Home Swee-- Aw, Let's Get Out of Here - June 9, 2013

DeNA has done a great job renovating Yokohama Stadium. They've added picnic box seats, a pretty ribbon display around the outfield fence, and other modernization to the BayStars' home. But the team just can't seem to find a way to win there.

Yokohama suffered their 8th straight home loss, losing 11 of the 12 home games they've played against the Pacific League teams. On the road, Yokohama is 14 and 15 on the season, 4 and 4 against the Pacific League. So after the most recent sweeps by SoftBank and Orix in Yokohama, the BayStars will be heading out to Chiba then Saitama to take on the Marines and Lions to conclude Inter-league play.

In this most recent fiasco, Kazuki Mishima started and pitched a decent 6 innings, allowing 6 hits while walking 3 and striking out 5. While Orix did threaten a couple of times, they only got a pay off with 1 run in the 4th inning (on a wild pitch) and a solo home run to lead off the 6th inning by Dae-ho Lee (who has hit a home run in all 4 games over the past two seasons he's played at Yokohama).

Despite allowing 2 runs over 6 innings, Mishima actually came out of the game with a 3-2 lead.

Once again, the BayStars were able to get on the board first, scoring a run in the first on a 2-out single up the middle by Norihiro Nakamura. A solo home run to lead off the bottom of the 5th inning by catcher Kazunari Tsuruoka followed by a pair of hits brought in 2 more runs to put Yokohama up 3-1 at the time.

As Mishima had passed the 100 pitch threshold in the 6th inning, when he allowed Lee's home run, and considering that he was the next batter due in the 7th inning, Nakahata-kantoku pulled a double switch. Keijiro Matsumoto was brought in to play left field for Tatsuhiko Kinjoh (who had driven in the team's 3rd run in the 5th inning) and batting in the pitcher's number 9 slot while Teruaki Yoshikawa was brought out to pitch and bat in Kinjoh's number 3 slot. The move didn't work.

Yoshikawa managed to get the first batters he faced out, but a double by Tomotaka Sakaguchi followed by a wild pitch tied the ball game. Masato Fukae grounded a ball to Takayuki Kajitani deep at shortstop, with Kajitani moving backward to get the bounce. That backward movement proved to be a split second too late to get Fukae dashing up the first base line - infield hit. Then Aarom Baldiris went and hit a 2-run home run over the left-center field fence to give Orix a 5-3 lead.

Nothing that happened thereafter mattered. Yokohama just didn't have what it takes to make a come back at Yokohama Stadium.