Game Report: Fighters vs. Giants @ Tokyo Dome - Another Day, Another Gyakuten Homerun

Dear Mascot Makers: A bear should be bigger than a bunch of mutant orange rabbits. Seriously. Even if they are Giant Rabbits.


Everything was going so well. Shinya Tsuruoka even actually hit a home run, which is basically a once-a-year event. The Fighters had a 5-3 lead after 6 innings, on the pitching of Keisaku Itokazu, and had actually managed to knock up Giants starter Shun Tohno pretty well.

And then lefty Masanori Hayashi came in to pitch the bottom of the 7th, presumably to face lefties like Seung-Yeop Lee, Yoshinobu Takahashi, and Michihiro Ogasawara.

And Hayashi walked the first batter he faced, pinch-hitter Yoshitomo Tani, on four straight pitches.

Then after a few more balls to Hayato Sakamoto, Sakamoto singled to center.

Yoshinobu Takahashi was the next batter, and he'd already hit a monster 2-run homer in his last at-bat, not to mention the night before.

So it should surprise nobody that Yoshinobu took the first pitch he saw and drove it deep into the right-field stands to put the Giants ahead 6-5.

I seriously considered just going home at that point, being as I had to be up at 6:30am Sunday morning to go to work, but I've pretty much never left a game early unless I had no choice (like last trains or having to go to work or whatnot).

But, I stuck around to the bitter end. Yamaguchi got the win and Marc Kroon got the save and I got nauseous.



Seriously, being in the Tokyo Dome for Giants games just sucks. This game was sold out upon sold out, and I was lucky to have a seat in the Fighters cheering section, I realize, but being as it was so full of people, AND the standing room area was also full of people, it was just a big hot sweaty mess of people. And while cheering was fun and it was nice while the Fighters were ahead, I kept getting dizzy from standing up for too long for some reason. In addition, this was some kind of "eco series", so I guess that means that rather than turning on the air conditioner, they just gave out fans to people to wave, so it was probably even hotter and more horrible than it would be otherwise.

Though, I did something I rarely do -- I videotaped us doing our opening cheer songs. There are a lot of these "1-9" lineup videos on Youtube, but this is my first, usually I'm not in a good vantage point for one:



And another video I took is of all of us singing "Shiroi Ball Fantasy", which is the official Pacific League song. We sing it before the 3rd inning in all interleague games.



In general, though, I spent most of this game being crowded and uncomfortable. My legs actually hurt by the end of the game from having to stay in such a small space to stay out of everyone's way.

I saw a lot of Fighters friends there, though -- people from Hokkaido and people from Osaka and even people from Fukuoka. So that was kind of cool, except that it was too crowded to actually SEE anyone, except for a few minutes after the game, during which everyone said "Will you be at Yokohama Stadium tomorrow?" at which point I said "No, I'm not -- have to go work at my school's Sports Day," and which everyone replied, "Oh, that's too bad!" to...

...until I pointed out, "Hey, I won't be there. So the Fighters will definitely win."

And they did.

I'm heading to Sagamihara on Monday night. I bet the Fighters won't win there either.

Game Report: Fighters vs. Giants @ Tokyo Dome - Japan Series Game 5 Flashback

Similarities between this game and Game 5 of the 2009 Japan Series:

- Shugo Fujii was one of the starting pitchers (but this year he's a traitor)
- The game was really close and the Fighters held a narrow lead for most of it
- The Giants won the game on a walk-off home run
- The walk-off home run was given up by Hisashi Takeda
- Was sitting in the Fighters cheering section with Team 52.. but we were all split up all over the place
- Went to a nearby izakaya after the game in a big group, got mocked by Giants fans

Seriously, Fujii has been pretty good this year, but what do you expect when you are playing for a team that is likely to turn the game around with a 3-run homer at any minute?

The Fighters' starting pitcher was Takayuki Kanamori, making his first start of the 2010 season (usually he's been used in relief). A lot of people thought that Darvish was going to start Friday's game; it would make sense given the schedule and the rotation, but it seems that maybe he'll be starting Saturday instead.

You know what ROYALLY sucked? Just as I missed seeing Imanari play at ichi-gun because of Jingu getting rained out, he got sent down just before this game too. ARRRRGGGGHHH. I even made special cheering signs to bring to this game; I ended up holding them up during the Lucky 7 interlude anyway. People were calling me "Imanari Taicho".

Uh, anyway, the best way to sum up this game, at least the Giants half of it, is: Homerun! Homerun! Homerun! Homerun! Hit batter! Homerun! Fly ball! Fly ball! Homerun! Homerun! Hit batter! Homerun! Fly ball!

No, really:

             PA  BB  HB  K   H  HR    FB  GB 
Fighters     39   1   1  8  10   2     7  11
Giants       37   0   2  6  11   5    15   3

The other Fighters out was Kensuke Tanaka getting caught stealing in the first inning, and the other Giants out was Hisayoshi Chono getting his retarded ass picked off first base in the 8th inning.

Anyway, this is basically what happened:
Kensuke got caught stealing, and then Inaba hit a "whoa, it went over" home run to right in the 1st inning. 1-0.
Yoshinobu Takahashi hit a much more decisive home run to right field in the bottom of the 1st. 1-1.
Shinji Takahashi walked, stole second (!), and scored on a double by Shota Ohno. 2-1. Why on earth they were pitching to Ohno with two outs and the pitcher up next is beyond me, but Kanamori singled anyway... unfortunately Ohno couldn't score on it.
Shinnosuke Abe led off the bottom of the 2nd with a home run to right. 2-2.
Michihiro Ogasawara hit a huge homerun to center in the 3rd. 3-2.
Kensuke Tanaka got hit by a pitch in the 5th, then Hichori Morimoto TRIPLED to center, tying the game as Kensuke scored. 3-3. Koyano doubled to center and scored Hichori, 4-3. Then Yoshio Itoi hit a 2-run homer to right, scoring Koyano too and knocking Fujii out of the game. 6-3.
Shinnosuke Abe hit another solo home run to right in the 6th, off reliever Masanori Hayashi. 6-4. Chono-baka singled and advanced on a wild pitch after that, and scored on a single by pinch-hitter Masakuni Odajima. 6-5.

Yuya Kubo and Kiyoshi Toyoda and Tetsuya Yamaguchi filled in the second half of the Giants pitching without giving up any more runs, although Kubo got into a bases-loaded pinch in the 6th before striking out Inaba to end it.

Hayashi pitched two innings for the Fighters, and Naoki Miyanishi pitched an inning and an out, and then Hisashi Takeda came into the game in the 8th inning with one out; Chono singled and then Hisashi picked him off first, which was pretty funny.

Hisashi stayed in to pitch the bottom of the 9th, and save the 6-5 game. He struck out Ryota Wakiya leading off, which was promising, but then Seung-Yeop Lee pinch-hit, and was apparently hit by a pitch (from the outfield it always looks weird). Takahiro Suzuki pinch-ran for Lee at first base...

...and it didn't matter as Hayato Sakamoto slammed a huge fly ball to center. The outfielders chased it back and the ball landed about 5 feet beyond the centerfield wall and bounced back onto the field for a walk-off 2-run homer, and the Giants won the game 7-6.



I have now been to 8 Fighters season games this year, and they have not won a single game. However, I believe they have won every single pre-season and minor-league game I went to. WTF?

I'm stuck at work again today (Saturday), and don't have a lot of time to write this, and will head off to the Tokyo Dome again tonight, so let me just leave you with another photo and a movie:



This is a Yomiuri news flash about halfway through the game. These are normal, but what amused me here is:

The first part is talking about Eri Yoshida's uniform and hat from her debut with the Chico Outlaws being sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The second part is talking about Japan having a new prime minister, Naoto Kan.

Apparently these are equivalently important to Japanese people.



And this is an Inaba Jump in the 5th inning or so, from behind the ouendan. I should try to film an Inaba Jump in as many stadiums as possible...

Friday Massive Fotopost: Ni-Gun Eagles vs. Fighters @ Kamagaya

As usual, I could either write about this one or post pictures of this one, and since I spent all my time on pictures...


(Sho Nakata hit a home run straight out of Kamagaya stadium at the preseason game against Chunichi -- it hit a drink machine by the training facility. So they put up a special Memorial Out-Of-The-Park-No-Really Home Run vending machine there with a plaque.)

On Monday, May 31, I went down to the Fighters minor-league stadium in Kamagaya to see a minor-league matchup between them and the Rakuten Eagles. Thanks to having to work Saturday and Sunday this coming weekend to help out at my JHS's Sports Day, I had a 3-day weekend last weekend, and the Fighters happened to have a rare Monday game going on. I prefer weekday games, but obviously haven't been able to go to many since I started working a normal 8-5 M-F job.

I spent most of this game socializing (while, of course, still taking photos and keeping score). I caught up with a few Kamagaya regulars that I hadn't seen in a while; met a guy who also is a huge Imanari fan AND a huge Tokyo Big 6 nerd and talked to him for an inning or so (he was like "I saw you at Jingu, you love Kagami, right?" which was both cool and freaky), sat with Ojisan for half the game, AND I also sat with Buddy Carlyle's wife and daughter for an inning or two.

After the game I also hung out and took photos with a bunch of players, got a few signatures, etc. It's nice on a weekday because it's less crowded. More on that afterwards (including how I stuck my foot in my mouth several times)

As for the game itself, the Fighters won 9-5. Both teams used a bazillion pitchers -- the Fighters used 8 guys and the Eagles used 5. Mitsuo Yoshikawa started for the Fighters and Ryohei Isaka started for the Eagles, not that it mattered as neither of them pitched more than 2 innings.

For the Fighters, 7 out of those 9 runs came from homers:
Takahiro Imanami hit a 3-run homer in the 1st inning off Isaka.
Atsushi Ugumori hit a solo homer in the 3rd inning off Ryuhei Terada.
Manabu Iwadate hit a solo homer in the 5th inning off Tomohiro Tsuchiya.
Atsushi Ugumori hit his SECOND homer of the game in the 6th inning, a 2-run shot off Kazuya Takahori.

For the Eagles, Taishi Nakagawa hit a homer off Masaru Nakamura, but that was it. The rest of their runs came in the 7th and 8th inning off some shaky fielding and whatnot.

You can see an English box score on the NPB site. I was away from my camera for a few innings, but I managed to catch most of the guys who pitched and most of the batters too at one point or another, so here you go.

I've organized this post into Home Runs, Eagles, Fighters, and After-Game.

Home Runs



Takahiro Imanami hits a 3-run in the first inning, and high-fives runners Murata and Sugiya and coach Kawana back at home.


Atsushi Ugumori stands in at the plate in the 3rd. I had specifically walked over to the 3rd base side to take photos of him...


Ugumori hitting his home run.


High fives back at the dugout (the little kid is Carlyle's son).


Manabu Iwadate in the 5th inning.


More high-fives back in the dugout.


Rakuten's Taishi Nakagawa.

Eagles Players

Tatsuya Shiokawa getting caught stealing second.


Ryohei Isaka.


Isaka again.




Ryuhei Terada.


Shoji Ohiro.


Jobu Morita... I am mostly amused by his name thanks to the movie Major League. "Jobu can't hit a curve ball..."


Koji Matsui, who the Eagles took in the ikusei draft, so he wears #121.

I actually saw Matsui play last summer for the Nagasaki Saints, too. Here's a photo from that game.




Tomohiro Tsuchiya, not to be confused with the other Tsuchiya on the team... oh wait, Teppei doesn't USE Tsuchiya as his name anymore.


Yasunori Kikuchi.


You know what is odd? I had a whole bunch of shots of Fuminori Yokogawa, but didn't end up including any of them here. Weird.

Fighters

Starter Mitsuo Yoshikawa.


Yoshikawa with batterymate Yuji Arahari.


Kenshi Sugiya.




Toshiyuki Yanuki.


A random crowd shot I took. It's sparse but actually pretty good for a weekday -- good enough to have an ouendan, even.


The Carlyle family on bat boy duty.


Buddy Carlyle.


His son as bat boy.


And as ball boy.


Yuji Arahari.




John Clayton Unten, the half-American kid from Okinawa. This was my first time seeing him pitch.




Tatsuo Kinoshita. Hadn't seen him in a long time.




Takahiro Matsuka, the Tokyo University graduate.


Final score.

After the Game
Went to hang out with the usual suspects, saw a whole bunch of players as they were finishing up after-game meetings and BP and all. I got manager Igarashi's autograph but no photo with him. Ojisan took the rest of these as I bugged him and the guys...


Seiichi Ohhira, OF/DH, #54

I actually couldn't remember if I have a photo with him before, so I figured why not.


Manabu Iwadate, IF/DH, #40

We got him from the Giants this offseason, I'm not sure why exactly. He's been playing first base while Nakata and Ichikawa and basically everyone else is injured. Seemed nice enough I guess, but I'm thinking if he doesn't make it to ichi-gun this year he'll get cut and retire. He did hit one of those home runs though.


Atsushi Ugumori, OF/DH, #65

Ugumori is awesome, actually. He is tearing up the Eastern League right now to the tune of .388/.435/.713 and leading the Fighters ni-gun with 6 home runs. Ugu also hit 20 home runs last year in like 77 games... he's also a pretty good outfielder and just an all-around good young player (and he's like 6'3", too!). There just isn't really a place for him on the Fighters ichi-gun team right now, sadly.


Yutaka Ohtsuka, pitcher, #14, 2nd-round draft pick this year

I got a photo with him and Ojisan said "She was a fan of yours in college!" and he's like "Uhh, really?" and I said "Yeah, I saw you at the All-Japan tourney last year... in the game with Soka against Fuji..." and he said "Shit, we lost that game." Everyone laughed, I was like "Oh crap... you did... but it wasn't YOUR fault, dude... you didn't START that game..." and he kind of laughed and ran off.

Later, I showed Ojisan that I actually had a photo on my phone of Ohtsuka from that game and Ojisan made me send it to him, he's like "Next time I see Ohtsuka-kun I will show him this picture and tell him that no really, you were a fan of his in college, this was on your phone, I think he'll be happy to hear that even if he seemed pissed off at you today."

Still, embarrassing.


Takahiro Matsuka, pitcher, #30

...and the fourth guy EVER to graduate from Tokyo University and actually play baseball in the big leagues here. I was really psyched about him coming to the Fighters in the trade this offseason. Though, he seemed a tiny bit weirded out by a crazy gaijin fan like me.

And this next one is the reason I waited around...



I have wanted a photo with Yukio Tanaka for freaking forever. He IS "Mister Fighters". He is a big part of why I became a Fighters fan, because my first game ever, 8 seasons ago now, when he was still a regular, I learned his ouenka and the Yukio Jump and it was so much fun. He played his entire 21-year career with them, got over 2000 hits, is in the Meikyukai, and now he is a minor-league batting coach, and the last few times I was at Kamagaya he was pretty much untouchable, he ran past everyone like "busybusybusy too busy to talk too busy busybusy", but today I was like "Please please please please please just one second a photo please?" and he relented, with kind of a "OMFG crazy girl okay!" reaction. The photo isn't very good because Ojisan screwed up my camera and took it at ISO 1600 instead of something sane, but -- I have a picture with Yukio Freaking Tanaka! How cool is that??

Banana Power!

Is back. With the Orix Buffaloes.

That is -- welcome back, Fernando Seguignol!

The first time I ever saw Seguignol in person in a game was actually at the Osaka Dome, and he homered from both sides of the plate. Of course, he was on the Fighters then...

I interviewed Seggy two years ago when he came back to Japan with Rakuten. Doubt I'll get to catch up with him again this time, but I am happy to see he found his way back to Japan, I know he loves it here.

Tokyo Big 6 Best Nine, and some stats stuff

Now that the season is over:

Best Nine

Pos  Name                 College  Yr.  Votes  Times   High School

P    Daisuke Takeuchi     Keio      2    25      1     Chukyodai Chukyo
C    Masahiro Nagasaki    Keio      4    25      2     Koshi
1B   Yoh Sasaki           Hosei     4    24      1     Sakushin Gakuin
2B   Yuya Watanabe        Waseda    3    11      1     Seiko Gakuin
SS   Koichiro Matsumoto   Rikkio    2    11      1     Yokohama
3B   Takayuki Matsuo      Keio      4    19      1     Tosa
OF   Hayata Itoh          Keio      3    24      1     Chukyodai Chukyo
OF   Soichiro Tanaka      Rikkio    4    21      1     Saga Nishi
OF   Kento Yajima         Meiji     4    11      1     Kiryu Daiichi

I'll get to the position players in a second. They're mostly the best hitter at each position.

But first, can I point out how very much Daisuke Takeuchi deserves this Best Nine?

And moreso, I am going to put in a plea to you all -- if you have been reading my Big 6 blog posts, and have a second, and can kinda read Japanese, please go to the Big 6 MVP Voting Page, which is open until June 4th, and select the one that says "慶大　投手　竹内大助" and vote for Daisuke Takeuchi for Big 6 MVP. Seriously, Yuki Saitoh has been leading the voting in this all along because he's the best-known name in the league and has so many more fans than anyone else, but Takeuchi actually carried his team on his back this semester.

I'm not even talking about his no-hitter vs. Tokyo, or that he personally was 2-0 in the 3-game series against Waseda that earned Keio the league championship. Or that pretty much every weekend, he started two games. Sometimes he even started two consecutive DAYS. Or even that no other pitcher in the league has more than 3 wins to their name and he has 6. I'm talking about:

           G   W   L   BF  IP   H  BBH   K  HR   ERA  WHIP   K/9  BB/9
Takeuchi   9   6   2  248  62  43   23  44   1  1.31  1.06  6.39  3.34
Saitoh     6   2   3  154  41  26   10  29   1  1.54  0.88  6.37  2.20

Takeuchi pitched over 21 innings more than Saitoh, which is like 3 games' worth. And aside from a tendency to walk 1 more batter per 9 innings on average, in the end, despite not throwing quite as hard as Saitoh, he was as effective, if not more, in preventing runners from reaching base -- Waseda's fielders made 9 errors in 11 games this year, where Keio's made 4 errors in 13 games, AND two of those errors were in the first game of Soukeisen... and yet Takeuchi's ERA is lower than Saitoh's.

Seriously. Daisuke for MVP. He deserves it.

As for the rest of the Best 9, I'm fine with most of them. Masahiro Nagasaki is both a fine catcher and a fine batter. Yoh Sasaki is about all you can ask for from a first baseman -- a big target to throw to, and a pretty good hitter. Hayata Itoh is one of the best pure hitters in the league, IMO, and well-deserving of a Best Nine already. Soichiro Tanaka was his team's captain, led the league in home runs (and was 2nd in OPS at 1.042), and Rikkio managed to creep to 4th place.

As for the rest... Yuya Watanabe only got this because he was the batting champion. I'm betting Keisuke Okazaki got an awful lot of those votes that Watanabe didn't. And, oddly... while Keio's Takayuki Matsuo is decent and perfectly deserving of the Best Nine this semester as a well-rounded player, Rikkio's Ryuichi Maeda outhit the rest of the league's 3rd basemen, period. (And to be fair, Keio's Ren Yamasaki is going to be a fantastic full-time 3rd baseman next year after Matsuo graduates.)

I'm kinda curious why Kento Yajima got more OF votes than Shohei Habu, but I don't feel THAT strongly on the subject.

Batting and ERA Champs

Batting: Yuya Watanabe, Waseda

Well, it's no real surprise Watanabe got the batting title -- he seriously was hitting like .458 going into Week 5 or 6. His final line was .381/.422/.429, which should give you an idea of what kind of batter he was. The ridiculous thing is that he didn't lead the league in anything except average. Koichiro Matsumoto had the same number of hits, 16, just with more at-bats, and more XBH. I'll go more into this in a second.

(Wanna know who the league OBP champion was? Meiji's Shogo Shashiki, at .450. Even though he wasn't hitting much, he can sure still take a walk.)

I looked for interviews with something from Watanabe himself, but haven't been able to find much. Waseda is not notable for bothering to make themselves more accessible.

ERA: Kazuki Mishima, Hosei

I feel a little funny about this one -- on the one hand I am a pretty big Mishima fan, he has the same birthday as me and is a really great kid. And he's like 5'9" or so and can throw 95mph. It's nuts.

But on the other hand, Mishima was mainly a reliever for most of the semester; he made two starts, so it feels a little bit lame for a guy to get the title when most of the others who qualified are mainly starters. On the other hand, if Tatsuya Ohishi hadn't had a meltdown at Soukeisen Fall 2009, he would have also gotten the ERA title pretty much completely as a reliever, and would have deserved it. (The requirement is 2 innings per game that the team played.)

The Hosei blog on Nikkan Sports has a brief interview with Mishima:

－最優秀防御率のタイトルを獲得した率直な感想は
野球人生初のタイトルなので、素直にうれしいです。

- How do you feel about getting the ERA title?
It's the first title I've gotten in my baseball life, so honestly I'm very happy.

－監督には何か言われましたか
監督さんも知らなかったみたいで、試合後「お前防御率タイトルとったらしいな」と嬉しそうにしていました。

- What did the manager say to you about it?
It seems the manager didn't know about it either. After the game he said "Looks like you got the ERA title, huh?" but he seemed pretty happy about it.

－秋に向けて
ギリギリというか細かいインターバルで小さいイニングで投げてきたので、まだ駄目だと思っています。秋は先発して勝ちにこだわって優勝に貢献したいです。

- Thoughts on the fall semester?
My outings this season were mostly really short, only an inning or two at a time usually, so... I still feel kind of useless. In the fall, I'd like to win games as a starting pitcher and help the team to a championship.

He also contributed to an entry on the Hosei blog on the official team site, with a photo of him holding the ERA trophy. But he mostly said the same stuff -- "I'm really happy, but our team placed 5th and so I want to help us kick ass and take names next semester. Please come cheer for us."

Oh, while I'm at it, Rikkio put up interviews with Soichiro Tanaka and Koichiro Matsumoto about their Best Nine awards.

Other "Relevant" Stats
I realize that 11-13 games and 50ish plate appearances are not a huge sample size, but well, that's what you get in a season here.

Top 10 Batters by OPS:

(R2) Ryuichi Maeda          .355/.444/.645     1.090
(R4) Soichiro Tanaka        .293/.383/.659     1.042
(R3) Keisuke Okazaki        .350/.426/.575     1.001
(H4) Yoh Sasaki             .366/.429/.488      .916
(K4) Masahiro Nagasaki      .333/.400/.513      .913
(K3) Hayata Itoh            .286/.357/.531      .888
(W3) Shohei Habu            .310/.408/.452      .861
(W3) Yuya Watanabe          .381/.422/.429      .851
(M4) Shogo Shashiki         .267/.450/.400      .850

Hayata Itoh led the league in RBI with 12, and Tanaka led the league in HR with 4. Maeda's insane OPS is mostly due to the fact that in 36 PA, he walked 5 times, got 11 hits, and SEVEN OUT OF THOSE 11 HITS were for extra bases.

Team batting:

                                       HR    SB     E       2B    BB
Rikkio         .277/.326/.430  .756    11    17    10       13    34
Meiji          .267/.346/.365  .711     4    13     9       14    50 
Keio           .253/.310/.377  .687     7     6     4       20    44
Waseda         .236/.313/.306  .619     2    16     9       13    47
Hosei          .221/.287/.293  .580     2    11     6       13    41
Tokyo          .174/.228/.220  .448     0     2    10       12    24
 
League avg:    .240/.304/.336  .640    4.3  10.8    8      14.2   40

I include the doubles and walks only because I thought it was interesting that Tokyo University is actually not that far below the average on them. (But they only had 1 XBH besides those.) Meiji walked a TON. I blame Shashiki.

Team Pitching:

               ERA   WHIP    K/9   BB/9
Waseda        1.74   0.90   9.00   2.57
Meiji         1.82   0.88   7.89   1.72
Hosei         1.93   1.09   6.70   2.57
Keio          2.33   1.20   6.59   3.88
Rikkio        3.96   1.58   7.00   4.24
Tokyo         7.73   2.18   2.12   7.52

League avg:   3.15   1.29   6.63   3.70

Individual records are a little weird to do things by. Something interesting, actually, is to look at the BB/BF percentage: Yusuke Nomura walks 4.22% of the batters he faces, and Kisho Kagami walks 4.79% of the batters he faces. A truly frightening stat is that Tatsuya Ohishi strikes out 37.63% of the batters he faces.

Top 5 by WHIP:

(W4) Fukui         0.87
(W4) Saitoh        0.88
(M3) Nomura        0.88
(M4) Nishijima     0.96
(H4) Kagami        1.00
(W4) Ohishi        1.00

Daisuke Takeuchi is right behind at 1.06, and Mishima at 1.13 -- he has an annoyingly high BB/BF, but he also has a very low H/BF.

I dunno, I'm probably obsessing over this a bit too much. It's just that the semester is over, so I can play with numbers now.

BTW, Hosei beat Tokyo today in the Rookie tournament, 10 to 1, and Rikkio beat Waseda, 5 to 0. Takaaki Yokoyama from Seiko Gakuin pitched for Waseda and lost. I was a fan of his when he was in high school, but I'm not sure I'll ever actually see him pitch in college at this rate.

Keio Victory Craziness

Oh, one last thing! I've been watching some Youtube videos of the Keio victory celebrations. They paraded from Jingu to Mita campus after the victory, and celebrated all along the way. Fun stuff!

Here's some footage taken from within the marching itself:

Parading towards Mita Campus, Part 1
Parading towards Mita Campus, Part 2
Parading towards Mita Campus, Part 3
Parading towards Mita Campus, Part 4

The people sing the Keio fight song and a lot of "Waseda taose", and it gets darker out and I think the crowd gets a bit rowdier as it goes along.

Here's from the ouendan performance at the end of the route:

Ouendan performance 1
Ouendan celebration 2

Liveblogging Fighters vs. Carp @ Sapporo Dome

Just a heads-up that since tonight's Carp-Fighters game (June 1st) seems to be scheduled to play on BS1, I am planning to be home and liveblog it. Game is at 6pm Japan time if you want to watch with me.

                     

Kensuke 2b                 Higashide 2b
Hichori lf                 Soyogi ss
Itoi cf                    Amaya cf
Nioka dh                   Kurihara 1b
Koyano 3b                  Tomonori Maeda (?!) dh
Shinji 1b                  Hirose rf
Yoh Dai-Kan rf             Jeff "Fio" Fiorentino lf
Tsuruoka c                 Ishihara c
Kaneko! ss                 Kokubo 3b

Keppel (6-1, 3.60)         Ohtake (0-0, 0.00)

OMG NO INABA! I guess he banged up his leg worse than I thoguht.

It occurs to me that last time I liveblogged the Fighters, Keppel was also the starting pitcher. Huh. And this is Kan Ohtake's first start of the season -- he had shoulder problems in the preseason. Urawa Gakuin pride... EXCEPT WHEN PLAYING AGAINST THE FIGHTERS! But I AM totally hoping Ryota Imanari makes an appearance tonight...

Top of the first (F 0, C 0)
Higashide walks.
Soyogi grounds out to second, Higashide advances. One out, 2nd.
Amaya grounds deep to second and Kensuke can't make a grab and throw on the play, so it's an infield single. One out, 1st and 3rd.
Kurihara strikes out and Amaya steals second on the third strike; Two out, 2nd and 3rd.
Tomohiro Maeda grounds out to second for an easy play. Three down. Whew.

Bottom of the first (F 3, C 0)
Kensuke walks.
Hichori grabs an outside pitch and grounds it up the middle and Higashide makes a nice run for the ball but Hichori JUST beats out the throw at first -- and Kensuke was actually off stealing second on the pitch, so he's totally safe. No out, 1st and 2nd.
Itoi bunts, a nice clean one, catcher to Higashide covering first. One out, runners at 2nd and 3rd.
Nioka strikes out; 2 out, 2nd and 3rd.
Koyano hits one up the left side that is barely barely fair, but it IS fair, so there! He gets a double and everyone else scores. 2-0. Two out, 2nd.
Shinji singles up the middle through Ohtake's legs, to center. Koyano scores, 3-0. Two out, 1st.
Yoh lofts one to left field and Fiorentino runs it down. Three out.

Maybe Ohtake is NOT ready for prime time again. Although that was kind of a lucky ball on Koyano's part.

Also, they seriously list Fiorentino as "Fio" (フィオ) in katakana. I'm not sure I'd seen him play yet this year, come to think of it.

Top of the second (F 3, C 0)
Hirose grounds to the mound, not an easy play but Keppel makes it.
Fiorentino grounds out to second.
Ishihara grounds out to second. Quick inning!

Bottom of the second (F 3, C 0)
Tsuruoka grounds to third and the ball bounces off Kokubo's glove! Whoops. They rule that an error.
Kaneko! comes up bunting... and bunts successfully. One out, 2nd.
Kensuke singles to right! Tsuruoka advances, so, one out, 1st and 3rd.
Hichori... hold on, Kensuke gets caught stealing during Hichori's at-bat, 2-6. Two out, 3rd. Hichori gets up to a 3-1 count and the umpire runs to the media booth for a minute and starts waving his hands around and nodding but nothing actually happens. Huh? Anyway, Hichori walks. Two out, 1st and 3rd.
Itoi grounds out to short. Three down.

Top of the third (F 3, C 0)
Kokubo grounds out to third.
Higashide grounds out to second.
Soyogi grounds out to third.

Have I mentioned recently how good Koyano has gotten? I don't want to jinx him, but...

Bottom of the third (F 3, C 0)
Nioka singles up the left, just through Soyogi's glove!
Koyano grounds into an easy double play, 6-4-3. Whoops, I jinxed him :(
Shinji hits a pop out to second and that's it, three down.

Top of the fourth (F 3, C 3)
Amaya walks.
Kurihara doubles into the gap in left-center, and Amaya gets to third... actually, I wonder if he could have scored on that, but it's hard to tell. No out, 2nd and 3rd.
Maeda grounds out to second, BUT Amaya finally does score. 3-1 One out, 3rd.
Hirose singles to left. Kurihara scores. 3-2. One out, one on. Hmm...
Fiorentino grounds out to the mound, advancing Hirose. Two out, 2nd.
Ishihara hits one out to right field and it's just beyond the outstretched glove of Dai-Kan Yoh for a double. Crap! Hirose scores, 3-3.
Kokubo grounds out to third to end the inning.

Bottom of the fourth (F 3, C 3)
Yoh grounds out to short.
Tsuruoka grounds out to third.
Kaneko! grounds out to short.

Hey, the Marines are pounding the Giants 4-0. Hooray!

And for some reason they decide to show Kosuke Fukudome making a diving catch in the PNC Park outfield in the lovely Pittsburgh rain.
Then next, Ichiro got his 2100th hit? Neat...

Top of the fifth (F 3, C 3)
Higashide hits a pop fly out to Hichori.
Soyogi grounds out to third.
Amaya grounds up the RF line and Kensuke makes a spinning play on it. Whoosh!

Bottom of the fifth (F 3, C 3)
Kensuke hits a big fly ball out to right.
Hichori singles to right! Hooray! One out, 1st.
Itoi grounds to second -- quick flip to Soyogi and Hichori is out, but Itoi is safe at first on the fielder's choice. Two out, 1st.
Nioka strikes out and that's it.

YMCA time.

Top of the sixth (F 3, C 3)
Kurihara walks.
Tomonori Maeda grounds back to the mound and is easily thrown out at first. Kurihara to 2nd.
Hirose also grounds to the mound. Kurihara stays, so two out, 2nd.
Fiorentino hits a pop fly to left. Three out.

It's already La La La Fighters time? Really?

Bottom of the sixth (F 3, C 3)
Koyano hits a pop fly out to right.
Shinji hits a pop fly out to right.
Yoh hits a grounder up the right side but Kurihara dives for it and gets it back to the bag in time.

Carpu, Carpu, Carpu Hiroshima...

Top of the seventh (F 3, C 3)
Ishihara singles to center-right.
Kokubo... well, Ishihara steals second on the 2-1 pitch, before Kokubo ultimately strikes out swinging. One out, 2nd.
Higashide takes forever and grounds out to third. Two out, 2nd.
Soyogi grounds back to the mound.

Bottom of the seventh (F 3, C 3)
Tsuruoka grounds out to a leaping Ohtake.
Kaneko! singles to center.
Kensuke hits a fly out to left. Two out, 1st.
Hichori... singles to left! Two out, 1st and 2nd!
Genghis Khan chance music starts after the Hiroshima mound conference ends!
Itoi hits one to right and it's just a single! Damn! Two out, bases loaded!
Switch to the Kita no Kuni Kara chance theme... and the CF cameras can't stay steady.
Nioka hits a pop fly out to right :( :( :(

Grar. That sucked!

Top of the eighth (F 3, C 4)
Masanori Hayashi takes the mound for the Fighters -- Keppel is done after 7.

Amaya hits a pop fly caught by Kaneko in shallow center.
Kurihara singles to left. One out, 1st.
Tomonori Maeda hits a pop up into the cavernous realms of the foul territory at the Sapporo Dome and it is caught. Two outs, 1st.

A pitching change...? Apparently so. Hayashi sits down and Hisashi Takeda comes out in his place.

Hirose singles up the middle. Aw, crap. Two outs, 1st and 2nd.
Fiorentino crap crap crap crap HISASHI YOU SUCK um, Fiorentino singles to left, and Kurihara scores. 4-3. Akamatsu pinch-runs for Fiorentino at first base. Two outs, 1st and 3rd.
Ishihara grounds out to second and that's the inning. But...

Bottom of the eighth (F 4, C 4)
Some kid named Hideki Kishimoto replaces Kan Ohtake on the mound for Hiroshima. (Akamatsu enters from being a PR to playing left.)

Koyano strikes out swinging at a pitch in the dirt.
Shinji grounds out to short.
Yoh HITS A HOME RUN TO LEFT-CENTER! Whoa! It was going and going and... and it entered the stands! 4-4!
Tsuruoka hits a pop fly out to center.

Ryota was the first guy to high-five Yoh back at the dugout after Nashida-kantoku. And they showed a shot of Itoi making a guts pose after the home run was hit. Heh.

I'm just sad they couldn't have Ryota pinch-hit for Tsuruoka and enter the game and...

Top of the ninth (F 4, C 5)
Naoki Miyanishi takes the mound for the Fighters. (I nearly just typed Mishima. I really have to get college ball off my brain.)

Kokubo singles to left.
Higashide bunts to third -- Koyano gets the ball to Kaneko for the force at second, but no double play. Still, nice play! One out, 1st.
Soyogi... watches Higashide steal second. And then... he smashes one to centerfield. Not a homerun in the cavern that is the Sapporo Dome, but it goes for a double and scores Higashide. Argh. 5-4

Yuichiro Mukae is pinch-hitting for Soichiro Amaya, and Brian Wolfe is coming out to replace Naoki Miyanishi on the mound.

Uh what? Shigenobu Shima is pinch-hitting for Mukae.

Shima grounds out to third. Two out, 3rd.
Kurihara walks. Two out, 1st and 3rd.
Tomonori Maeda is still hitting. WTF. grounds out to third to end the inning.

Bottom of the ninth (F 4, C 5)
Ryuji Yokoyama enters on the mound for Hiroshima and Shogo Kimura takes over in left. Akamatsu moves to center.

Kaneko fails to check a third swing at a pitch in the dirt. Doh.
Kensuke hits a pop fly to center.
Hichori OMG! I was positive that was a pop out to center and then it hit the back wall JUST above a jumping Akamatsu, and Hichori gets a triple! Holy crap! Two out, tying run at 3rd...!
Itoi grounds out to short and that is the game.

NPB box score

Damn.

I'm actually mostly pissed off that I didn't get to see Ryota Imanari play, when I think about it. Saw him sitting in the dugout, but even this weekend at Kamagaya everyone was like "I hope we can see Ryota play at the Tokyo Dome..."

Whoa, the Carp mascot Slyly is at the Sapporo Dome, that's kind of crazy, didn't know he toured as far up as Hokkaido...

I give you your game hero, Eishin Soyogi, whose line for the night reads: Ground out to 2nd, ground out to 3rd, ground out to 3rd, ground out to short, go-ahead RBI double. Yeah.