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NPB Monday: September 21, 2009

September 21, 2009 in Sports by Tom Langston (calaggie) | No comments

I skipped this feature last week but it’s back. (Not that anyone really missed it.)

Playoff Run Standings (after 9/21 games) – * = clinched playoff spot

Central League
1st – *Yomiuri (—; 13 games left)
2nd – *Chunichi (9 GB; 11 left)
3rd – Hanshin (23.5 GB; 13 left)
4th – Hiroshima (24 GB; 14 left)
5th – Yakult (25 GB; 17 left)

Pacific League:
1st – Nippon-Ham (—; 15 games left)
2nd – Softbank (3.5 GB; 11 left)
3rd – Rakuten (5.5 GB; 16 left)
4th – Seibu (9.5 GB; 13 left)

Clips:

Chunichi’s Araki steals his 34th base of the season against Yokohama’s Futoshi Kobayashi during Saturday’s game at Nagoya Dome. The Dragons won 5-2.

Akihiro Yano hits a 2-run homerun off Yomiuri’s Marc Kroon with 2 outs in the 11th to give Hanshin a 5-3 lead on Tuesday 9/15.
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NPB Monday: September 7th, 2009

September 7, 2009 in Japan, Sports, Video by Tom Langston (calaggie) | No comments

This week, I’ll lead off by talking about ties, an almost foreign concept in contemporary American sports outside of the MLS.

After 12 innings of play in a regular season game, both teams stop and each gets credit for a draw. The basic reasoning behind it is to stem off unneeded exhaustion and time. The Yomiuri Giants have been involved in nine ties so far this season – their most recent one on Sept. 4th against the Yakult Swallows lasted 5 hours and 27 minutes. Not surprisingly, the two shortest tie games this year have been scoreless matches: May 16th, Carp at Giants, 3 hours and 35 minutes & June 2nd, Marines at Giants, 3 hours and 46 minutes.

Standings update:
Central: Yomiuri on top, Chunichi in 2nd (7.5 GB), Yakult 3rd (17.5 GB), Hanshin 4th (20 GB)
Pacific: Nippon-Ham leads, Softbank in 2nd (3.5 GB), Rakuten 3rd (10.5 GB), Seibu 4th (13.5 GB)

Masato Nakamura got a pinch-hit single with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th to give the Rakuten Golden Eagles a 4-3 win over Nippon Ham on Sunday. The Fighters centerfielder, Yoshio Itoi, could have caught it but it looks like he overran it and couldn’t nab it with his bare right hand.

Also on Sunday: third baseman Takahiro Akai hit a gyakuten timely (lead-changing; 逆転 タイムリー) double down the line in the 6th to drive home two runs and put Hanshin ahead of Hiroshima 2-1. Carp manager Brown was not pleased and pulled Keisuke Imai, putting in Takeshi Komatsu to finish the inning. (Komatsu allowed another run to score on an RBI single by Ryo Asai.) Final tally in that game was 4-1 Tigers.
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NPB Monday: August 31, 2009

August 31, 2009 in Japan, Sports, Video by Tom Langston (calaggie) | No comments

Since the US major leagues are heading in the homestretch in their playoff races, I figured I’d lead off this edition of NPB Monday talking a little about how Japan’s playoff system works.

The top three teams in each league qualify for the Climax Series. The 2nd & 3rd place teams face off in a best-of-three series (Stage 1) and then that winner challenges the regular season league champion in a best-of-six series, with the winner of four games moving on to the Japan Series. Why six? Because the season champion automatically gets a one-win advantage, meaning they only have to win three actual games. The Japan Series is a straightforward best-of-seven, just like the World Series. This year’s postseason schedule can be found on JapanBall.com.

Entering Sept. 1st, the Yomiuri Giants lead the Central League by 4 games ahead of the Chunichi Dragons. The Yakult Swallows currently hold third place at 14 games back but Hanshin (19 GB) and Hiroshima (21 GB) have outside chances of overtaking them and making the playoffs. In the Pacific League, the Nippon-Ham Fighters lead with Softbank Hawks (5.5 GB) and Rakuten Golden Eagles (9.5 GB). The fourth-place Seibu Lions aren’t too far behind Rakuten at 12.5 GB.

Here’s a cheer the Fighters’ ouendan used a few months ago during interleague play when pitching ace Yu Darvish was at the plate. This was filmed during a June 6th game against Yomiuri.

They are cheering (from the video‘s desciption):
雄叫びあげて　唸るその剛腕　
我らのエース　日本のエース

osakebi agete unaru sono gouwan
warera no ACE nihon no ACE

Highlights from Hanshin’s 3-1 win over Yomiuri on Sunday. According to JapanBall, the two singles Giants hitter Alex Ramirez had put him over 150 hits for the eighth consecutive season, a new Japanese record.
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NPB Monday: August 24th, 2009

August 24, 2009 in Japan, Sports, Video by Tom Langston (calaggie) | No comments

Another late evening edition of NPB Monday includes the final inning of this summer’s Koshien tournament and some non-game related activities at Meiji Jingu Stadium. I’ll try to find more inspired material for next week – I was too tired last night after coming home from a friend’s party to do proper research in time for a morning posting.

On Wednesday, the Chuinichi Dragons got all their runs off a 3-run homer by Atsushi Fuiji and a 6-run 8th to beat the Hiroshima Carp 9-3. (boxscore)

With the bases loaded and one out, Shijiro Hiyama pitch-hits in the bottom of the 9th for Hanshin in their Saturday game vs. Hiroshima. Hiyama is initially called out on a swinging third strike but the umpire quickly changes it to a foul ball (the right call), allowing his at-bat to continue. A single that bounced just a bit in
front of the centerfielder’s glove won it for the Tigers, 2-1.

Ninth inning of Monday’s Koshien championship game – in 3 parts

Chuukyoudai Chuukyou (Aichi) gave up five runs to underdog Nihon Bunri (Niigata) with TWO OUTS in the top of the 9th but still won 10-9. After starter Doubayashi gets shifted to the outfield while Morimoto takes the mound – which also happened for the 6th through 8th innings, but Chuukyou’s lead would continue to erode until third baseman Kawai snags a liner to finally end it. Hats off to Nihon Bunri making it an interesting final! [Goro Shigeno]
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New Feature – NPB Mondays (with some Koshien this time)

August 17, 2009 in Japan, Sports, Video by Tom Langston (calaggie) | No comments

While browsing some Japanese baseball videos last night, I thought I could make a weekly feature out of collecting the ones I would consider tweeting out to many people who may not even care. So here is the first attempt at NPB Mondays. I also included some Koshien clips because the tournament started on more than a week ago on August 8th.

With runners on 1st & 2nd and 1 out in the 7th, Fukuoka Softbank Hawks starter Toshiya Sugimoto preserved a 2-0 lead by striking out Seibu Lions’ G.G. (Takahiko) Sato and Hiroshi Hirao. Softbank went on to win that August 9th game 4-1, giving Sugimoto his 10th win of the season. (Sugimoto’s record now stands at 11-3 after Sunday’s eight-inning 1-run outing in Fukuoka’s 9-1 win over Orix.)
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