The second is: This is not a box score, it's a freakin' libretto. I went to a friend's house to watch the game tonight because I have neither cable nor Tivo and I wasn't getting home until 7:30pm. Little did I know that I could have just stayed here and seen a complete game. Anyway, the funniest part is, the Astros tied it up and they went into extra innings. We hit the 10th inning in our Tivo timeline around 11:10pm, and I glanced at my phone, noticing I had an IM from a friend of mine in Houston. Against my better judgment, I looked at it. It was from 10:58pm and said "Baseball SUCKS." So I wrote back like "Don't tell me the final score, just tell me how many innings it went to." He said "It hasn't ended. It's in the bottom of the 14th." Knowing that Tivo would only grab *SIX HOURS*, I said "Quick! Change to the live game! Change to the live game!" Fortunately, we saw that Tivo had decided to continue buffering Fox even after 11pm, so we just skipped the 11th through 13th innings, and tuned in to see Geoff Blum (!!?!?!) hit his home run. Man. What a game. I got home around midnight. Joe Crede is still my boyfriend.
Anyway!
Marines 10, Tigers 1
No, this is not a joke. The Marines have scored 10 runs a game this Japan Series, outscoring the Tigers so far 30-2.
Game 3 of the Japan Series saw us heading down to Koshien, home of the Hanshin Tigers. They've historically had pretty good luck in the postseason on their home turf -- case in point would be the 2003 Japan Series, where the home team won every single game. Shame the Hawks had the overall home advantage.
Old Man Shimoyanagi led the charge for the Tigers, while Hiroyuki "the other" Kobayashi took the mound for the Marines. Now, remember, kids, the Central League doesn't believe in that silly "DH" business. Of course, the Tigers ran out the exact same freaking starting lineup yet again for whatever reason, except DH Kataoka wasn't out there. You'd think by now Okada-kantoku might notice that Sheets-Kanemoto-Imaoka , the 3-4-5 kids, have been a combined 4-for-31 so far in the series? Kanemoto, Mr. Tiger himself, is 0-for-10.
Starting lineups:
CF Akahoshi SS Nishioka
SS Toritani 2B Hori
1B Andy Sheets 1B Fukuuraaaaaaa!
LF Kanemoto RF Saburo
3B Imaoka! LF Benny Agbayani
RF Hiyama C Satozaki
C Yano 3B Imae!
2B Sekimoto CF Ohtsuka
P Shimoyanagi P Kobayashi
Whee, here we go again, skipping along the happy fun scoreboard!
First inning top: Marines (0M 0T)
Nishioka grounds out to first. Hori grounds out to short. Fukuura grounds out to pitcher.
First inning bottom: Tigers (0M 0T)
Akahoshi flies out to center. Toritani hits a double to the left field wall. Sheets strikes out swinging. Kanemoto grounds to second.
Second inning top: Marines (1M 0T)
Saburo smashes a double to right-center. While Benny is up, Saburo steals third. Benny hits a sac fly to left; Saburo scores. Satozaki flies out to short. Imae strikes out swinging.
Second inning bottom: Tigers (1M 1T)
Imaoka singles to left. Hiyama walks; Imaoka advances to second. Yano grounds out to second; Imaoka advances to third, Hiyama advances to second. Sekimoto grounds out to third; Hiyama stays at second, but Imaoka scores the tying run from third. Shimoyanagi strikes out swinging.
Third inning top: Marines (1M 1T)
Ohtsuka grounds out to first. Kobayashi grounds out to short. Nishioka grounds out to first.
Third inning bottom: Tigers (1M 1T)
Akahoshi grounds out to short. Toritani pops out foul to the catcher. Sheets strikes out swinging. Again.
Fourth inning top: Marines (3M 1T)
Wheeee. Hori singles to right. Fukuuraaaaaa singles to center; Hori advances to second. Saburo pops out foul to the catcher. Benny walks; Fukuura to second, Hori to third, bases loaded! Satozaki hits into a 6-4 fielder's choice; Benny is forced out at second, Satozaki is safe at first, Fukuura advances to third, Hori scores! Imae gets an infield single to third, Fukuura scores! Satozaki advances to second. Ohtsuka grounds out to short.
Fourth inning bottom: Tigers (3M 1T)
Kanemoto grounds out to second. Imaoka grounds out to first. Hiyama grounds out to first. Have I mentioned that the heart of this lineup sucks?
Fifth inning top: Marines (3M 1T)
Kobayashi strikes out swinging. Nishioka grounds out to short. Hori flies out to center.
Fifth inning bottom: Tigers (3M 1T)
Yano grounds out to second. Sekimoto flies out to center. Heh heh, Shane Spencer pinch-hits for Shimoyanagi and strikes out swinging. Heh heh. Shane Spencer.
Sixth inning top: Marines (3M 1T)
Fujikawa (the "F" in the Tigers' heralded "JFK" relief corps) comes in to pitch for the Tigers. Shimoyanagi's line for the evening: 5 IP, 4 H, 3 R/ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 0 HR, 80 pitches thrown.
Fukuura strikes out swinging. Saburo pops out foul to first base. Benny strikes out swinging.
Sixth inning bottom: Tigers (3M 1T)
Akahoshi pops out foul to third base. Toritani strikes out swinging. Sheets gets an infield single to short on an iffy throw by Nishioka. While Kanemoto is at bat, Kobayashi throws a way wild pitch, and Sheets runs all the way to third.. but then Kanemoto grounds out to first. Geeeeez.
Seventh inning top: Marines (10M 1T)
RALLY TIME! Satozaki reaches first on an error by shortstop Toritani. Imae doubles to right center, woooooo! Satozaki advances to third. Matt Franco pinch-hits for Ohtsuka, and he walks. Bases loaded. Uhoh. Hashimoto pinch-hits for Kobayashi, and he singles to center! Satozaki and Imae score; Franco advances to third.
That's curtains for Fujikawa. Errmm... Sajikihara comes in to replace him on the mound. So much for "JFK". Fujikawa's line: 1 IP plus 4 batters, 2 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 0 HR, 34 pitches thrown. Oi.
With runners on first and third and no outs, Nishioka comes up and singles to center, scoring Franco! Hashimoto advances to second. Hee. Hori walks, Hashimoto to third, Nishioka to second. Bases are loaded again. Fukuura comes up and HOLY CRAP HE HITS A GRAND SLAM!! Hashimoto scores. Nishioka scores. Hori scores. Fukuura scores. EVERYONE scores.
As for Sajikihara, HE GAWN. Line for the (brief) evening: 0 IP, 4 batters faced, 3 H, 3 R/ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 1 HR, 11 pitches thrown. Hashimoto comes in to try to stop the bleeding, since that's 8 batters gone by without an out yet. Of course, glancing ahead, the rest looks anticlimactic.
Benny flies out to second. Satozaki strikes out swinging. Imae flies out to center.
Still, a good inning :) I suppose the 7th inning stretch was more of a "7 runs, holy shit" stretch?
Seventh inning bottom: Tigers (10M 1T)
Kobayashi's done for the evening, having been pinch-hit for. His line: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R/ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 0 HR, 81 pitches. Nice.
Ono comes in to pitch for the Marines. Franco stays in and plays left field. Benny moves to right field, Saburo moves to center, Heiuchi replaces Hori at second.
Imaoka grounds out to the pitcher. Hiyama singles to center. Yano nearly kills Imae with a liner to third, and reaches base safely for an infield single; Hiyama advances to second. Sekimoto grounds into a double play, 6-3, as Nishioka gets the ball, tags second, and throws to first.
Eighth inning top: Marines (10M 1T)
Noguchi comes in to catch for the Tigers.
Franco pops out foul to first. Umm... Inoue pinch-hits for Ono. (I guess at this point, up 10-1, we're just getting people into the game.) Inoue strikes out swinging. Nishioka singles to left-center. Heiuchi grounds out to first.
Eighth inning bottom: Tigers (10M 1T)
Fujita comes in to pitch for the Marines. (Ono's line: 1 IP, 2 H, 0 everything else.) Morozumi replaces Franco in left field.
Hamanaka pinch-hits for Hashimoto, grounding out to the pitcher. Akahoshi strikes out swinging. Toritani singles to left. Sheets also strikes out swinging. AGAIN. FOR THE THIRD TIME TODAY.
Ninth inning top: Marines (10M 1T)
Nohmi comes in to pitch for Hanshin. (Hashimoto's line: not bad, 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 0 HR.)
Fukuura grounds out to short. Saburo flies out to right. Seung-Yeop Lee pinch-hits for Benny and flies out to second.
Ninth inning bottom: Tigers (10M 1T)
Yabuta comes in to pitch for Chiba (Fujita's line: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 K, 0 BB, etc) Lee stays in at left, Morozumi moves to center, Saburo moves to right.
Kanemoto strikes out swinging. Imaoka flies out to right. Hiyama strikes out swinging. And that's the game.
Yabuta: 1 IP, 2 K, 0 everything else. Whoosh.
I'm really thinking that not only is a Marines sweep quite possible, but my prediction of Imae as series MVP may also ring true. This rules.
Pictures: Here's Fukuura hitting that grand slam off Sajikihara. I loooove the look on Sajikihara's face. It just says "OWNED".
No digest movie yet, sadly.
Game 4 has just started -- Dan Serafini is on the mound for Chiba, and Naohisa Sugiyama for Hanshin. In theory, I am not going to stay up all night to hear Chiba sweep the Japan Series. Really.
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