World Baseball Classic - Australia vs. Czech Republic

Earlier this week my family and I traveled to Tokyo to see the WBC and do some sightseeing. Tickets to Monday's games were very affordable and the seating was open so we were able to get nice seats fairly close to behind home plate.

We were treated to a tense game and though it wasn't a big crowd, the fans on both sides were very vocal and there was about an even amount of fans for each team. The Czech fans were very passionate and ignited by the teams first trip to the WBC and also still being alive to advance. For Australia, though they had participated in every WBC they now had their best opportunity to advance to the Final 8, something they hadn't ever done, and their fans were feeling that. 

Australia was the road team and the second hitter of the game hit a towering home run to right field giving the Aussies a quick 1-0 lead. The next hitter then hit another blast, this time to left, but it came up a little short and was caught on the warning track. At this point it looked like things may not go well for the Czech starter, Martin Schneider, who's day job I read is actually a firefighter. But from that point on Schneider locked in and shut down Australia's bats with a gutsy performance that lasted almost six innings before he hit his 65-pitch limit.

Czech Republic evened the score in the 3rd at 1-1 and that score held until the 7th inning when the Australia offense started to click against the Czech bullpen. Australia put up crooked numbers in the 7th, 8th and 9th to pull away from there. The Czech offense had some success in the 8th and put some runners on in the 9th but fell short when a well-turned double play killed their rally and sealed the game for the Aussies.

It was fun to enjoy an entirely different baseball experience with national pride on the line. Both teams gave their all and I was impressed by the heart and grit displayed by both sides.

On the way into Tokyo Dome

Nearly 1st Pitch from our seats

Australian fans celebrating their team's victory

The Czech fans giving their team a well-deserved sendoff

Final Score

The next day's view from SkyTree (Tokyo Dome in the distance)

Western League - Chunichi Dragons vs Orix Buffaloes at Toyohashi Municipal Stadium

It's my first post in almost six years. The last six years have been busy for me with family and career, and over that time the Dragons for the most part have been floundering and frustrating to watch.

My family and I are now in Japan so I wanted share about a recent game experience and may continue to post about random Dragons-related things over the course of our time here.

One item that's been on my baseball bucket list for a long time has been to see a Dragons game in Toyohashi, Aichi. It's my wife's hometown and I've always thought that it's really cool that the NPB plays games at various local stadiums, though it seems that it now occurs less frequently than it used to. It's a great way to showcase for a different audience and in a more intimate setting. Even though the NPB has been doing this less frequently Chunichi has continued to play one ichi-gun game a year in Toyohashi. I've never had an opportunity to go to one of the games and wasn't around for the game that was played here in July. Soon after we arrived in Japan though I was surprised and thrilled to see a poster at city hall advertising an upcoming ni-gun game in Toyohashi. Obviously I had to go and though I still want to see an ichi-gun game here, I would consider this bucket list item officially checked off.

On the night of the game the weather was almost perfect and not nearly as hot as the previous days had been. There was a good-sized and excited crowd, listed as 3,856, significantly more than what Chunichi usually draws of 500-900 for their typical ni-gun games in Nagoya. 

Two Toyohashi natives played in the game and each was honored prior to the start of the game. Chunichi's Mao Hoshino who had two hits that night and played second base and Orix's catcher Takuma Nakagawa.

Most of the offense occured early in the game and Chunichi had numerous opportunities to score but in the end tallied only one run on a Naomichi Donoue solo home run. Chunichi fell 4-1 to Orix that night with all of the runs being scored in the first three innings. Still it was a fun atmosphere and fun, memorable night.

Walking to the stadium from the street car

Nice seats!! (first come, first served)

Starting lineups on the scoreboard

Magic hour

Donoue Solo HR

Chunichi Ends Mediocre Season on a Positive Note, Eliminate Hiroshima from Playoff Hunt and Avoid Last Place

The 2015 season ended for the Dragons as their third straight losing year.  They got off to a decent start, but began to slide after the end of Interleague play.  The bats were fairly solid, though the home run power was lacking.  Starting pitching was decent, but not spectacular, Chunichi finished third in the Central League in team ERA and Yudai Ono's performance was strong and Shunta Wakamatsu was a nice surprise.  Had the Dragons had any semblance of a bullpen I think they could have competed for a playoff spot in a very mediocre Central League this year.  Instead they fell to the bottom of a pack of average to bad baseball teams. 

Despite being a bottom-feeder this year the Dragons did have a couple of things to play for in the last week of the season.  They were playing to avoid last place and were able to do so. DeNA fell below the Dragons as the Baystars ended their season winning only one of their last seven games while Chunichi finished 3-3 in their last six games. The Dragons now have played 19 seasons since their last sixth place finish. Finishing fifth isn't much to be excited about, but it's so much better than last place.  Last place just sucks, plain and simple, and in the NPB it doesn't even get you the first pick in the draft. 

After the Dragons had "clinched" fifth place earlier in the week they played their final game of the season in Hiroshima in a game with playoff implications.  The Carp were tied for third and their final game against Chunichi was a de facto one-game playoff, if they won they would continue to the Climax Series, if not their season was over.  Masa Yamamoto started for Chunichi and ceremonially retired the first batter in what would be his last game prior to retirement.  Kenta Maeda started for Hiroshima in what may be his last game for the Carp, if he goes to MLB next year.  The game played out much like a playoff game, Maeda and Yudai Ono, who took over for Yamamoto, locked into a pitchers' duel and the game remained 0-0 into the 8th inning when Chunichi scored 4 against Hiroshima's bullpen.  Shunta Wakamatsu who had taken over for the Dragons in the seventh inning finished the game and picked up the win.  While Chunichi's season was over either way, they played like it meant something, maybe that experience will mean something for some of the younger players down the road.

Looking forward to next season, Motonobu Tanishige will be back as manager.  Hopefully he can do something to get more consistency out of the team next year.  Prolonged late-season losing streaks have sunk the team the last two years.  Finding someone who can close a freakin' game should be priority number one.  I think Yamai should remain in the bullpen next year, while he struggled as as a starter this year, he did perform pretty well as a reliever and has been one at times in the past.  More pop in the lineup and more starting pitching is always welcome, but as always their probably won't be much available on the free agent market.  Chunichi's foreign players: Luna, Hernandez, Nanita and Valdes did well this year and I think will be back, and it sounds like Drew Naylor will be back as well, so I don't know that much will change in the foreign lineup.  If the Dragons are to improve it will likely have to be done with the players they already have.  Some veterans are retiring and it will be up to the youngsters to step up if the Dragons are to succeed in 2016.

Dragons Streaking the Wrong Way: Dreadful August Puts Them Out of Contention

It's been a rough month for the Dragons.  Chunichi is currently 7-18 in August with only two more games to play.  What was shaping up to be a five team race for the Central League playoffs has turned to an undramatic three team race with Yomiuri, Hanshin and Hiroshima separating themselves from Chunichi and Yokohama over the course of the month.  Chunichi's uncharacteristic lack of pitching depth has come back to haunt them as they've given up six runs or more in 11 of their losses this month.  That's not going to get it done and so they are left to hope for next year.

Chunichi's talent level isn't that far (if at all) behind teams like Hanshin and Hiroshima so there is hope for next year.  The Dragons didn't get a ton out of their foreign players this year except for Hector Luna, while the Tigers and Carp have gotten quite a bit, so there is room to improve there.  Chunichi's young pitchers may do better next year with more seasoning and with better health and a little luck they could be back in the playoffs.  Unfortunately though 2014 will not be their year.  Fortunately though for me, as this has been a backwards, flip-flopped year, while my favorite NPB teams Chunichi and Rakuten are near or at the bottom, my two favorite MLB teams the Mariners and Royals are now contenders after years of mediocre play.  I guess a guy can't have it all.

CL Race Tightens Up

With Yomiuri on a semi-skid, Hiroshima treading water, Chunichi playing pretty good ball and Hanshin playing really good ball the Central League race has tightened up considerably.  All four teams are now within 4.5 games of each other and could probably end up finishing in any order 1-4. 

Chunichi has been a little banged up, but are starting to get their players back.  Yoshimi has returned and started a couple games, Araki is back and Luna and Hirata should be joining the ichi-gun team within the next couple weeks.  In the meantime their replacements have been chipping in and Shuhei Takahashi has joined the big club. 

The Dragons will face the Carp in six of their next nine games, important games in what is currently a battle for third and fourth in the standings. 

Also, congratulations to Hitoki Iwase who increased his NPB all-time record for saves by picking up save No.400 in Chunichi's victory Saturday over Yomiuri.

Dragons Pull Even For Third Place

Thanks to an excellent performance by Daisuke Yamai, Chunichi was able to defeat Hanshin yesterday and move into a tie for third place with the Tigers.  The Dragons scored a run in the 8th to break a 1-1 tie and Yamai and Iwase were able to escape jams in the bottom of the 8th and 9th innings to preserve the victory. 

Chunichi had been stuck in 4th place since nearly the start of the season, but the Cental League has been tightening up.  Interleague play was good to the Dragons as they gained ground against Hanshin and Hiroshima.  Hopefully Chunichi can keep it up and make the Central League race interesting down the stretch, the season is almost half over already.  Hiroshima has been coming back down to earth so 2nd place isn't out of the question. 

Asao is back, and pitching well, and Yoshimi could be back as soon as next month.  That should help.  Hirata is banged up now, hopefully he won't be out for long.  Anderson Hernandez has gotten hot and given the team a boost as Naomichi Donoue has slumped back to the bench.  Outside of Yomiuri, all of the Central League teams have flaws so really any of the other teams could find themselves playing in the Climax Series. 

The Dragons are making a run, get fired up Dragons fans! 

One Month In

The Dragons currently sit in 4th place after the first five weeks of the season.  At this point the Central League's top three teams are bunched within a few games of each other and bottom three teams are bunched together with about 5 games separating the two groups.  There is still a long way to go though and 5 games doesn't mean much at this point.

So far the offence has been stronger than it's been for several years, but the regulation ball has been traveling well this year and that probably has a lot to do with it.  Still Oshima and even Araki have been doing well at the top of the lineup and Luna and Hirata have hit very well in the 3-4 spots.  Morino and Wada have been contributing, especially of late.  Ogasawara has hit well in his role and Naomichi Donoue and Masato Matsui were hitting well, but have slumped lately.

Both Luna and Wada are near the top of the league with 7 home runs and 27 RBI each, but outside of those two they comparatively haven't hit for a ton of power and currently rank last in the league in home runs and 5th in runs scored. Their runs scored numbers aren't that far from the pack though, only Hanshin and Yakult have scored a lot more runs than Chunichi so far.

Though they rank third in the Central in runs allowed, run prevention seems to be what's holding the Dragons back.  I can't imagine Chunichi hitting much better than they have so far, but I could definitely see some improvement in their pitching and defense.  For the Dragons to be playoff contenders they will have be one of the top pitching staffs, which is what they've been in the past.  So far Daisuke Yamai has been the only consistent starter.  They have gotten some surprise contributions from Kenta Asakura, Yudai Kawai and Tatsuro Hamada, but they will need more consistency from Yudai Ono, Daniel Cabrera and a healthy Kaz Yoshimi for Chunichi to stay in the race.  The bullpen has been pretty good so far, except for a few blowups.  I've been impressed with Daisuke Sobue the few times I've seen him as well as some of the other young bullpen arms.  Outside of Wada in left field there is no reason why the Dragons shouldn't be a solid defensive team, I don't know what their overall defensive numbers are (or any source in English that would show them), but they've definitely had some sorry moments. 

Going forward Chunichi needs to continue hitting at their current level, get some more consistency from their starting pitching and keep looking to improve their foreign players roster, they have three foreign spots that they've gotten almost no production from.  If they can do any of that they can certainly stay in the race for the long run.

Isobe Max vs. Takashi Skylarks

Back in February I was able to attend my eldest neice's Little League Championship Game.  We originally had planned to go to a Chunichi open-sen game that day but the Max's game ended up falling on the same day. 
Isobe finished the regular season in a three-way tie for first with the Skylarks and another team and so there was a three team round robin tiebreaker scheduled.  Each team played the other once with the champion being the team that gave up the fewest runs over the two games.  The Max lost their morning game 2-1 and the Skylarks had won there previous game putting Isobe in a position where if they won the final game by three runs or more they would win the championship.
The final game moved quickly as neither team was able to score, Isobe had more scoring chances but couldn't cash in.  The score remained 0-0 into the sixth inning (of a seven inning game).  Things didn't look good for the Max who had to score at least 3, but then things got worse, the Skylarks got men on base and Isobe brought their infield and outfield in to try and prevent any runs from scoring.  That strategy didn't work out as the Skylark popped three consecutive hits over the drawn-in outfielders' heads leading to a 4-0 lead.  The Max rallied in the top of 7th scoring two runs with two outs, but fell short 4-2 finishing in third place.
It was a fun game and I'm glad I was able to go, the Max plays year round and every time I've gone to Japan I've been able to practice with them or help with practice dating back to 2007.  Now my nephew is going to High School (Toyota) and it won't be long until my neices are too old for Little League too.  I will definitely miss hanging with the Max.  Go Isobe!

Pre-game

 

The younger Max team cheering on the older kids

 

Congratulations to Toyokawa High School Baseball!

Nice run by Toyokawa HS at the Spring Koshien.
Yakyubaka has all the scores.
They won three games in their first Koshien appearance.
Finally losing in the semifinals to Osaka's Riseisha in a very entertaining game.
Toyokawa trailed Riseisha 6-2 going into the bottom of 8th inning of their final game.
Toyokawa then dramatically scored 5 runs, all with 2 outs to take a 7-6 lead into the 9th.
Riseisha responded with a lead off home run to tie the game.
The game continued to the 10th, but Toyokawa ran out of pitching and Riseisha took advantage, winning the game and moving on to the final.
Congratulations Toyokawa, way to rep for the Toyokawa/Toyohashi area!

Chunichi Drops First Game of Hiroshima Series, Playoff Chances Near Zero

With last night's 5-3 loss to Hiroshima the Dragons are now 5 1/2 games behind the Carp with seven games left to play.  After failing to make up much ground this past weekend, only one game in the standings, it was already reaching "needing a miracle" territory for the Dragons.  Last night's loss was the next to last nail in the 2013 season coffin. 

Chunichi had Kawakami on the mound for the game and he pitched well, leaving the game with a 3-2 Dragons lead after six.  The Carp took the lead in the top of the 7th with some clutch hitting off of Mise and Asao.  The Hiroshima bullpen held the lead from there.

It would take an all-time collapse now by Hiroshima for the Dragons to make the playoffs and that's not going to happen.  Hiroshima is playing some good ball right now, right when they needed to.  They may even make it to .500 by the end of the season, maybe for the first time all season.  If they do make it into the playoffs, hopefully they will at least knock off Hanshin and Yomiuri in the Climax.  They don't the same talent as those teams, but with good pitching they have a chance, the Dragons have shown that over the past several years.

I'll at least be rooting for Rakuten this year.  They are the Pacific League team I pull for and have a good shot to do some damage.  They're a lot better than the last time they made the playoffs with the 41 year old "zombie corpse" (per the Eagles blog) of Takeshi Yamasaki as one of their main players.  He did hit 39 homers that year though, plus three more in the playoffs.  

Daisuke Yamai No-Hits the Baystars!

On Friday night Daisuke Yamai recorded his first career no-hitter in a 9-0 Chunichi win over Yokohama.  The Dragons jumped out to a 7-run lead in the first prior to Yamai even taking the mound.  Yamai then proceeded to mow down Yokohama's hitters, the first nine in order until a 4th inning walk toTakehiro Ishikawa.  Yamai finished the game with 4 walks and 3 strikeouts, the Dragons defense commited no errors and no Yokohama runner got any farther than first base.  Yamai cruised through the first six innings without giving up any hard hit balls (at least that I recall).  He wasn't striking out many guys but his breaking ball was producing a lot of weak grounders including two double-plays.  After the sixth Yokohama began to hit the ball more squarely and Yamai dodged a few bullets along the way.  Takagi brought Morino and Fujii  in early as defensive replacements to help preserve the no-hitter.  Both players made major contributions as Morino made a nice diving stop on a grounder in the 7th and Fujii overcame a stumble to snag a well hit ball in the 8th, Fujii as well as Ohshima covered a lot of outfield ground in the late innings tracking down deep balls hit by Blanco, Shirasaki and Ramirez.  With two outs in the 9th Yamai fielded a bounding groundball headed towards first base and underhanded to Morino at the bag to record the final out, just getting the speedy Kensuke Uchimura and making himself the 77th NPB pitcher to record a no-hitter.

I can't think of a more deserving pitcher than Yamai to get a no-hitter.  Looking back at Yamai's start in Game 5 of the 2007 Japan Series, in which Daisuke had a perfect game going through 8 innings but was then pulled in favor of closer Hitoki Iwase in what turned out to be the clinching game for Chunichi.  I still agree with then-manager Ochiai's decision, but it was still an unfortunate circumstance for Yamai who came so close to the record books and was left to wonder what would have happened had he come out for the 9th inning.  Now, thanks to his performance Friday night, he and everyone else who follows Japanese baseball knows that he has what takes to finish off a no-hitter.  

Spring Training on USTREAM

The Dragons official USTREAM page (see link on the right) has been showing a ton of video from Chunichi's spring practices in Okinawa.  They are also broadcasting the preseason games!  I watched a portion of yesterday's game against Hanshin.  Chunichi lost 15-11, in a game where none of their regulars played.  Shuhei Takahashi and Ryosuke Hirata were the big names in the lineup and the Dragons' young pitchers were hit hard.  The Dragons fought back late to make what was a 13-4 game 13-11 going into the 9th, but Hanshin was able to get two more in the top of the 9th and closed out the Dragons in the bottom of the inning.  Yakyubaka has some more notes on the game.

Here's a portion of the schedule for preseason games:

2/16 vs. Hanshin (Replay is available on USTREAM)
2/17 13:00 (JST) vs Kia
2/22 13:00 (JST) vs Kia
2/23 13:00 (JST) vs. Lotte
2/24 13:00 (JST) vs. Orix
The rest of the schedule is here on the Dragons website.

They aren't currently listing which games will be broadcasted, but I imagine at least the games at their home stadium will be.

Sep. 22, 2012 Ni-Gun Dragons vs. Carp

When I was in Japan for a week in September we were able to make it to Nagoya for a ni-gun game.  The ichi-gun squad was out of town and I had been wanting to go to a ni-gun game anyway, mainly because they play at the old Nagoya stadium and because baseball is better outdoors.  Nagoya Kyujo opened in 1948 and was the home of the Dragons until 1997 when they moved to Nagoya Dome.  It was renovated in 2010 to make it more useful for ni-gun purposes, at that time they removed a majority of the seating and constructed a multi-story indoor practice center out near left field. 

The day we went was a Saturday and happened to be the last ni-gun game of the season, so there was a good-sized crowd.  The crowd seemed bigger than the recorded 2,290 as the seats in the section behind home plate were entirely full and the bleachers along the third-base side were mostly full.  The stadium itself had the feeling of being pretty old, the seating seemed to be much older than 2010 and concessions and merchandise were very limited.  Still it was a fun place to see a game, even with the weather being as hot and humid as it was.

There wasn't any reserved seating and we were only a little early, but we were still able to find seats for my wife, my daughter and myself about two-thirds of the way up behind the tunnel on the first-base side.  The Dragons had a very recognizable lineup that day with Takeshi Yamasaki, Shuhei Takahashi, Tatsuro Iwasaki and Atsushi Fujii all starting and Kenichi Nakata on the mound for a pre-playoffs tune-up.  As the game went on it became pretty clear that it was a ni-gun game as the defensive play was very inconsistant.  Takahashi made a nice play charging a ball in the first, but later missed on a play that he should have been able to make.  Both teams had some communication issues, including when Dragons right-fielder Shingo Ito collided with second-baseman Shigeo Yanagida on what should have been an easy pop out.  While there was plenty to laugh about, there was also plenty to cheer about.  Iwasaki made some fine plays and Satoshi Kato answered Hiroshima's 3-run (1 ER) 3rd-inning with a booming home run out to left field.  Kato then hit another, almost identical, home run in the 5th.  The two home runs were his first and second as a professional.  Chunichi was down 4-2 in the 7th when Yanagida tied the game with two-run home run, but the rally wasn't over.  The Dragons took the lead on yet another unearned run when Ryoji Nakata (AKA bu-chan) became my wife's favorite Dragon by legging out an RBI triple.  It was probably the highlight of the game, we were all surprised at how fast the big guy got around the bases and he beat the relay from right field by a good margin.  The Carp made it interesting in the 9th, but Chunichi was able to hang on for the 6-5 victory.

Being the last game of the season ni-gun manager Suzuki made a speech and thanked the fans for their support.  After that a number of the players came out and signed autographs.  I'm not much of an autograph hound, but my neices who are members of the Dragons' fan club and so can get into ni-gun games for free said that the players were more accessable there and they had been able to get some autographs before.  I had a ball that I was hoping  Fujii would sign, since he's from Toyohashi where my in-laws live, but he's kind of a popular ni-gun player and had hit third in the lineup that day so he had a big crowd of autograph seekers.  I still tried, but he and the other guys got called away to practice before it was my turn.  I told my wife that it was no big deal, but she was dissapointed for me, which was nice of her.  She said we should wait around outside the stadium to see if any players would come, but I wasn't really interested.  After leaving the stadium we headed over to the park across the street so my daugher could swing and run around before the train ride.  We hung out there for a bit, I watched some of a rec softball game which was happening on the field at the park while she played, then we headed off towards the train station.  As we passed the indoor practice building we noticed that there was a small group forming near the fence.  Apparently someone had convinced former Dragon outfielder/first-baseman and current coach Yonetoshi Kawamata to come outside.  One of the guys said that he was a friend of Kawamata's and had called him outside and then the crowd had formed.  Anyways, we hit him up for an autograph and so didn't leave empty handed.  Looking at his stats Kawamata had a long career with Chunichi and even led the Central League in sacrifice flies in 1986.

Box Score

Some historical photos of the stadium from wikipedia:

And Photos from our visit:



Pre-Game Warmup



Takahashi At Bat



Post-Game Speech



Kawamata Obliges our Request



Dragons let Giants off the Hook, Lose in 7 (Really 6)

Chunichi couldn't capitalize on a 3-1 series lead in their Final Stage match up with Yomiuri and were eliminated after a 4-2 loss last Monday.  The Dragons were nearly the first non-first seed team to advance to the Japan Series since the extra advantages were given to the regular season champ in 2008.
I wouldn't say that the Dragons choked in this series, the Giants were the better team from the second month of the season on and I'm sure Yomiuri was a little rusty early in the series after not having played real games for a couple weeks.  Still the Dragons had a real opportunity after winning Game 4, but were never able to put full pressure on the Giants as Yomiuri jumped out to early 2nd inning leads in Game 5, 6 and 7.  The Dragons' best opportunity to take the series was in Game 6, when Tony Blanco tied the game late with a two-run home run.  It looked like the game was destined for extra innings, but Hitoki Iwase was brought in to pitch the bottom of the 9th and was unable to get anyone out.  If anyone choked it would have to be Iwase, he looked like he was aiming more than throwing and left some very hittable pitches up over the plate and the Giants took advantage, an unacceptable performance for someone with his experience.
Chunichi really missed having Yoshimi, there's no doubt in my mind that had he been available to pitch in any of the final three games, he would have been able to close out the series.  Neither team was at full strength as Yomiuri was without one of their aces, Toshiya Sugiuchi, while Chunichi was without Yoshimi, Enyelbert Soto, Kenichi Nakata and also Soma Yamauchi was knocked out of Game 6 fairly early when he was hit by a batted ball.  Without those any of those guys it probably would have been hard for Chunichi to beat Nippon Ham had they advanced, but it would have been fun to see them try.  Without their main starters Takagi went with youngsters Yudai Ono and Junki Ito in Games 2 and 3 three and both came through with great performances, especially under the circumstances.  Takagi went with Ito in Game 7, which would have been my choice, hoping talent would win out over experience, but Ito gave up four straight hits to start the 2nd inning and Yomiuri held control of the game from there.
It was a tough way to end the season, after starting the series with very little hope, then having things progress to where the chances of moving on were so good only to have them slip away.  It just wasn't meant to be, but it was a memorable series, both teams showed a lot of heart (hate to say that about Yomiuri) and Chunichi's young pitchers gained some valuable experience, so maybe next year will be a year when Chunichi can hang another banner.

Go Fighters!

The Dragons Move On!

Chunichi escaped the first stage of the Climax Series with a 4-1 victory Monday ending Yakult's season.  Despite scoring only 3 runs in the entire 3-game series Yakult had the Dragons on the ropes in Game 3 leading 1-0 in the 8th inning of the final and deciding game.  That's when Chunichi loaded the bases on a double and two subsequent walks.  With one out Yakult brought in their closer Tony Barnette, who had gone two innings to get the save in Game 2 the night before, to face Tony Blanco.  Barnette quickly put himself in a bad spot, throwing three straight balls.  Unwilling to pitch around Blanco at all, Barnette challenged Blanco with a 3-0 fastball straight across the heart of the plate, Blanco was ready and swinging 3-0 and unleashed a huge swing but was unable to connect.  At 3-1 Barnette again came with his best fastball in nearly the exact same location, this time Blanco did not miss, he connected with a soaring, no-doubter, grand slam to left giving Chunichi the lead that they would not give up.     

As expected, the Chunichi-Yakult series was hard-fought and the outcome was in doubt until the final innings. Chunichi wasn't able to get any runs across against Yakult's starters Tateyama in Game 2 and Muranaka in Game 3, which wasn't unexpected as they struggled against them in the regular season.  They were, however, able get men on base and get into Yakult's bullpen in both games, giving themselves a chance.  Chunichi's bullpen outpitched Yakult's all series, giving up only 1 run to Yakult's 8.  One thing that was surprising was how Chunichi's undermanned rotation shut down Yakult's hitters, giving up just two runs in the three games.  Kenichi Nakata and Soma Yamauchi pitched well in their starts and Masa Yamamoto walked a tightrope for three innings, but gave up only one run, keeping Chunichi in the game.  Wladimir Balentien had a huge series for Yakult, but the rest of their lineup really struggled against the Dragons' pitching and in the end Chunichi's offense provided just enough to move on to face Yomiuri.
The Final Stage against Yomiuri starts Wednesday.  Chunichi will be without yet another starter for the series, as Kenichi Nakata's shoulder is not right.  The deck is stacked against the Dragons in so many ways for this series, the playoff format, starting pitching injuries and of course, the Giants are loaded with talent.  So it's going to take something close to a miracle for Chunichi to pull this off, the bullpen will have to pitch a lot and continue be great, they'll have to get something from one of their young starters and two or three other guys in their lineup will have to step it up and help Ohshima and Wada out.  It all starts tomorrow,  get fired up Dragons fans!

Chunichi Takes Game 1 of CS

   Impressive first game of the postseason for the Dragons as they outplayed Yakult in all phases of the game leading to a 6-1 victory. 
   Kenichi Nakata got the start which was a bit of a surprise, but he proved it to be the right decision.  Nakata has good velocity on his fastball, but not a lot of movement on it, so he has to locate it well to be successful and that is exactly what he did in Game 1.  He was able to throw a lot of first-pitch strikes on the outside corner and was able to tie up a few hitters by going inside and up out of the zone as well.  I only saw him make one mistake, which was to Lastings Millidge, but Millidge didn't get all of it and flew out to left field.  In the end Nakata went 5 scoreless innings and got the win.  He also hit a rocket over Yakult's third baseman in the 3rd inning for a double in his only at-bat.
   Kazuhiro Wada was the main hitting star for Chunichi, he started the scoring with a 2-run homer in the 4th and later had an RBI hit in the Dragons 3-run 7th.  Wada and Yohei Ohshima each had three hits.  Ohshima also showed off his wheels with aggressive baserunning on a couple occasions.  He turned what looked like a routine single into a double in the 5th and later in the game advanced from first to third on a base hit into left field. 
   Shinji Tajima releaved Nakata and cruised through the 6th, though he was a bit wild and threw quite a few pitches.  He returned to the mound in the 7th and CL HR King Wladimir Balentien led off the inning by seriously turning around one his fastballs sending it deep to left-center for a solo home run.  I'm not sure if that HR shook up Tajima or if he just didn't have his control for this game, but he then walked two of the next three hitters making things tense in what was then still a 3-1 game.  Fortunatly, Asao was able to come in and clean up the mess by getting the final two outs without anyone scoring.
   Jorge Sosa had control problems of his own in the 8th when he loaded the bases on two walks and a hit.  Daisuke Yamai came in at that point to close the door and pitched a perfect 9th.  He got the save even though it was a 6-1 lead, because he had entered the game with the bases loaded.  I'm not sure if that means he's the team's closer for the postseason or not, but he looked good tonight.
   Here's a few other notes from the game:

• I was surprised by a couple other lineup moves aside from the start by Nakata.  Morino batted third and Wada batted fifth.  I kind of like Wada at the 3rd spot but it didn't really matter in this game because both positions came up multiple times with opportunities to drive runs and Wada saw good pitches to hit.  Also, Takehiro Donoue was the starting rightfielder against a left-handed starting pitcher.  I was surprised by this, though I think it's good because he's been the best hitter this year out of Chunichi's rightfielders.  He looked pretty bad in his first at-bat against the lefty Ishikawa, but came up against a righty reliever in his next at-bat and smoked an RBI base hit to left.
• Hidenori looked like he was pretty pumped up when he got his chance to play in the field, knowing these will be his last games as a pro player.  When he got a routing fly in left he tried to throw behind the runner at second, it was a good throw and the runner had to dive to get back.
• The umps were wearing their hats from the Great Central throwback games.  Not sure why, but not a bad thing.
• Hiromitsu Ochiai was one of the color commentators for the game on J-Sports.

Week in Review: Sep. 25 - Sep. 30

Chunichi played their final true series this week and began their make-up game schedule.  The week started with DeNA visiting the Nagoya Dome for a forgettable 3-game series, which the BayStars won 2-0-1.  The make-up schedule began Saturday and will run until October 5th.  Chunichi has 5 make-up games in total, with games against DeNA, Hanshin, Hiroshima and Yakult. 
The Dragons played their make-up with Yakult on Saturday at Jingu in a bit of a Climax preview.  Kawakami had a solid outing, and he Muto, Mise and Iwase combined for the shutout.
Chunichi smoked the BayStars on Sunday 13-2, powered mainly be a 11-run 5th inning.  Most of the damage was done against Yokohama's I.C Wang.

In other news:

• The Climax Series is set for October 13-15 at the Nagoya Dome.  Fortunately for those in the Pacific Time Zone, the weekend games (13th & 14th) will start at 2 PM Japan Time, so they'll be on at 10 PM here.  Hopefully Chunichi can wrap it up in just those two games.
• Sounds like the Dragons are planning to offer contracts for at least 2013 to Tony Blanco, Enyelbert Soto and Jorge Sosa.  A no-brainer for all of those guys.
• Reports are saying that Masafumi Hirai, Takashi Ogasawara and Maximo Nelson will not be offered contracts for 2013.  Hirai is an older player now and has had a decent career, but hasn't pitched all that well since 2010.  Chunichi has plenty of solid relief pitchers and Hirai was unlikely to work his way back up the depth chart.  Ogasawara struggled in his opportunity at ichi-gun this year and hasn't pitched much at ichi-gun since 2009.  He's a lefty and has some success in the past, I think there is a chance another NPB team will take a look at him.  I hate to see Maximo go, but it's understandable with the injuries he's had this year and the uncertainty over when he would be ready to pitch next year.  I always liked how he held the ball so loose and kinda let his arm dangle, you could tell he had a whip just by looking at him, even though he was so skinny.  I'll also never forget how he tried to enter Japan with live ammo in his bag, and got suspended for several months.
• Ryuya Ogawa made his first-career start last Thursday against Yokohama.  He gave up two earned runs over four innings and took the loss, also the first in his career.
• Rakuten kept their playoff hopes alive with a win Saturday against Softbank, pulling to within 2.5 games of the Hawks.  The Eagles have eight games left to play so they still a have slim chance.  I'd like to see them pull it off.

Catching Up: Sep. 10 - Sep. 24

Just returned from an unexpected and unfortunate trip to Japan, and will leave out the details. 
I did manage to have a bit of fun and watch some baseball despite the circumstances, including a trip to Nagoya for a ni-gun game.  I will have a post on that some time soon.

Quite a lot of significant news concerning the Dragons happened since I last posted:

• Yomiuri clinched the CL regular-season championship last week ending Chunichi's streak of two consecutive.
• The Dragons locked up second place in the CL, giving them home-field advantage in the first round of the Climax.
• Yakult took control of the race for third place and now lead Hiroshima by 6.5 games.
• Probably the most important happening, was when Kazuki Yoshimi injured the elbow in his throwing arm during a game.  The injury will almost certainly prevent him from pitching in the upcoming Climax Series, totally altering the Dragons' chances for a return to the Japan Series.  Without Yoshimi, the Dragons main starting options will be Soto and Yamauchi for sure and some combination of Kawakami, Iwata, Yamamoto and Nakata.  Junki Ito pitched well in his first ichi-gun start of the year, he and Yudai Ono are also options but have far less experience than the other starters listed.  So a tough road gets even tougher, but don't count the Dragons out yet, they've pulled off some unexpected things in the past and have competed well against the Giants all year.  Of course they will have to get past Yakult first, which won't be easy either.
• Masa Yamamoto had two consecutive successful starts and may have won himself an opportunity to start one of the Climax Series games.  He may also be used in relief instead, honestly I would feel more comfortable with him being used in some kind of relief role.
• 19 year-old rookie Kentaro Nishikawa made his ichi-gun starting debut on Sep. 23rd against Hanshin.  He gave up only one run on one hit, a solo HR to Takashi Toritani, over 5 innings of work.
• Kosuke Fukudome's destination for next season has been in the news frequently, with Hanshin, Chunichi and Yokohama listed as the teams most likely to acquire him.  Chunichi has stated that they aren't willing to overpay to get him and hope that he will choose to return for some reason other than money.  I have a feeling that he will end up in Hanshin, they are desperate to get better, and will probably do what it takes monetarily to get him.  They are also closer to competing than Yokohama, and Fukudome has some ties to Osaka.  I definitely wouldn't be opposed to Kosuke returning to Chunichi.  The Dragons need to get younger, but right field is still an unresolved position.  Fukudome could be given an opportunity there until one of the younger players proves they can do better.  It is questionable how much Fukudome will produce when back in the NPB, he hasn't played everyday the last few years and the NPB introduced the new ball during his absence, so it's unlikely he will produce like he did when he was an MVP in Japan, that's part of the reason Chunichi won't overpay.  If I had to choose though, my first hope would be that Ryosuke Hirata will take the offseason more seriously this year and be in shape and ready to be a quality everyday outfielder next year.   

Week in Review: September 4 - September 9

The Dragons won 3 and lost 3 this week and despite the .500 week they actually put a bit more distance between themselves and both the Carp and the Swallows.  Chunichi's magic number for locking up second place must be around 10 games now with 20 more games to go.
Chunichi played well against the Carp this week winning two out of three games.  They knocked Nomura out of Tuesday's game early, while Yoshimi cruised to another complete game and a 10-3 Dragons victory.  The Dragons dropped the second game of the series 2-1.  Kan Otake, the Carp pitcher who has given Chunichi the most trouble this season, was pitching a shutout into the 8th before he was removed because of a blister on his finger.  The Dragons managed a rally against the Hiroshima closer but fell short in the end.  Chunichi beat Hiroshima on Thursday 3-0 behind a 1st inning 2-run HR from Tony Blanco and very solid outing from Kenichi Nakata.
Hanshin came to Nagoya for the weekend series and the Tigers pitchers brought their "A" game.  Though Chunichi managed one win in the series, 1-0 on Friday, the Dragons scored only the 1 run and had 10 total hits over the three games.  On Saturday the Chunichi seemed especially baffled by Atsushi Nomi's breaking pitches.  He had 8 strikeouts over 8 innings (including Blanco's golden sombrero) and Dragons hitters chased or check-swung time after time at balls well out of the strike zone.

• Injuries at the catching position: Tanishige didn't play this week with hamstring issues and Kohei Oda was injured during Saturday's game when he was hit in the face by a thrown ball from the outfield in a successful attempt to stretch a single into a double.  Oda remained on the field for several minutes and was later taken to the hospital for stitches.  Sounds like he will be okay going forward, no mention of a concussion, a very unlucky play.
• Masa Yamamoto was pretty decent in his start, pitching 5 1/3 scoreless innings.  He was taken out in the 6th when it looked like Hanshin might get a run against him, Takagi knew there wasn't any room for error with the way Chunichi was hitting against Nomi, otherwise Yamamoto may have been allowed to go a little deeper into the game.

Week in Review: August 28 - September 3

This was likely the week that the Dragons fell out of the race for the CL title.  Though they won the series against the Giants away from home, they were winless on their trip to Jingu while at the same time Yomiuri was sweeping the BayStars at home over the weekend.  Now the Giants magic number is down to 19 and the Dragons are 8.5 games back with only 24 to play.  At this point it would take a hell of a miracle for them to get back into first place.  That said, it's probably time to take a look at who the Dragons will likely be playing in the Climax Series.  The Carp and Swallows are realistically the only two teams in the hunt for the third and final playoff spot.  Right now Hiroshima holds a one game lead over Yakult in the standings and it seems like both teams have been within a game or two of each other for a while now, so that is something that will probably continue. 
So far this season Chunichi has owned the Carp, with an 11-4-2 record and has even beaten their ace Kenta Maeda a couple times, though they haven't had a ton of success against him lately.  The Dragons have also fared well against the Carp's other top pitcher Yusuke Nomura, Nomura is 0-2 against the Dragons so far this year.  Despite Chunichi's success, if these teams were to meet in the playoffs, it would probably be a very low scoring series that would be decided by only a couple of timely plays.
The Swallows are a completely different story, they are the only Central League team that Chunichi currently has a losing record against, 7-13-3.  For some reason Yakult has given the Dragons a hard time the last few years, though Chunichi has been able to beat the Swallows when they've faced off in the playoffs. 
Chunichi will be at home this week, starting with one of their potential playoff foes, Hiroshima.  The first game will matchup Kazuki Yoshimi vs. Yusuke Nomura, two pitchers that would surely start a game in the Climax Stage 1, should these two teams meet.  The Dragons will then host Hanshin for a three-game weekend series.  Last week may have taken some of the drama out of the last few weeks of the season, but the Dragons still have plenty of things to iron out in order to be ready for a playoff run.

• Tony Blanco was 7 for 22 with 6 RBIs in his first week back.
• Takehiro Donoue and Yusuke Matsui, both right-handed hitters, each started three games in right field this week.  Both players hit well, Donoue 6 for 10 with 2 RBIs, Matsui 5 for 12 with 2 RBIs, but it sounds like Takagi was not a fan of Matsui's defence (from yakyubaka.com).
• The bullpen continued to be less than lockdown in the Yakult series: Yamai made a mess and then Iwase allowed the tying run to score in the 9th of Friday's tie.  Jorge Sosa walked 3 and gave up 3 runs in 2/3 of an inning Saturday, easily his worst outing of the year.  Shinji Tajima allowed Yakult to walkoff with a game-winning, 2-out double on Sunday.  These will be the guys Chunichi will be counting on the most when the playoffs come, so hopefully they can get back on track.
• Chunichi was shutout by Kyohei Muranaka of Yakult for the second time in two weeks.