Thursday, October 14, 2010

Pacific League Playoffs, Second Stage Game 1 - Marines vs. Hawks

I got home from work just in time for the second at-bat of the game and realized I may fall asleep if I don't figure out a way to stay involved in the game, so I'm going to liveblog. (It's been a long week and I'm pretty tired.) Feel free to email/IM/comment if you're also watching.

(I don't know a feed online, I'm watching on BS1. I think there are several on justin.tv though.)


                     

Nishioka ss Kawasaki ss
Kiyota cf Honda 2b
Iguchi 2b Matsunaka lf
Saburo rf Kokubo 1b
Imae 3b Tamura rf
Imaoka?! dh Petagine! dh
Taekyun 1b Hasegawa cf
Ohmatsu lf Matsuda 3b
Matoba c Tanoue c

Naruse Sugiuchi


Top of the first (M 0, H 0)
Nishioka grounds out to second.
Kiyota singles to center! One on, one out.
Iguchi walks -- 1st and 2nd, one out.
Saburo strikes out swinging.
Imae hits a low fly ball to center and Hasegawa runs in for the catch. 3 out, change.

Bottom of the first (M 0, H 0)
Kawasaki singles to left.
Honda sac bunts right in front of the plate, 1-4 play. One out, runner at 2nd.
Matsunaka walks. 1st and 2nd, one out.
Kokubo strikes out swinging. 1st, 2nd, two out.
Tamura walks, the 4th ball being a pitch aimed at Matoba's left foot pretty much and bounces in the dirt and gets away. (I suppose people can't advance more than one base on a wild pitch if the guy walks?). So, bases loaded, 2 out.
Petagine strikes out swinging. Inning over.

Top of the second (M 3, H 0)
Imaoka hits a ball way out to right for a double. 2nd, no out.
Taekyun manages to catch one on the end of his bat and bloop it to right field for a single. 1st and 3rd, no out.
Ohmatsu WALLOPS one to right field that sails up up and away for a home run. BOOM. Everyone scores. 3-0.
Matoba grounds out to short as he is often wont to do. One out.
Nishioka strikes out swinging. Two out.
Kiyota walks. One on, two out.
Kiyota steals second on the first pitch to Iguchi. 2nd, two out.
Iguchi takes forever but finally strikes out. Change.

Steve pointed out in the comments that Ohmatsu's homer is already on Youtube, an hour later or so.

Bottom of the second (M 3, H 0)
Hasegawa grounds out to first, Naruse covering the bag. One down.
Matsuda grounds out to third.
Tanoue strikes out swinging. Change.

I want to mention that they saw fit to put up on the screen during this inning an announcement that the dollar is the lowest against the yen that it has been in 15 years. Ugh.

Top of the third (M 3, H 0)
Saburo strikes out swinging.
Imae pops out to shallow left, Kawasaki making the catch.
Imaoka hits one to shallow center and Hasegawa runs in and makes a diving sliding catch to get it. Change.

Bottom of the third (M 3, H 0)
Kawasaki bunts up the left side but Imae is too quick for him. One down.
Honda singles up the middle. One on, one out.
Matsunaka walks -- two on, one out.
Kokubo grounds into a 6-4-3 double play. Change!

For some reason you can't hear announcers on the BS1 broadcast but you CAN hear the vendors yelling "How about a beer?"

Top of the fourth (M 3, H 0)
Taekyun singles to left. One on, no out.
Ohmatsu walks on 5 pitches. Two on, no out.
Matoba FAIL. Sac bunt, Tanoue scoops it up and fires to third, gets Taekyun and then Matsuda throws to first and barely doubles up Matoba as well, 2-5-3 double play. 2nd, two out.
Nishioka grounds out to short. Change.

Bottom of the fourth (M 3, H 0)
Tamura hits a pop fly out to left. One down.
Petagine grounds out to first. Two down.
Hasegawa grounds out to third. Change.

Top of the fifth (M 3, H 0)
Kiyota grounds out to third.
Iguchi singles to left. One on, one out.
Saburo grounds back to the mound for a 1-4-3 double play. Change.

Bottom of the fifth (M 3, H 1)
Matsuda... that was odd, he grounded to short, Nishioka moved over and got the ball, and when he transferred the ball from his glove to his hand and went to throw, the ball slipped out of Nishioka's hand and Matsuda was safe at first. They're calling it a hit, it seems. One on, no out.
Tanoue comes up bunting and eventually bunts Matsuda over, SB3-4. 2nd, one out.
Kawasaki singles to left, bringing home Matsuda for the first Hawks run. 3-1.
Honda grounds to short. Kawasaki is out on the 6-4 force but Honda is safe at first. 1st, two out.
Matsunaka is called out on strikes. Change.

Top of the sixth (M 3, H 1)
Imae grounds out to third.
Imaoka walks.
Taekyun fails, fouls, and strikes out swinging. One on, two out.
Ohmatsu is called out on strikes. Change.

Bottom of the sixth (M 3, H 1)
Kokubo strikes out swinging.
Tamura also strikes out swinging.
Petagine ALSO strikes out swinging! Whoa!

Lucky 7 inning time.

Top of the seventh (M 3, H 1)
Matoba hits a pop fly to right field.
Nishioka walks.

That's it for Sugiuchi -- 121 pitches and 6.1 innings and he's out of the game.
He's replaced on the mound by... TAKEHITO KANAZAWA!?!? WTF?

Nishioka steals 2nd on the 2-2 pitch. 2nd, one out.
Kiyota grounds out to second. 3rd, two outs.
Iguchi strikes out. Change.

The WTF on Kanazawa, btw, is that he was on the Fighters for a year or two. We got him in a trade with the Hanshin Tigers wherein both teams got rid of guys they couldn't release without feeling bad -- we gave them former ROY Itsuki Shoda, who they subsequently released and he's now playing in Taiwan. The Fighters released Kanazawa too, and he passed the 12-team tryouts and ended up playing for Orix, and then they traded him to the Hawks, and here he is pitching in the postseason. How WEIRD. I seriously rarely watch the Hawks and had no clue that Kanazawa was pitching well this year. Good for him, I suppose, but it's still freaking me out.

Lucky 7 for the Hawks, now. What's with all the red today? Red jerseys, red balloons... are any Hawks fans reading this and can clue me in? It's a bit odd for a team whose colors are black and yellow, y'know.

Bottom of the seventh (M 3, H 1)
Hasegawa hits a pop fly out to left.
Matsuda hits a pop fly to right.
Tanoue hits a pop fly out to center. Whee.

Top of the eighth (M 3, H 1)
Saburo hits one out to center. It... bounces on the centerfield wall and then back onto the field? Is it a home run or a ground rule double? It's unclear, and the umpires and Nishimura are going to have a little chat, and watch a little video, it seems...

It's called a ground-rule double. Okay.

Kanazawa leaves the mound, anyway, and is replaced by little lefty Masahiko "Monkeyboy" Morifuku.

Imae grounds out to third. Saburo still on 2nd, one out.
Imaoka grounds out to short. Saburo to 3rd, two out.
Taekyun is INTENTIONALLY WALKED (!?) to put runners at the corners, two out...
Ohmatsu hits a pop fly up, caught just foul of first. Change.

Lucky for the Hawks that it wasn't a homer by Saburo, I guess.

Bottom of the eighth (M 3, H 1)
Kawasaki hits a pop fly to right-center, Kiyota running out for the catch. One down.
Honda is called out on strikes.
Matsunaka grounds out to short, and... headslides into first?! Whoa.
double play to shortstop, headslide to first

Bottom of the eighth (M 3, H 1)
Keisuke Kattoh takes the mound for the Hawks.

Matoba pop fly to right.
Nishioka strikes out swinging.
Kiyota also strikes out.

Well... it comes down to the theoretical last three outs of the game...

Bottom of the ninth (M 3, H 1)

Naruse is still on the mound. Okada comes in to play center for the Marines. Kiyota moves to left.

Kokubo hits a pop fly out to left. One down. Two outs remaining...
Tamura strikes out swinging.
Ortiz pinch-hits for Petagine and hits a pop fly up, up, out to left, and CAUGHT! Three out!

Game over. Marines are now tied 1 and 1 game with the Hawks (thanks to the 1st-place team 1-game advantage).

Complete game for Naruse. Not too shabby.



8 comments:

Steve said...

I have no idea why that Tsuyoshi fumble was ruled a hit. Weird. Bad time for that!

We need more runs :)

Deanna said...

Yeah, that was weird.

Taekyun just launched a huge hit to right field that was like 3 meters foul. オッシー!

Steve said...

You know what I love about the Pacific League? Video highlights already on You Tube. Here's Ohmatsu's blast:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPRrUt0pGZA

Deanna said...

I added it into the post up near his HR.

Also, any idea why the Hawks fans are wearing those red jerseys? Were they a giveaway today or something?

Steve said...

No idea. There's a red Otou-san keitai strap today, and their entire homepage is red.

Shin said...

Naruse's killing my Hawks, eeerrrr!

Steve said...

Just so you know, I am dubbing that last Saburo hit "The Phantom Double" That better not play a role in the final score.

Steve said...

Naruse = AWESOME. Way to take charge this series!