud. He didn't enter last night's almost-6-hour marathon, but instead came into TONIGHT'S game and pitched the last 2.2 innings for the Marines. And he was good. Every bit as good as I expect him to be for hopefully a long, long time.

(Photo from the Marines site of Ueno-kun on the mound)

He pitched 2.2 innings and faced 9 batters and struck out 6 of them. (box score in Japanese)

I'd been following Ueno's outings all year on the Marines ni-gun team -- how he kept striking people out and not walking them and not really giving up hits (he's 3-1, 2.50 in 13 games, 31 K in 30 innings with 4 walks and 30 hits). He usually seemed to follow Yasutaka Hattori, coming in about 4-5 innings into the game. And yet, I still never managed to see him actually play (not since he graduated college, anyway), because I haven't caught a Lotte ni-gun game in a while and can only do so on weekends and have been swamped with other things.

Oddly, I've been planning for a while to go to Kamagaya THIS coming weekend to see the Marines vs. Fighters ni-gun series, partially because I haven't been to Kamagaya in a while, but a major part was wanting to see Ueno pitch, or at least hoping to get to stalk him after the game for a photo together or an autograph or something. Seriously. Even though I hadn't really babbled about him on here, I've told a bunch of my Fighters friends about him, mostly as "the really awesome pitcher who was Shota Ohno's battery-mate at Toyo University". (I posted a bunch of photos of him with my 2008 Draft Post, since I happened to be at the Toyo-Asia game on the afternoon of draft day. I'd been taking photos of Ueno all day, and then got a text message from a friend like "Our first round pick was Shota Ohno!" and I'm like "Oh! He's right there!")

Well, I hope Ueno does really well at ichi-gun, though that means I'll have to choose a new Lotte ni-gun boyfriend a lot sooner than expected. I suppose all of my other favorite Lotte ni-gun guys are still around to see this weekend, but... oh, Ueno-kun, why couldn't you have gotten called up NEXT week? Now I'll never get to tell you how awesome I think you are :(

Liveblogging: Eagles @ Fighters

I don't get terrestrial TV but I do get BS1, and tonight they have the Eagles vs. Fighters game in the Sapporo Dome on. Hooray!

                     

Naoto Watanabe SS          Kensuke 2B 
Kosaka 2B                  Itoi CF
Masato Nakamura LF         Inaba RF
Kusano 3B                  Shinji 1B
Takeshi Smash DH           Sledge LF
Teppei CF                  Koyano 3B
Norihiro 1B                Jason Botts DH
Hiraishi RF                Tsuruoka C
Shima C                    Kaneko! SS

----------                 ----------
Hasebe (4-5, 4.19)         Itokazu (0-3, 6.08)

The Dome looks kind of empty. I really have to plan a trip there sometime in August... shame almost all of their games then are weekends though.

First inning, top:
The TV broadcast comes on just in time to see Kosaka ground out for the second out of the first inning... Nakamura also grounds out and that's three.

First inning, bottom:
Kensuke walks, Itoi bunts. Hasebe's control doesn't look so good... Inaba jump, the camera is shaking. Inaba walks, runners at first and second for Shinji... who grounds to third. Ball to second, Inaba out on the force but Shinji is safe at first. Kensuke to third... and Sledge singles to right! Kensuke scores, Inaba makes it all the way to third. 1-0. Koyano strikes out.

Second inning, top:
Kusano hits a pop fly up, up, up, down down down into Koyano's glove right by third. And just as I'm talking about "hey, Takeshi Smash is DHing today" with a friend on IM... Takeshi smashes a homerun into the leftfield stands. And this is no small homerun, it went about 2/3 of the way up the seats. 1-1. Teppei hits a fly to shallow right-center, and Kensuke, Itoi, and Inaba all run in, and it's not clear who has it but then Inaba lunges out and makes the catch. Norihiro comes up to bat and... grounds out to Kensuke.


I have just realized that both starters wear #20 and are still young unproven college-star types.

Second inning, bottom:
Jason Bottsu! ...grounds out to short. Tsuruoka watches a bunch of pitches go by way in or way out and walks. Kaneko... long fly ball to right. Kensuke walks again, so runners at first and second. Itoi... hits a grounder to first that even Norihiro has no trouble getting and running to the bag in time.

Third inning, top:
Hiraishi (dare aitsu?) hits a long fly ball to Inaba. One out. Shima comes up bunting or not bunting or who knows, but he walks. Naoto Watanabe lunges for a pitch way the hell outside, drags it to Kensuke, who flicks to Kaneko at second and makes the relay to first in time for a double play. Whoosh.

Third inning, bottom:
Inaba and Shinji ground out and Sledge strikes out and I barely see it as I'm adjusting my TV and stuff.

Fourth inning, top:
Little Makoto Kosaka (awww) slaps a single into centerfield. Masato Nakamura bounces one to short, and Kaneko charges in, gets the ball coming down from a bounce, throws to first, and beats Nakamura there by like, half a stride. Kusano goes down on a called third strike just in the inside corner at the knees. This time Takeshi does not smash but instead grounds out.

Whee, time for BS News to cut in.

Fourth inning, bottom:
Koyano hits a pop fly foul to right and Norihiro, Masato Nakamura, and Kosaka run in for it.. and I believe Kosaka makes the catch. Jason Botts singles to center pretty quickly. Really long at-bat for Tsuruoka... WHAT was that? I think Tsuruoka struck out but Jason Botts managed to steal second since he was off running on the swing and Shima missed second on the throw and chucked the ball into the outfield instead. Weird. Okay, so runner at second and two outs. And.. Kaneko singles to center! Botts kind of tries to run home but only gets a little way before he's stopped and waved back to third. Fighters ouendan strikes up the Genghis Khan chance music, which starts vaguely wreaking havoc on the cameras. And Kensuke singles to right! Botts scores easily and Kaneko makes it all the way to third! 2-1. Itoi strikes out.

Fifth inning, top:
I'll admit - this inning was so fast I didn't actually see it, as I'm kind of falling asleep. I woke up hearing the Fighters fans singing the 5th-inning sanka.

Fifth inning, bottom:
Inaba hits one off the end of his bat down the left-field line for a double. Shinji gets a single to center, Inaba going to third. (Inaba kind of was waiting for a split second to see if it was caught, I think.) Sledge hits a low fly to right... caught, but Inaba tags up and scores. 3-1.

And that's it for lefty Kohei Hasebe. Pitching change to righty Koji Aoyama, who is actually from Hokkaido (Hakodate). Interesting.

Koyano kinda reaches out for a low one and grounds to short.. Shinji slides into second safely but Koyano is out at first. Two outs and here's Jason Botts (I swear the TV angle makes it look like Botts's strike zone is bigger than Makoto Kosaka)... and Botts strikes out. Ok.

Sixth inning, top:
Shima grounds out to second. Watanabe grounds out to second. Kosaka... grounds out to short. That was fast.

Sixth inning, bottom:
(huh... YMCA before the top of the sixth, La La La Fighters before the bottom? Also a cut to "PL History" on BS1 where they show Nomura as a playing manager for Nankai in the 70's)
Tsuruoka strikes out. Kaneko grounds towards first -- Norihiro Nakamura goes in and gets the ball, throws to first where he expects the pitcher to cover but Aoyama isn't there so the ball goes soaring past first. Kaneko is safe and Shima has to back up the play. And.. WOW. Kensuke hits a grounder to third. Kusano runs in for it but misjudges and rather than getting the ball the ball bounces past him, so Kensuke's safe at first and Kaneko at second. Itoi grounds to first, Norihiro throwing to second to get Kensuke on the force, but Itoi's safe at first, so runners at the corners. Inaba jump! ...Itoi steals second base on the first pitch and is totally safe, and the crowd does ANOTHER Inaba jump... AND and and and they are INTENTIONALLY WALKING INABA. Whoa. Nomura has this look of "I am clever, don't mess with me" on his face. Here's Shinji Takahashi... who, crap, grounds to short. Inning over.

Seventh inning, top:
Ok, pitching change to Masanori Hayashi.
Masato Nakamura grounds to short, a bit deep. Kaneko fields the ball and throws to a totally stretched out Shinji Takahashi at first... and the runner LOOKS safe but the umps call him out. (I actually thought he was safe or close enough to a tie that I'm surprised he didn't get the call.) Nomura comes out to argue but to no avail. I don't blame him for arguing, though, that was a super-close play. Kusano goes down swinging, two outs. Takeshi Smash comes up and... singles to left, through a running Kaneko. Then during Teppei's at-bat, Hayashi throws the ball into the dirt and it bounces away from Tsuruoka, so Takeshi Smash gets to lumber on over to second base. But... it all works out okay as Teppei strikes out.

I'm beginning to think Hayashi could work out for us kinda like Okajima did (ie, lefty relief dude to come over from the Giants in a WTF trade, only we get Hayashi for many more years.)

Lucky Seven, bottom:
Shinichiro Koyama takes over on the mound for Rakuten and Sledge immediately singles to left. Pinch-running for him at first is Hichori! Ok. Koyano comes up bunting and... well, a few failed bunts, a failed pop-up (but he's sure giving catcher Shima a workout), etc later, he ends up hitting a pop fly out to right. Next is DH pinch-hitter Tsuboi! A couple of pitches go by but the most dramatic thing to happen is a pitchout where they try to get Hichori going for second -- catcher to second to first, but Hichori dives back into the bag and is safe. Eventually Tsuboi walks. Tsuruoka's at-bat also drags on for a while and he eventually singles to center, loading the bases. Genghis Khan chance music starts as Kaneko comes to the plate... and Kaneko is out on the infield fly rule! Whoa, long time no see that one. Looks like a pitching change, probably to a lefty.

Yup -- Kanehisa Arime comes out to pitch to the lefty-heavy top of the order. And sure enough, he gets Kensuke out on a pop fly to left. Boy, that was a long inning.

Eighth inning, top:
Fighters pitcher switches to Kazumasa Kikuchi.
Kenshi Kawaguchi pinch-hits for Norihiro Nakamura... and grounds out to the mound. Hiraishi grounds to first, unassisted... and Ryo Hijirisawa pinch-hits for Motohiro Shima. Hijirisawa grounds to second. Quick inning.

Eighth inning, bottom:
Fujii's catching, Kenshi's in at first, Arime is still on the mound.
Itoi, first pitch, breaks his bat (he's holding the handle and the rest of the bat goes flying). Eventually he succeeds in grounding to second, Kosaka throwing to first, and... same close call like Masato Nakamura earlier only this time the ump calls Itoi safe. I think it was about the same as the other one -- kind of ridiculous, and Nomura comes out for a token WTF argument but doesn't stay long. Inaba strikes out, though Itoi steals second on the third strike (Itoi's second stolen base tonight).
And another pitching change -- Marcus Gwyn takes over on the mound.

Shinji grounds out to second but Itoi ends up at third. Now Hichori gets an at-bat. But he also basically only succeeds in grounding out. Oops.

Ninth inning, top:
Hisashi Takeda, the Little Closer, comes out to pitch for the Fighters. Iiyama is in defensively at third. Naoto Watanabe is at the plate... and he grounds out to short. One down. (They keep showing Itokazu in the dugout because if this game holds together, it'll be his first professional ichi-gun win.) Little Makoto Kosaka is at the plate, and he hacks at a few curveballs before grounding one back to the mound. Two down. It all comes down to Masato Nakamura, who has grounded out to short three times today... but this time, no dice. Hisashi gets up to a full count before walking him on a pitch slightly in and slightly low. Daisuke Kusano comes up to the plate -- he's just the PL batting champ right now, no big deal, right? Kusano hits a low liner out to right field... it's going... it's going... it is CAUGHT by Inaba. WHEW.

Fighters win the game 3-1 and Itokazu has a huge smile on his face and everyone's alternately eithehr hugging him or smacking him in the head or whatnot as they do their big line of high-fives. Someone (Inaba? Takeda?) gives him the game ball... and yes, he is the game hero.

Game Report: Fighters @ Marines - Swingin' in the Rain

Despite that on Saturday evening the forecast for Sunday said it would be cloudy and humid, by Sunday morning it was raining and the forecast said it wasn't likely to stop any time soon. You have to love tsuyu, the rainy season -- just ignore the weather forecast and assume it will either be pouring rain or it will be horribly hot and sunny, and not very much inbetween.

Unlike the other two games in this series, I went to this one with the enemy, by which I mean Steve, who writes a Marines blog. Thanks to Bobby, we got to sit behind home plate, in Row 26, which is the most awesome place in the world to watch a rainy game from, because it is the only row in the lower deck that is covered by an overhang. Even better, we were randomly joined by the inimitable Larry Rocca.

Before the game was also exciting -- while walking around outside I saw a blonde lady with two kids standing there, and was thinking, "That has to be Brian Sweeney's family!" (I recognized them from a photo the Fighters had up last year when Brian signed a new contract.) While I was trying desperately to think of something to say to Brian's wife that didn't sound crazy and stalkerish, she actually turned around and recognized ME! Which made it lot simpler, and she turns out to be a really nice person too.

But yeah, it started raining as we were walking to the stadium, and it pretty much never stopped. We got our Bobby Burgers and settled in to see if the game would even be played, as groundskeepers dumped dirt on the bases, and eventually, sure enough, players took the field.


Here you can see Bobby walking by a tarped-up home plate after receiving flowers before the game.


This is what it looked like from our view.

Shingo Ono started for the Marines and Brian Sweeney started for the Fighters, and the game got underway as the rain sprinkled down on the field.

The Marines took a fairly early lead during the second inning when Saburo hit a fly ball way out to left field which didn't clear the wall but did hit the wall for a double. Right after that, Tasuku Hashimoto hit a ground ball towards first base which was going straight to Shinji Takahashi until it took the CRAZIEST bounce ever and suddenly bounced over Shinji's head and into right field, so while Inaba was retrieving it, Saburo scored. 1-0. Benny walked after that, advancing Hashimoto to second. Two outs later, Nishioka hit a ball down the left-field foul line which happened to land fair. Hashimoto was off running and scored; 2-0.

The rain continued to fall and several slippery plays happened. Between almost every inning, ground crew came out to the mound to work on it...




And here's Brian Sweeney trying to pitch from the mudpile.

In the top of the 4th inning, Hichori singled and then Inaba hit a home run into the right-field bleachers! That tied the score at 2-2.

If you are counting, which I am, Inaba has hit 10 home runs this year, 9 of which I've seen, 7 of which I've seen in person. The Sapporo Dome is scary.


Inaba and Hichori high-five back at the plate.

Things carried on for a few very wet innings, and then in the bottom of the 6th, Benny Agbayani led off with a double to left, running and running and eventually taking a headslide into second base, safe. Gary Burnham grounded out, moving Benny to third, and so I started focusing my camera on home plate. "Ohno-kun... be careful, a large Hawaiian man is about to come barrelling into you..."

Sure enough, that is exactly what happened. Imae hit a squeeze bunt and WHOOOSH, Benny came charging home:



So that brought the score to 3-2.

To start the 7th inning, they actually did announce the Fighters Lucky 7, and they played the Fighters song and showed the Fighters fans on the big screen, and announced Akira Ohtsuka as a defensive replacement in left...

...and then a bunch of people came out and started covering up the field with tarp, as we went into a rain delay.



Yeah.

The Fighters ouendan started the traditional Old Ouenka Game out in the left-field stands, even including Ogasawara's and whatnot, and the crazy Marines fans sitting next to us even sang along for Yukio Tanaka's. But well, 20 minutes later or so, the game was called, since the field was pretty wet and there was no end in sight to the rain.



Sadly, there was no big display of headsliding after the game -- one of the Marines mascots, Ma-kun, came out and ran around the bases and slid into the wet tarps, but it wasn't really anywhere as exciting as having coach Morozumi come out and do it.

At any rate, it was still a fun day at the game, and I'm really glad we got to sit in row 26 under the cover. I didn't even need to get out a plastic bag or an umbrella or anything.

I have a few other photos from the day that I wanted to post but that didn't really fit into the story:


This is the Fighters ouendan cheering for Kensuke Tanaka. There's a guy waving a big orange flag, which actually belongs to the Fighters Fukuoka ouendan group. Why is he waving it? Well, first, because Kensuke Tanaka is from Fukuoka... but second, because that particular ouendan guy is also from Fukuoka and happened to go to the same high school as Kensuke.


Ono (小野) is pitching to Ohno (大野). You could say that "ours is bigger than theirs", I suppose.

And last... I posted a photo of this a few years ago but I'm not sure I ever got a photo of myself in front of this thing before, so...

...this is outside Kaihin-Makuhari station, the big flowerball declaring that Chiba is a flower capital. Or something like that.

Overall, anyway, it was a fun weekend.

Now I'm finishing this up on Tuesday afternoon, and maybe if I get home on time I'll try to even liveblog the Fighters-Eagles game tonight, since it's on BS1 and I can watch it. We'll see.

Game Report: Fighters @ Marines - Karaage-kun Gets Fried

Walking to Chiba Marine Stadium on Saturday morning, I couldn't help but notice the breeze blowing in off Tokyo Bay. It was probably around 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside, but actually didn't feel that bad thanks to the wind. My thought, though, was that it was going to be a really tough day for anyone to hit a home run with that wind blowing in off the bay.

Boy, was I wrong.

But this story doesn't actually start with the 5 homeruns hit during the game. This story starts with the pre-game. I can shorten 90% of my interactions to basically "Saw [name], my Fighters-cheering friend that lives in [city that isn't Tokyo] who I met in [some other city]. Gave them Carp cookie omiyage from last weekend and they gave me [something yummy that comes from where they live]." Though you'd be surprised by how many people fit that, and the wide variety of yummy stuff they brought. The best was probably the coffee-cream daifuku from Kobe.

As I was staring at the Fighters out in the field during batting practice, I was surprised to see a guy running around wearing #42, since Brian Sweeney wasn't on the active roster as far as I knew, but sure enough, he was there, and just as I saw him, my friend Akki grabbed my arm like "Hey! Come translate for me, I wanna talk to Brian since I'm his biggest fan ever but you know I can't speak a damned word of English."

(This is not entirely an exaggeration. Akki has a signed Sweeney jersey and always cheers for him as much as possible.)

So I go down to the field, we yell for Brian, and being the super-nice guy he is, he actually comes over to chat for a few minutes. Akki gave him a Carp Katsu omiyage package and Brian's like "Can I eat this?" and I'm like "Yeah, you can," and Akki told me to tell him that he also gave some Carp omiyage to Brian's family in the infield the day before. And then he said, "Tell Brian that he has to be the game hero when the Fighters play at the Tokyo Dome and throw me a baseball in the stands!" and I'm like "Eeeeh?" but I went ahead and translated anyway. But Brian actually knows who Akki is, and even asked why he wasn't wearing glasses that day, which made Akki really happy.

Oh! But important info that I gained from the exchange is that Brian's pitching on Sunday! I should be sitting in the infield for that game, so I hope I'll get to see him pitch a good game from there! I told him I'd blog about it, so he better kick butt :)

Anyway, one other thing I discovered while waiting for the game to start is that there's actually a huge concessions stand behind the centerfield scoreboard with a patio. I'm not sure why I'd never wandered out there before, but one of my main complaints about sitting in the outfield in Chiba was the lack of decent food choices out there, and now it turns out I just never found them. I still prefer Bobby Burgers from the infield, but it's still nowhere near as dire a situation as I thought.

So, today's starters were Tomoya Yagi for the Fighters and Yuki Karakawa for the Marines. Karakawa's 20th birthday is next week on July 5th and he'd said he really wanted to win another game as a teenager. Yagi, on the other hand, really just wants to spend another year up at ichi-gun if possible, after being the Rookie of the Year in 2006 and then immediately having a terrible second season.

The Fighters got off to a stupid start, Kensuke walking and then the count getting up to 3-0 on Koyano, who was batting second. This should have led to great things, but instead it led to Kensuke getting caught stealing and Koyano hitting a pop fly out a few pitches later. Oops. But, in the 2nd inning, Sledge hit a one-out double to right field and another out later, Tomohiro Nioka, who was DHing and batting 7th, hit a fly ball to right field that happened to actually land inside fair territory, surprising everyone, most of all right-fielder Ohmatsu. Sledge scored, making it 1-0.

In the top of the 4th, Shinji Takahashi singled, and then Sledge hit a fly ball that we thought might be a home run... but was caught at the left-field wall, which had a No Homeruns Shield on it. So fortunately, Yoshio Itoi hit the ball to RIGHT field, where it cleared the wall for a 2-run homer. 3-0. And, amazingly, Tomohiro Nioka followed that up with ANOTHER homer to right, making it 4-0. I can't remember the last time I saw Fighters back-to-back homeruns, to be honest.

Shoitsu Ohmatsu took advantage of the home run magnet in right field to hit one there himself in the bottom of the 4th, making it 4-1.

But well, much as Karaage-kun really wanted to get that final win as a teenager, it was not destined to happen at this game. Koyano led off the 5th with a single, and Inaba walked, and Shinji bunted them up to second and third... and then Sledge ALSO walked, loading the bases, and so it was curtains for Karakawa.

Koji Takagi took over on the mound ("Uniform number 48? Or age 48?" joked one of my friends), and much to the chagrin of the Fighters ouendan guy I think of as "Shaggy", we struck up the Kanto Chance Theme Music, aka Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Yoshio Itoi didn't hit another home run, but he did hit a single to right, scoring Koyano to make it 5-1. Another pitching change brought Taiki Nakagoh out to the mound again, and he struck out Nioka. Tsuruoka hit a sharp liner to left... caught by Tadahito Iguchi to end the inning. Whoops.

Speaking of old dudes on the Marines, Koichi Hori hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 5th to make it 5-3. It was a monster shot straight to dead centerfield -- it bounced in the crack between the centerfield wall and fence and then went over. I like Hori and all, but I'd rather see him hit home runs against teams I don't like, like Seibu.

Yagi finished 6 innings and then Shintaro Ejiri came in to pitch the bottom of the 7th. Hooray, I like Ejiri. Unfortunately, he got to two outs pretty quickly and then BAM, a pinch-hitting Gary Burnham Jr. sent yet another homerun over the right field wall, making it 5-4.

Then there was a bit of Musical Chairs going on between the mound and the plate. Left-handed Tasuku Hashimoto pinch-hit for right-handed Koichi Hori, so the Fighters took the right-handed Ejiri off the mound and replaced him with the left-handed Masanori Hayashi. So Bobby replaced pinch-hitter Hashimoto with the right-handed Akira "Go Go Ohtsukakira" Ohtsuka, who hit a big, big foul ball.

I spent that inning talking to some other gaijin way out on the fringes of the cheering section, who are perhaps nominally Fighters fans, by which I mean I've seen them at games once or twice before and they claim to be Fighters fans, but they don't know any of the cheer songs or who most of the players on the team are. They were super-disappointed that Darvish wasn't coming in from the bullpen, and asked me "who the heck is this guy?" when Nioka came up to bat, and it made me wonder if maybe I'm the weird one for having so much baseball in my head. But in reality, no, it just made me remember that why I love Japanese baseball fans so much is that they all know the roster so well and live and die by the team so much, which is a passion I just don't find enough of in the US. (It also might be why I get along with Japanese baseball fans better -- I'm as crazy as they are.)

Anyway, something pretty odd happened after that inning -- Gary Burnham, who'd pinch-hit for the DH, entered the game as the first baseman, so Tadahito Ogino, who entered the game as the pitcher, was inserted into the lineup batting 7th. It's been a while since I've seen a PL team lose the DH. But anyway, Ogino wasn't too awful aside from hitting Makoto Kaneko with a pitch. Grrr.

Kaneko, for the record, hit two doubles today, three singles yesterday, and is 5-for-6 on the weekend. Seriously. Welcome back to the Pacific League, kaicho.

Kazumasa Kikuchi took over on the mound for the Fighters in the bottom of the 8th, which caused quite a stir, because it was his 27th birthday:



Very cool, a whole bunch of people orchestrated this one, and held up their signs for the entire inning he pitched, which was a 1-2-3 inning.

Hisashi Takeda closed out the game, and he had us a bit worried when he suddenly seemed incapable of throwing a strike, but it all worked out okay in the end and the Fighters managed to pull it all together, winning 5-4. Whew.

Nioka was the game hero for the go-ahead RBI back in the 2nd, and once again we didn't see him on the screen, only heard him.



I guess it was another day for kids to run around the bases, so while we were still doing our after-game cheers, people started filling up the field, which was especially odd as several of them started taking photos of the Fighters cheering section...



Anyway, good times. Our post-game cheering wasn't quite as crazy as Friday, but it was still a lot of fun.

Onwards to Sunday, where Brian Sweeney will take on Shingo Ono, and Deanna will take on the summer sun and try not to get burnt too badly.

Game Report: Fighters @ Marines - 360 Beer Stadium Night

I can't believe I almost decided I didn't feel like going to this game. What was I thinking? "Oh, Chiba is so far away." "Oh, people will just be there for the beer and not for the baseball." "Oh, I can see Darvish start any time."

See, I'm an idiot.

First of all, if I hadn't gone down to Chiba on Friday night, I would have missed seeing this sunset:



But even moreso, I would have missed one of the more fun games this season.

I showed up at the end of the first inning, because getting to Chiba Marine Stadium by 18:30 from where I work in the north end of Tokyo is pretty much impossible. I hadn't actually made plans with anyone for this game, so my idea was just to walk in and find the first people I recognized and sit with them. Which took all of about 5 seconds, as the group of people I went out for okonomiyaki with in Hiroshima spotted me immediately and waved me over, and they had a free seat or two in their area.

The first thing they told me was, "You missed Hichori hitting a home run in the first inning! If only you got here a little earlier!"

"WHAT?"

So the Fighters were already up 1-0 when I arrived, and Darvish was on the mound. Hiroyuki Kobayashi was starting for the Marines, and for the record, he pitched WELL. Really seriously WELL. He was striking out Fighters batters left and right, and even had two 3-strikeout innings. It's just that Darvish pitched better -- every inning after about the 4th, people were like, "Wait a minute, there hasn't been a Lotte hit yet, has there...?"

It's true the Chiba wind probably helped Darvish quite a bit, as there were a LOT of fly balls out to center, that might have left the park in other places. But it all worked out okay, and the 1-0 deadlock continued for quite a while. There were fireworks after the 5th inning, and they announced that tomorrow's starters were Yagi and Karaage-kun. And still no hits from Lotte.

Eiichi Koyano led off the Lucky 7 inning with a double to right that basically took a weird arc and came down THROUGH Ohmatsu, and Itoi bunted him up to third, and then Tsuruoka botched a bunt attempt for the second time that day, this time grounding out to third -- good thing Koyano wasn't doubled off. Makoto Kaneko came through for the Fighters with a single to right to make it 2-0.

The Lotte bullpen took over in the 8th, starting with Tatsuya Uchi, and Glasses Dude took over for the Fighters ouendan, which meant something interesting was bound to happen (it always does when he's up there). He started his inning by saying things like "Have you all drunk enough beer yet? Do you want to go drink more? If we score some runs, everyone can go get another beer!"

Hichori led off with a walk, and we were doing the normal cheer for Inaba until Hichori stole second, so with no outs and a runner at second, Glasses Dude said, "Crap, can't be helped... OKAY, INABA JUMP!" And everyone laughed, and jumped, and we didn't even get through the first round of Inaba's song by the time he just hit this beautiful line drive to left, scoring Hichori! 3-0.

Shinji grounded out and then Koji Takagi took over on the mound... and Terrmel Sledge came out and BAM, he hit a home run to right-center! This brought the score to 5-0. Taiki Nakagoh took over on the mound a few batters later, and finished out the game.

Naturally, Darvish didn't actually pitch a no-hitter or you know I would have started off by mentioning that. Saburo got the first Lotte hit of the game in the bottom of the 8th, at around 9pm, and Hashimoto followed it with another hit, and we were all wondering if Darvish would come out of the game immediately, but no, they let him finish the inning out, with two more strikeouts and a fielder's choice. Whew.

Naoki Miyanishi started off pitching the bottom of the 9th, and walked Tsuyoshi Nishioka, so they switched to Shintaro Ejiri (yay!) and Ejiri retired the next three batters to complete the shutout, though Nishioka made it all the way to third by stealing and advancing on a wild pitch during Ohmatsu's at-bat. But when Ohmatsu hit a pop fly to center, Itoi fired the ball in fast enough that Nishioka (!) wasn't able to tag up and score. Yay.

Darvish was the game hero, but for some reason we could only hear his voice during his interview, and couldn't see him on the screen...



And then we did our normal postgame cheering, including silly things like "Good luck at ni-gun, Luis", and "Leave it up to the bunt, Itoi" and "Hit more than one home run this year, please, Hichori". You see, Hichori's home run was not only the first one this year, but also the first one for him in two years! Not that he's a power hitter or anything, but...

For my part, I had a good time cheering, and hanging out with my new friends, and visiting some old friends, and seeing the Fighters win. I always feel slightly bad rooting against the Marines, but well, as they say in Japanese, shouganai. Maybe next year after they kick out Bobby I won't feel so bad. Yeah.