Nishioka ss Kawasaki ss
Kiyota cf Honda 2b
Iguchi 2b Ortiz dh
Saburo rf Kokubo 1b
Imae 3b Tamura rf
Imaoka?! dh Matsunaka lf
Taekyun 1b Matsuda 3b
Ohmatsu lf Hasegawa cf
Satozaki c Yamasaki c
Naruse Sugiuchi
Top of the first (M 0, H 0)
Nishioka fly out to right field.
Kiyota groundout to short.
Iguchi strikes out swinging.
Bottom of the first (M 0, H 0)
Kawasaki strkes out swinging.
Honda grounds out to short.
Ortiz grounds out to second.
Top of the second (M 0, H 0)
Saburo hits a pop fly out to right.
Imae hits a pop fly out to right as well.
Imaoka grounds out to short.
Bottom of the second (M 0, H 0)
Kokubo grounds out to second.
Tamura strikes out swinging.
Matsunaka hits a pop fly out to left.
(It's 6:30pm and the first two innings are done...)
Top of the third (M 0, H 0)
Taekyun hits a LINER to short and Kawasaki jumps to catch it. Oops.
Ohmatsu walks! First base-runner of the game! OMG! One on, one out.
Satozaki singles through Sugiuchi's legs and up the middle. First HIT of the game! Two on, one out.
Nishioka hits a pop fly to right. Two down, two on.
Kiyota grounds out to second, force on Satozaki for the fielder's choice 6-4. Three down.
Bottom of the third (M 0, H 0)
Matsuda hits a pop fly out to center.
Hasegawa grounds out to short.
Yamasaki strikes out stupid. Three down.
Top of the fourth (M 0, H 0)
Iguchi hits a pop fly out to straight center.
Saburo walks.
Imae hits a fly ball into the gap... and Hasegawa makes the catch at the wall, two down, one on.
Imaoka hits another pop fly out to right. Three down.
Bottom of the fourth (M 0, H 0)
Kawasaki grounds out to first (3-1).
Honda hits a fly ball to center, caught. Two down.
Ortiz singles to left for the first Hawks runner of the game just as I was thinking "Wow, Naruse has a perfect game so far." He points to the sky when he gets to first base, if that matters.
Kokubo hits a pop fly out to second, three down.
4 innings over and it's 7:06pm.
Top of the fifth (M 4, H 0)
Taekyun strikes out swinging.
Ohmatsu hits a pop fly out to left.
Satozaki singles to left! That makes him 2-for-2 today...
Nishioka singles all the way out to the left corner. Two on, two out.
Kiyota walks -- so bases loaded, two out... that was apparently the 84th pitch of the night for Sugiuchi.
Iguchi is apparently hit by a pitch, on his leg (it looked like a wild pitch at first to be honest). Satozaki scores, 1-0.
Saburo ALSO walks. Oshidashi! Nishioka scores. 2-0.
Imae hits a bouncing grounder that bounces over Sugiuchi, and past a diving Kawasaki. Kiyota and Iguchi score on the single. 4-0.
97 pitches and Sugiuchi is switched off the mound to Masahiko Morifuku. (Sugiuchi seriously looks like he's going to cry but he also seems quite aware that there must be tons of cameras on him so instead he's towelling off sweat and getting a drink.)
Imaoka hits a pop fly out to right and that ends the bleeding for now.
Bottom of the fifth (M 4, H 0)
Tamura hits a pop fly out to right.
Matsunaka... ?! grounds out to first but it goes through Taekyun into right field and is called an E3. (I could almost see calling it a single.) One on, one out.
Matsuda hits a pop fly to right. One on, two down.
Hasegawa hits a pop fly out to center. Three down.
Top of the sixth (M 4, H 0)
Morifuku is off the mound and TSUYOSHI WADA HAS ENTERED THE BUILDING. Holy carp. Well, he hasn't pitched in 4 days, but... we'll see. He was untouchable before...
Taekyun strikes out.
Ohmatsu grounds out to second.
Satozaki grounds back to the mound. Three down.
Bottom of the sixth (M 4, H 0)
Tanoue pinch-hits for Yamasaki and grounds out to short.
Kawasaki also grounds out to short.
Honda hits a pop fly to left and it's the 7th inning... at 7:53pm...
Top of the seventh (M 4, H 0)
Nishioka grounds out to short.
Kiyota pops a fly out to right. Two down.
Iguchi singles to right-center. One on, two out.
Saburo hits a pop fly to right-center, caught by the rightfielder. Change.
Bottom of the seventh (M 4, H 0)
Ortiz hits a pop fly to right.
Kokubo strikes out swinging.
Tamura singles to center.
Matsunaka strikes out swinging.
Top of the eighth (M 7, H 0)
Falkenborg on the mound in place of Wada.
Imae singles to short.
Heiuchi pinch-hits for Imaoka comes up bunting and successfully bunts up Imae, 2-4. One down, runner at 2nd.
Taekyun singles back to the right-field wall, driving in Imae. 5-0.
Ohmatsu hits a HOME RUN TO RIGHT which brings in Taekyun as well. 7-0.
Satozaki singles up the middle. That makes him 3-for-4, btw. One on, one out again.
Nishioka grounds into a fielder's choice, 5-4. So still one on, but now two out.
Kiyota strikes out.
Naruse is still in there -- only 89 pitches to this point.
And the camera crew keeps showing very grumpy-looking Hawks players in the dugout.
Bottom of the eighth (M 7, H 0)
Matsuda singles to center. One on, no out.
Hasegawa grounds into a double play, 5-4-3. Two down.
Tanoue singles to right... one on, two out.
Kawasaki strikes out swinging. (I think that's 6 strikeouts for Naruse.)
Settsu in for the Hawks pitching now.
Top of the ninth (M 7, H 0)
Iguchi grounds out to third.
Saburo hits a pop fly out to left.
Imae singles to left. One on, two out.
Fukuura pinch-hits for Heiuchi and strikes out.
Last 3 outs for Softbank... and Naruse is still in there.
Bottom of the ninth (M 7, H 0)
Honda hits a pop fly out to left. (2nd pitch.)
Ortiz hits a pop fly out to right. (First pitch.)
Kokubo swings at the first pitch, strike one. Fouls off the second pitch, strike two. Third pitch is in the dirt, ball one.
Kokubo breaks his bat hitting the ball to short. Nishioka, who started crying as Kokubo was at the plate, MAKES THE CATCH and then collapses on the ground crying.
The Marines are going to the Japan Series!
Um... some screenshots. I don't know, I feel weird about this entire thing. Like, I'm happy for the Marines players that I've been watching the last few years... but at the same time I feel kind of funny to see Bobby's guys up there going to the Japan Series without Bobby. (To be fair, Nishimura did say that "we couldn't have gotten here without the last manager, who I was a coach for in the 2005 Japan Series", but still.)
Heiuchi, because this is my blog and I can put him in here.
Nishioka before the final out.
Naruse before the final out.
Nishioka after the final out, crying.
Helping Nishioka up and off the field.
Grumpy Akiyama-manager in the Hawks dugout.
Doage (not of Nishimura, they only threw him twice. I didn't catch who this was.)
Saburo and Iguchi.
Hayden Penn and Bill Murphy back in the dugout.
Nishimura's speech.
Pennant banner thingy.
Final ceremony starts.
5 comments:
Hopes for a comeback is slim....with Naruse looking good so far...
Justin Tv stream just changed to Taiwan series, so I guess I'm off the hook early on the final game so I don't have to watch the end in pain.
I tried to find this on TV today, but alas. I figured it'd be on satellite, anyway. Are the Japan Series ever on antenna TV?
(If it wasn't obvious, this is Rakuten Golden Nate, just signing in with my Google Account. I'm in Tokyo now studying abroad.)
Hi Nate...
It was on satellite, yeah, BS1. I can't actually remember in the past where the Japan Series has been aired. Playoffs are on BS1, maybe not on normal TV. In the past I ended up watching the Japan Series at various places like bars or whatever, or friends' houses... but I do think the Giants-related games did air on Channel 4. Eh.
Also, if you ever want to meet up while you're here, let me know. I can show you cool baseball card stores or whatever.
That other guy they threw in the air was Setoyama-GM, the former Daiei-GM who was responsible for scheduling a Dental Convention in the middle of that Hawks' Nippon Series back around 2000 (plus or minus). He was also the main culprit in the War Against Bobby. I guess he's taking credit for the club's turn around.
Sure thing. Though, one of the drawbacks of my college starting so late (the first day was October 1st) was that the baseball season was basically over.
However, I live really close to Ajinomoto Stadium (like a 10 minute bike ride) so I guess I can catch some live sports in some manner in the meantime.
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