Sunday, March 21, 2010

Liveblogging: Fighters vs. Hawks @ Sapporo Dome

I almost missed the start of this game because of Koshien -- Tsuruga Kehi just beat Tenri after a pretty nailbiting end. I was cheering for Kehi because I've actually been to Tsuruga, plus I saw them play last year at Koshien. (Unfortunately, they played against Teikyo, so I was cheering against them then, but I really liked their ace Yamada, who now plays for Orix.)

BS1 came into this game late, so I'm starting from the bottom of the first. I'll fill in the plays before this and the lineups in a bit. Trying to do this in a slightly more "sokuhou" style and less of a liveblog this time.

As always, feel free to ping me on IM/email/comments. I'm also in the japanesebaseball.com Koshien chatroom today.

                     

Honda 2b Kensuke 2b
Kawasaki ss Nioka dh
Ortiz lf Inaba rf
Kokubo 1b Shinji 1b
Tamura rf Itoi cf
Lee Bum-ho dh Koyano 3b
"Wall" Hasegawa cf NAKATA SHO OMG lf
Matsuda 3b Ohno c
Tanoue c Kaneko! ss

---------- ----------
Kenji Ohtonari Masaru Takeda


Top of the first (F 0, H 0)
Groundout to third, single to right, 6-4-3 double play. I didn't see it.

Bottom of the first (F 0, H 0)
Kensuke hits a pop fly to center. (empty, 1 out)
Nioka grounds out to short. (empty, 2 out)
Inaba singles to right! (1st, 2 out)
Shinji strikes out. (3 out)

Top of the second (F 0, H 0)
Kokubo grounds out to short. (empty, 1 out)
Tamura also grounds out to short. (empty, 2 out)
Lee strikes out swinging. (3 out)

Bottom of the second (F 0, H 0)
Itoi strikes out. (empty, 1 out)
Koyano hits a pop fly to right. (empty, 2 out)
Nakata strikes out. (3 out)

Top of the third (F 0, H 0)
Hasegawa grounds out to short. (empty, 1 out)
Matsuda fouls off a ton before striking out. (empty, 2 out)
Tanoue grounds out to short. (3 out)

Wow, this game is going really fast -- it's only 1:39pm. Second Koshien game hasn't even started yet.

Bottom of the third (F 1, H 0)
Ohno hits a pop fly to center. (empty, 1 out)
Kaneko HITS A HOME RUN INTO THE FIRST FEW ROWS OF THE LEFT-FIELD STANDS!!!!!! 1-0!!! (empty, 1 out)
Kensuke grounds to second, but it's deep and the play isn't in time!!! SAFE! (1st, 1 out)
Kensuke steals second during Nioka's at-bat when Tanoue drops the ball : (2nd, 1 out)
Nioka hits a sharp liner to 1st, which Kokubo dives for and runs back to the bag in time. Kensuke to third. (3rd, 2 out)
Inaba walks on four straight pitches!!! (1st and 3rd, 2 out)
Shinji... unfortunately, pops out foul and Tanoue makes the catch. (3 out)

Still, Kaneko!!! Hooray!!!

Top of the fourth (F 1, H 0)
Honda hits a low pop fly to center. (empty, 1 out)
Kawasaki grounds out to second. (empty, 2 out)
Ortiz grounds out to third. (3 out)

Bottom of the fourth (F 1, H 0)
Itoi golfs one up to center. (empty, 1 out)
Koyano singles to right!! (1st, 1 out)
Nakata hits a pop fly out to second. (1st, 2 out)
Ohno hits a pop fly to right. (3 out)

HEY OUENDAN, WHY DO WE NOT HAVE A SONG FOR OHNO? NO, REALLY?

Top of the fifth (F 1, H 0)
Kokubo lines out to third, GREAT grab by Koyano! (empty, 1 out)
Tamura hits a pop fly, caught by Kensuke. (empty, 2 out)
Lee hits a pop fly out to Inaba. (3 out)
(Lee first hit this one HUGE shot that fortunately was JUST foul. Whew.)

Bottom of the fifth (F 1, H 0)
Kaneko strikes out :( (empty, 1 out)
Kensuke hits a pop fly out to left. (empty, 2 out)
Nioka hits a foul and... it's caught. (3 out)

Top of the sixth (F 1, H 0)
Hasegawa grounds out to short. (empty, 1 out)
Matsuda grounds out to short too. (empty, 2 out)
Tanoue ALSO grounds out to short! (3 out)

Bottom of the sixth (F 1, H 0)
Inaba hits a pop fly out to right. (empty, 1 out)
Shinji hits a grounder to second and Honda makes a nice play on it. (empty, 2 out)
Itoi hits a foul fly caught by Matsuda. (3 out)

Is it REALLY already time for Izayuke Wakataka Gundan? 2:34pm...

Top of the seventh (F 1, H 1)
Honda ...bunts? to the pitcher and is out. (empty, 1 out)
Kawasaki grounds right to first, unassisted. (empty, 2 out)

Pitcher switch: Shintaro Ejiri replaces Masaru Takeda on the mound. Not really sure why as Masaru only threw 74 pitches, but...

Ortiz... singles to left on a full count after Ejiri throws like 3 pitches way the hell outside. Doh. (1st, 2 out)
Kokubo doubles to right and.... and... and Ortiz scores oh crap. 1-1.
Tamura grounds out to Kaneko. (3 out)

Sigh. Ejiri, you make me sad. :(
8 groundouts to Kaneko today, pretty crazy.

Bottom of the seventh (F 1, H 1)
Koyano hits a pop fly out to center. (empty, 1 out)
Nakata strikes out swinging. (empty, 2 out)
Ohno singles to left!!!! (1st, 2 out)
Kaneko grounds out. Doh. (3 out)

Top of the eighth (F 1, H 1)
HOORAY! YOSHINORI TATEYAMA TAKES THE MOUND FOR THE FIGHTERS! I WILL NOW PUT A TOWEL OVER MY HEAD.

Lee walks. (1st, no out)
Pinch-runner - Kenji Akashi replaces Bum-Ho Lee at first.
Hasegawa comes up bunting and is successful eventually, Tateyama making the play. (2nd, 1 out)
Matsuda strikes out. (2nd, 2 out)
Tanoue strikes out too! (3 out)

Thank you, Tateyama :)
(Uh, why is the stadium organ playing "Do the Hustle"?)

Bottom of the eighth (F 1, H 1)
Kensuke hits a pop fly out to left. (empty, 1 out)
Nioka doubles into the gap in left-center!!!! (2nd, 1 out)
Pinch-runner - Toshimasa Konta replaces Tomohiro Nioka at 2nd.

Pitching change: Tadashi Settsu replaces Kenji Ohtonari on the mound.
"Kita no kuni kara" chance music for Inaba. Let's see what he can do with it...

Inaba strikes out :( (2nd, 2 out)
Shinji grounds out to the mound. (3 out)

Grr. This is what I get for saying the game is fast. Koshien's second game finished, Hanasaki won 4-0. Next up is Nichidai-san...

Top of the ninth (F 1, H 1)
Pitching change: Naoki Miyanishi replaces Tateyama on the mound.

Honda strikes out. (empty, 1 out)
Kawasaki also strikes out! (empty, 2 out)
Ortiz hits the ball to center and OMG ITOI ITOI ITOI AMAZING BUCKET CATCH!!!!! (3 out)

Come on Fighters -- let's end this game!

Bottom of the ninth (F 1, H 1)
Player changes: Ryuma Kidokoro takes over in center and Hasegawa moves to left. Settsu is still pitching.

Itoi grounds out to second. (empty, 1 out)
Koyano walks on four straight pitches. (1st, 1 out)
Nakata gets up to a full count and walks on a pitch that nearly hits him in the head. (1st and 2nd, 1 out)
Pinch-runner: Kazuya Murata runs at 1st for Sho Nakata.
Tsuboi pinch-hits for Ohno... and gets hit in the leg! Runners advance! (Bases loaded, 1 out)
Kaneko ... oh the suspense. Gets up to 2-0, then a few fouls later is 2-2, then a waaaay outside pitch for 3-2... come on!

....

...

4-2-3 DOUBLE PLAY. Inning over.

Oh geez. This SUCKS.

Top of the tenth (F 1, H 1)
Player changes: Murata in left, Tsuruoka catching, and Brian Wolfe is going to pitch.

Kokubo hits a long fly ball to Itoi. (empty, 1 out)
Tamura hits a fly ball to right. (empty, 2 out)
Akashi grounds out to short. (3 out)

Brian Wolfe hit 151 km/h and they got excited about it.
Also I am amused that Hitoshi Tamura changed his name spelling so now it's the same as Toshihisa Nishi's last name (仁志).

Bottom of the tenth (F 1, H 1)
Brian Falkenborg takes over pitching for Tadashi Settsu.

Kensuke strikes out. (empty, 1 out)
Konta singles to right!! (1st, 1 out)
Konta steals second during Inaba's at-bat. (2nd, 1 out)
Inaba hits a pop fly out to left. (2nd, 2 out)
Shinji strikes out. (3 out)

Top of the eleventh (F 1, H 2)
Pitching change: Hisashi Takeda takes over for Brian Wolfe.

Hasegawa hits a pop fly out to Itoi. (empty, 1 out)
Matsuda hits a home run to straightaway centerfield, it goes "thunk" in the aisle between Fighters fans and bounces back onto the field. Argh, 2-0
Tanoue grounds out to second. (empty, 2 out)
Honda grounds out too. Whatever.

Bottom of the eleventh (F 1, H 2)
Uh, Mahara is in for the Hawks.

Itoi grounds out to second. (1 out)
Koyano hits a pop fly to center. (2 out)
Murata groundout to second, game over.


Screw this, I'm going to watch Koshien for a bit. No, that means I'm not watching the hero interview or anything else.

3 comments:

Shinichi said...

Hey Deanna, Good to see you back. Keep me on track since Ive gotta work today. We should just be patient and wait for Ohtonari to get himself into a jam. Hope we wont see another Hail Mary by Nakata. Shinichi

Deanna said...

heh -- that sucks that you're at work on a holiday weekend!

so far Masaru and Ohtonari are both doing pretty well -- you're right, hopefully Ohtonari will fall first...

Shinichi said...

Ejiri then Tateyama... Well now we know the rest. Great move kantoku. Here comes Settsu sama and Mahara to close the game.