Winning Streaks - May 6, 2013

Yokohama has managed to win 3 in a row for the second time this season, and we're only in May! Now, that may not sound like much of an accomplishment. But considering that they were only able to win 3 in a row one time in 2012, that's really something.

Here is a run down of all of their winning streaks of 3 games or more over the past five seasons:

July 11 to 16, 2009 vs. Yakult and Hiroshima (5 games)
Sep. 20 to 22, 2009 vs. Chunichi and Hanshin (3 games)
Apr. 28 to 30, 2010 vs. Hiroshima and Yakult (3 games)
May 18 to 21, 2010 vs. Rakuten and Nippon Ham (3 games)
May 6 to 11, 2011 vs. Hanshin and Yomiuri (5 games)
June 26 to 29, 2011 vs. Yakult and Chunichi (3 games)
Sep. 29 to Oct. 1, 2011 vs. Yomiuri and Yakult (3 games)
July 16 to 18, 2012 vs. Yakult (3 games)
Apr. 19 to 21, 2013 vs. Chunichi (3 games)
May 4 to 6, 2013 vs. Chunichi and Hiroshima (3 games and counting)

I did not count three wins with a tie in the middle. I know that the press often counts that as part of a winning streak, but I don't mind bucking the trend in this regard.

Still, other than the two 5 game winning streaks in 2009 and 2011, sweeping a 3-game series has been rare until recently.

While Hiroshima may have suffered a sweep at Tokyo Dome this past holiday weekend, they certainly didn't go down easily against the BayStars in this May 6th game in Hiroshima. If it weren't for a rocky start by Carp starter Kyohei Nakamura, I don't think we'd be 1 game under .500 now.

Yokohama got on the board right out of the gate. Sho Aranami beat out an infield single to start the game. He was sacrifice to second, then one out later, Tony Blanco hit his league leading 17th home run of the season to put Yokohama up 2-0. Norihiro Nakamura followed with the third hit of the night for Yokohama, but nothing came of it.

Something did come of Nori's 2,002nd career hit two innings later. Thanks to a pair of walks, Nori was able to drive in the BayStars' third run of the game in the top of the third, giving Yokohama a 3-0 lead.

Those were the only four hits that Nakamura allowed in 5 innings of work. Hiroshima's relief held Yokohama to just 1 more hit, by Blanco, in the 8th, but allowed no more runs.

The Carp got something going against Yokohama starter Daisuke Miura in the bottom of the 4th inning. Three hits in a row with one out plated two before Miura got Tetsuya Kokubo to ground into an inning-ending double play. Miura threw 6 innings, allowed just those 2 runs on a grand total of 6 hits while walking none for the 3-2 victory.

The big question going into the May 7 game is, can the BayStars get over the 3 wins in a row barrier? Can we even hope to surpass 5 in a row sometime this year?