Making Up is Hard to Do - June 14, 2013

Yokohama traveled across the bay to Chiba for a pair of games starting Wednesday. Daisuke Miura, as previously mentioned, threw a gem of a 3-0 shutout. That's a great way to start off a series, breaking the BayStars' losing streak. Unfortunately, Thursday's game was rained out, with the makeup game quickly slotted in this evening, Friday, June 14. Despite the fine weather, the 'Stars failed to shine.

Yokohama did managed to strike first against Lotte's starter, Yuki Karakawa. With two down and runners on first and second in the 1st inning, Norihiro Nakamura drove in the first run of the game with a single to left. The BayStars strike first, taking a 1-0 lead.

That didn't last long, though. While BayStar starter, Kentaro Takasaki, got out of a jam with runners at the corners in the bottom of the 1st inning, a base on balls followed an out later by three consecutive hits in the bottom of the 3rd turned the game around for good, Lotte taking a 2-1 lead. Lotte added a run on a pair of walks sandwiching a hit and a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 5th inning, going ahead 3-1.

Thereafter, Karakawa got himself into a pinch in the top of the 6th inning allowing back to back singles to start the inning off against Tony Blanco and Nori. But Alex Ramirez grounded into a 6-4-3 double play then Takayuki Kajitani flew out to right to kill the inning. Yokohama put no further base runners on after that.

And so, Yokohama now sits in 5th place in the Central League all by themselves. They also dip down below the struggling Yakult Swallows to take sole possession of last place in Inter-League competition. They started out so well.