Opening Day Lineup Announced

The Opening Day lineup for Friday night's game against the Carp has been anounced. 
It's been posted by yakyubaka and Nikkan Sports.

Here is the lineup and my thoughts on it:

CF Yohei Oshima - He's had a good preseason and it's once again his job to lose.  I don't think he will.

2B Masahiro Araki - I've seen enough of Araki, but he's been with the team for a long time.  Let him start the first game then sit him on the bench the rest of the season.

3B Hector Luna - Hopefully he can get off to a hot start like he did last year.

RF Ryosuke Hirata - He's earned his spot.

1B Masahiko Morino - Michihiro Ogasawara and Alexis Gomez are other options, but Morino is the logical choice.  Gomez didn't show enough in the preseason and Ogasawara will probably be in more of a pinch-hitting role.  I think Morino will get most of the time at first at least to start the season.

LF Kazuhiro Wada - Still crushing the ball at the age of 41, hit .382 for the preseason. 

SS Anderson Hernandez - Veteran player, seems to do things the right way in the field.  Too early to tell how useful he'll be at the plate.  I'd like to see him at second and Naomichi Donoue at short in the early season.  Donoue has a much higher upside than Araki though he hasn't put it together at the plate yet.  Hopefully Shuhei Takahashi will be in the mix sooner rather than later as well.

C Motonobu Tanishige - Like he would sit himself on Opening Night.

P Kenshin Kawakami - A bit of surpise pick as Yudai Ono looked like he'd pitched his way into this start.  I like the choice though, Kawakami has done a lot for the Dragons and I wouldn't be surprised if this was his last season.

Coming Down the Stretch... Chunichi @ Hiroshima Carp, Sep. 3 - 5

Chunichi and Hiroshima, each with 25 games left in the season, will face off this week in a three game series that starts tomorrow night.  Hiroshima currently holds a two game lead over the Dragons for third place and for the final berth to the playoffs in the Central League.  The two teams will play one more head-to-head series at the end of month, but this upcoming series may have a huge impact on which of these teams advances to the playoffs. 

I don't think Chunichi can afford to lose this series, they definitely can't afford to be swept.  Asking a team that's been winning only 44% of their games to make up three or five games over the final twenty-two is probably too much.  On the other hand if the Dragons could sweep or take two of three things could be very interesting down the stretch. 

Winning this series won't be easy for Chunichi, they'll be in playing at Mazda Stadium in Hiroshima and though Chunichi has been a better road team than a home team this year I assume the Hiroshima fans will be in force to support a team on the verge of making the playoffs after a very, very long drought.  Hiroshima will also be throwing two of their best pitchers, Kenta Maeda is scheduled for Game 1 and he's obviously having a great season.  In the past Chunichi has done moderately well against Maeda but this season he's been dominant.  Kan Otake will likely pitch in one of the other two games.  Otake always seems to do better against Chunichi than he does against the rest of the league, so he'll be tough.  Kyohei Nakamura may get the other start for Hiroshima, it would be his turn, but they also may go with someone else because of magnitude of this series.

It looks like Chunichi will counter Hiroshima's starters with Kenichi Nakata, Yudai Ono and Kenshin Kawakami.  Nakata had a rough start last time out against Yakult.  Hopefully he can bounce back, he's been a key contributor this year.  Ono's been on a good streak, but will be pitching on less than a week's rest.  Kawakami's pitched well in his two starts since returning from injury though he hasn't gone deep into games, but with how well Chunichi's bullpen has been going they shouldn't need him to.

Both teams are evenly matched so the series, and in turn the season, could be turned either way by just a play or two.  The first game looks like a tough match-up, but if Chunchi can keep it close and make it a battle of the bullpens they could win it.  The second match-up is a coin flip and Chunichi probably has a slight advantage in the third game.  I think the Dragons can take two out of three and keep things interesting, but we shall see.  It's getting to be that time of the season, so let's get fired up Dragons fans!!!   

Pitching Lineup for Climax

Yakyubaka linked to a Sports Hochi article today which listed Chunichi's likely starters for the upcoming Climax Series to be Kenshin Kawakami, Kenichi Nakata and Soma Yamauchi.  Moving forward without the team's two best starters this year, Kaz Yoshimi and Enyelbert Soto due to injury, is not exactly what the Dragons or their fans were planning on a few weeks ago when looking ahead to this first-round matchup.  Still this group, with a combined 2.64 ERA this year, should still give Chunichi a chance to move on to Round 2.  In comparison, Yakult's team ERA this year was 3.35 and aside from Shohei Tateyama they don't have another starter with an ERA under 3.00.  Unfortunately they do have lefty Kyohei Muranaka who absolutely owned the Dragons the last two times he faced them throwing shutouts both times. 
Chunichi's big pitching advantage is pretty much gone at this point, at least as far as the starters, but it's still close.  The Dragons do probably still have the edge in the bullpen and do have home field advantage, which was a major factor for them in the regular season.  Yakult has the more imposing lineup and Lastings Milledge will probably be back in some capacity.  Everything is pointing to a very competitive series and hopefully Chunichi will survive in the end.

Opening Day!

Game 1 is finally here, it will be Kazuki Yoshimi vs. Kenta Meada and the Hiroshima Carp.
Excellent pitching matchup, with these two heavyweights and normally an advantage to the pitchers early in the season, I wouldn't expect much offense in this one.
Go get 'em boys!

There will probably be some games showing on justin.tv