Yakult Wins!

Yes, at long last, the Yakult Swallows have won the Central League pennant, defeating the Yokohama BayStars 6-4 in 10 innings this evening (10/6).

I'm late writing this up because the game ended less than 10 minutes before I lifted Nojima's Omikoshi on my shoulder and paraded around Hakkeijima Sea Paradise for a couple of hours.

Nonetheless, Yakult struck first with a run in the top of the first. But Yokohama answered quickly with a run in the bottom of the first when Yakult starter Yamabe walked home a run. The 'Stars continued to hit Yamabe in the second inning scoring 3 runs on 3 hits and a sqeeze. Mori-kantoku's love afair with the bunt (one of those base hits was a bunt that Yamabe was too slow to play) paid off this inning.

But Yokohama starter, left handed Nomura, was chased in the 8th inning. With two runners on and nobody out, Mori-kantoku went with Takeshita. He got Miyamoto looking for the first out, but then gave up the long ball to Petagine, who hit his league leading 39th home run, a 3-run shot to tie the game.

The game remained knotted at 4-4 into the 10th inning. Look familar? Yes, Yakult's last 3 failures to win the pennant were extra inning contests.

In the top of the 10th, Iida led off with a base hit to right. Miyamoto, who leads the league in sacrifices, bunted Iida to second. After Inaba grounded out to short, Petagine was intentionally walked to face Furuta, who hasn't been hitting at all well lately, still nursing his left knee.

But Furuta came through with the game winning RBI, a base hit to center to score Iida, moving Peta-chan to third. After that, with Iwamura at the plate, Yamada let loose a wild pitch to allow Petagine to increase Yakult's lead to 6-4.

Yokoham got a lead off hit by Nakane in the bottom of the 10th, but he was erased on a double play ball to second by Saeki. Tanishige then grounded out to short to end the game.

With that, Yakult became the 2001 Central League Champions.