Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Tokyo Big 6: Rikkio-Keio?!

Weeks 5 and 6 saw all kinds of turns that I wasn't expecting. Keio beat Meiji in a 4-game slugfest of a series, which gives them 4 Series Points. Each team has one matchup left to play out, and the standings after Week 6 are...

G W L T SP WP%
1 Keio 11 8 2 1 4 .800
2 Rikkio 12 7 4 1 3 .636
3 Meiji 11 6 4 1 2 .600
4 Hosei 10 4 4 1 2 .444
5 Waseda 11 4 5 1 1 .400
6 Tokyo 9 0 8 1 0 .000

Rikkio kind of lucks out in that their final match is Todai, which is almost a guaranteed Series Point, even against this New And Improved Todai.

Keio's last match, on the other hand, is Soukeisen, against Waseda. But it's against a Waseda that has been sucking it up after leaning on Saitoh, Ohishi, and Fukui for several years, and not developing other players.

Anyway, here's what's up:
If Rikkio loses 1 or more games during Week 7, Keio wins the league championship regardless.

If Rikkio goes 2-0 in Week 7 against Todai, then...

...if Keio wins Soukeisen, they win the league championship (they'll have 5 Series Points as they are the only team to beat Rikkio).

...if Keio goes 1-2 at Soukeisen, there'll be another League Playoff Game between the two of them, just like the one last fall. This is actually a very rare thing and to have it happen 2 semesters in a row would be crazy.

...if Keio goes 0-2 at Soukeisen, Rikkio wins the league.


I doubt Waseda has any shot at all of beating Keio, but who knows.

Also, Junpei Morimoto, the Chukyodai Chukyo pitcher I liked, made his freshman debut for Hosei at... second base? Kinda replacing Chukyodai alum and captain Masashi Nanba? And speaking of other Chukyo->Hosei kids, Kawai Kanji has 4 hits for the season. 4. But they're all extra-base hits -- 3 homers and a double. WTF?


BTW, I started a new job, and it's not only as a programmer/writer, but it's in San Francisco for the next 2 months, which means I'm commuting to the Bay Area from Seattle for now, so I'm probably too busy to write much here, despite that I am still following Japanese baseball as much as possible and going to a few MLB games here and there, though I'm still largely feeling bored when I do.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for the Update Mark Alan Janisch
maj-thewideworldofsports.blogspot.com/
widewirldofspor@twitter

Ken Dick said...

Did you take notice (of course you did) of how Ryosuke Itoh turned his season around this weekend? He's up to .300 now in limited time but is showing his power.

I'm like a proud parent.