"Yakyu no Fushigi" - The Mystery of Baseball

In the third game of the weekend series at Jingu, the BayStars managed to win one despite being out hit 9-3. After losing the first two games of the series with 3 hits then 22 respectively, to scrape out a win with just 3 hits again was simply amazing. It moved game hero Terrmel Sledge to speak in a combination of English and Japanese during his hero interview to say, "This is one of the mysteries of baseball. It's difficult, isn't it?"

Yokohama starter Shigeru Kaga allowed a solo home run to Aaron Guiel to lead off the bottom of the fourth for the Swallows. That turned out to be the only run given up by the combined five BayStar pitchers, each (except for newly acquired Shintaro Ejiri) dug themselves a hole and narrowly escaped. But more on the pitching later.

Yakult's starter Kyohei Muranaka thew five innings of no-hit ball against the BayStars. He walked a few during that time, but after 22 hits the day before, Yokohama's bats had all turned ice cold. After Seiichi Uchikawa drew a 2-out walk in the top of the sixth, though, Shuichi Murata doubled him in with both the BayStars' first hit and run of the ball game. No-hitter and shutout gone with the swing of the Mighty Murata's bat! Sledge followed that with a base hit to right, plating Murata to take a 2-1 lead! He was thrown out trying to move up on the throw home, but the damage had been done.

The only other base hit by the 'Stars came in the eighth inning when Kazuya Fujita (who came in defensively earlier) singled to left with one out. He was sacrificed to second by Daisuke Hayakawa, but died there. Thanks to several walks (all allowed by Muranaka), Fujita became the 4th and final stranded base runner for the BayStars.

Yakult, on the other hand, failed and failed again to get runners in after getting them on. In all they stranded 16 base runners. Kaga allowed at least one base runner on in every inning he worked (the first five), being relieved by Kentaro Kuwahara with one on and two down in the fifth inning. Kuwahara then walked Norichika Aoki (intentionally) and Jamie D'Antona (not intentionally) to load the bases for Guiel. But Guiel wanted it too much and went down swinging to end the inning. Whew.

As though that wasn't enough pressure for him, Kuwahara walked the lead-off batter, Shinya Miyamoto, in the sixth inning. Two outs later he hit pinch hitter Kazuhiro Hatakeyama and allowed a base hit to Kazuki Fukuchi to load the bases again. But as before, he got the final out, Hiroyasu Tanaka, swinging to end the threat. Double Whew.

That's two bases loaded jams averted in a row. How about a third?

Sure thing! Shigeki Ushida comes in to pitch the seventh inning, allowing a lead-off double to Aoki (his second double of the day) then walking D'Antona and Guiel to load the bases with nobody out. Ah, nothing like a little pressure. Ushida then gets Miyamoto on a pop out to himself, then strikes out Atsushi Fujimoto and Ryoji Aikawa, both swinging, in a row to retire the side. Triple Whew!

Shintaro Ejiri, recently acquired from Nippon Ham, throws a perfect eighth inning, and it's on to the ninth and our "closer" Shun Yamaguchi. As though three bases loaded pinches weren't enough over the last four innings, Yamaguchi loads the bases with one out. Then, as if to show that he can handle the pressure as well, he gets Fujimoto to pop out to second and Aikawa to fly out to right. Quadruple Whew!

I really don't know if we can call this a success with out pitching. Yakult looked a lot better on the mound this afternoon. But when the going got tough, the BayStars hurlers got the job done. It looks as though Obana-kantoku is going to let the pitchers get themselves out of their own problems, and it worked out today. Part of me thinks he's insane leaving them in so long. But perhaps it will help them build more confidence in themselves. I don't know.

Well, that's three series down, each one 1 and 3. Much better than the past couple of years. Now let's see that number reversed and a sweep or two (on the winning end).