Yet Another Opening Day

Another season, another Opening Day loss. This marks the BayStars' seventh in a row "Black Star" for Opening Day.

Everything started out so well. Murata hit his first home run of the season, a solo shot to lead off the second inning and put Yokohama up 1-0 in the top of the 2nd inning at Kyocera Dome, where Hanshin is hosting the opening series between the two clubs while Koshien is being used by the high schoolers in the 82nd Spring Invitational. Murata then shows that he's not only about the long ball when he doubles Hayakawa in from second in the top of the 4th to make it 2-0. That's followed by a double to left by newly acquired (from Nippon Ham) Sledge putting the BayStars up 3-0.

This is great! The BayStars have traditionally had a hard time getting started. Even the year they won it all, 1998, they tended to come from behind, putting consecutive hits together in the last third of the game. Here they are striking first with both home runs and timelies! The offense is finally starting to come around! Unfortunately, Ishikawa's two out single in the 5th was the last base hit for the BayStars for the game.

Randolph started the game on the mound for the BayStars, and again, things looked very good early on. Getting Johjima to ground into a double play to end the second (maintaining the 1-0 lead) was just so sweet. (Unfortunately, Johjima wasn't to be contained any longer.)

With a 3-0 lead going to the bottom of the fourth, Randolph walked Toritani to lead off the inning. In retrospect, Obana-kantoku said that this was his undoing. In fact, Obana-kantoku had made it a point during the pre-season to emphasize that he wanted walks reduced by 20% this season. But lead off walks are the worst. "Even a home run will only allow a single run," Obana said, inferring that a walk will often result in more (an observation I totally agree with after watching the BayStars for so many years).

The lead off walk was followed by a hit by Kanemoto then RBI doubles by Arai and Johjima to tie up the ball game at 3-3. After Randolph struck out Brazell (had him totally crossed up), Sakurai hit a two run home run to center field to put Hanshin up 5-3. While that's all they needed, Hanshin did add two more runs in the 7th to take the first game of the season 7-3.

Bright spots of the game for Yokohama included the 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs performance by Murata. The solo shot he hit to start off the 2nd was a "no-doubt-about-it" blast into the left field stands. It was also reassuring to see Sledge come through the with the double having a runner in scoring position. That had been a serious problem for Yokohama the past few years - hitting with runners on. Unfortunately, they only had 2 base runners from the 5th inning on.

Kasu continued to impress. When I went to see the BayStars face Hanshin at Yokohama Stadium last week (see Deanna's write up), Kasu came into the game with the bases loaded and nobody out. He then struck out the two batters he faced. Kasu retired the side in order in the 5th inning (Toritani, Kanemoto, and Arai), then allowed back to back base hits to Johjima and Brazell in the 6th before striking out Sakurai and being replace when Hiyama was announced as a pinch hitter. Takamiya and Kizuka (it's been a long time since I've seen him) retired the side without allowing the runners to advance any further. As in the Hanshin game last week, the relief corps have been able to do a tremendous job getting out of jams. This is looking very promising.

On the down side, Randolph allowed 4 walks while Katoh and Sanada allowed 1 each. The BayStars averaged close to 3 walks a game last season. Doubling the number of walks in the first game is not a good start in reducing walks by 20% (for a target closer to 2.36 per game).

Well, another Opening Day in the loss column for Yokohama. Things can only get better from here, right?