Week in Review: July 9 - July 15

Lots of changes this week due to last week's injuries and the manager's dissatisfaction with certain players, yet Chunichi fought their way to a 2-3-1 record for the week.  All of the games were low scoring and the outcome of any of the games could have gone either way. 
The Dragons visited Koshien to start the week and took one of the three games there against Hanshin.  They lost the first game of that series 1-0; squandering a 7 inning, 1 run performance from Yoshimi and were unable to score despite collecting 11 hits.  They hung on to an early lead to win the next game 2-1 and lost the series finale 4-1. 
Chunichi then returned home for a compelling series against Yomiuri.  The first game ended in a 1-1 tie after Tanishige singled home Kazuhiro Wada in the 9th off of Yomiuri's fireballer Scott Mathieson.  The Dragons lost the second game of the series when Shinnosuke Abe, pinch-hitting, knocked a full count fastball for a 2-RBI double in the 9th causing Iwase to blow a save opportunity and leading to a 2-1 Giants victory.  Yoshimi got his second start of the week Sunday and pitched brilliantly helping the Dragons win the third game of the series 3-1 and creating a 1-1-1 series split.

• Takeshi Yamasaki got most of the starts this week at first base and came up big in the weekend series against the Giants going 4/10 with a home run and 3 RBI, which is a pretty big contribution since Chunichi only scored 5 runs in the whole series.  He also nearly had another RBI Sunday, but the baserunner advancing on his hit was thrown out at the plate.  His first HR of the season came Saturday and was the lone run of the game for Chunichi, yet was nearly enough to win the game.  His timely 2-RBI double broke a 1-1 tie on Sunday and was the game-winning hit.  All of this offense coincidentally came right after I suggested that Takagi play other players at first, but at this point they should try to ride Yamasaki's hot streak and slowpitch softball-style swing during the upcoming series against Hiroshima, he can get some rest during the All-Star break.
• There was a complete overhaul of the starting rotation this with only Yoshimi remaining in the rotation from the week before.  The starting pitchers for the week were, in order: Yoshimi, Yudai Ono, Masa Yamamoto, Kawakami, Soto, and Yoshimi again.  Yamamoto was brought up to ichi-gun prior to his start and then sent back down to ni-gun the day after it.  Soto took a no-hitter into the 6th inning on Saturday in his first start of the year.
• In place of the injured Masahiro Araki, Ryosuke Hirata was put in the leadoff spot for several games this week and had some success.  Yohei Ohshima hit leadoff in Sunday's game and was 1/3 and scored a run.