JBC at Chiba Marine Stadium
Discussion in the Bayside West: Yokohama forum
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Michael Westbay
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Some rights reserved.
I'd first like to thank Larry Rocca of the Chiba Lotte Marines for reserving the last picnic box available for the three day weekend series. With two swivel seats and a bench around a small table, this is a great way to take in a ball game with a group.
The whole weekend series was sold out, and even 1 1/2 hours before game time, there was a huge crowd outside of Chiba Marine Stadium. It was a bit overcast, but we didn't get any rain.
Our group consisted of me, my son, Deanna (Marinerds), Matt (No1BayFan), Simon (JHockey blog), and new member Kris. We met in front of the Lotte Marines' Museum and went in to our picnic box, getting acquainted and talking baseball along the way.
Karakawa started for the Marines, Guttormson for the Hawks. Karakawa wasn't fooling anyone, and gave up 9 hits through 3 1/3rd innings. It was amazing that he had only given up 3 runs over that stretch. Komi-chan came in and got out of the remaining threat in the 4th, getting the final two outs on just 4 pitches. I commented that he'd won the game a few days before just throwing three pitches, so maybe he'd get the win on just 5 today (I mis-counted).
As though to fulfill that premonition, the Marines scored 3 in the bottom of the 4th, taking a 4-3 lead. They scored two more insurance runs in the 6th to lead 6-3. But the Hawks battled back with two runs in the 7th and two more in the 8th to tie the game up and deny Komi-chan the 4-pitch victory. Awwww.
Then 3 hours and 45 minutes after the 1:00 pm game had started, the Marines and Hawks were tied 7-7 in the bottom of the 9th. The Marines had 1 out and runners at second and third with Ohtsuka coming to the plate. And Ohtsuka hit the ball over the shortstop, into left field in front of the left fielder, scoring the runner from third for the sayonara victory! Whew!
That game winning single to left by Ohtsuka was the 12th hit by the Marines in the game. The Hawks had 19 hits overall for a grand total of 31 hits. And the list of pitchers was about as long: 5 pitchers for the Hawks, 8 pitchers for the Marines, including Shimizu coming out to pitch 9th as Bobby was starting to run out of pitchers.
After the game, I drove two in our group to Yokohama Stadium to take in the BayStars losing to the Giants for a night cap. With the length of the Lotte game and traffic getting to the expressway, we listened to a good part of the game on the radio before even crossing Yokohama Bay Bridge. It looks like they did get to watch Yokohama's attempted come back with 3 runs in the 8th, but that wasn't enough as the BayStars lost to the Giants 6-4. Oh, and a little drizzle may have come down on our intrepid baseball watchers in the 8th and 9th innings.
With the full day of baseball, I'm afraid that I was unable to produce a Pro Yakyu This Week on this Monday, so will do my best to get you the review on Tuesday. Gambarimasu.