Where Eagles Dare A Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles Fansite

Eagles vs Fighters CS Game 4 Preview

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The Eagles try to stave off elimination tonight as they battle the Fighters at the Sapporo Dome.  The Rakuten offense finally sputtered last night, despite having multiple opportunities late in the game to score runs, highlowlighted by a bases loaded, no out situation in the 8th inning where they failed to produce a single run.  The two defeats in Hokkaido have been of the soul-crushing variety; the series could just have easily been 2-1 in favour of the Eagles.  Now they'll just try to save some face by not getting swept by the Pacific League winning Nippon Ham Fighters.

Pitching Matchup

Luckily there's no other pitcher that Rakuten fans would want in this type of game than young Masahiro "Ma-kun" Tanaka (1-0, 0.00).  A great combination of power, skill, and intensity, everyone will be looking to the right-hander to lift the spirits of Eagles Nation.  He'll be facing off against 26-year-old lefty Tomoya Yagi (9-3, 2.88).

© Yahoo! Japan #18 Masahiro Tanaka Throws: Right Age: 21 NPB Seasons: 3 ERA W L S Season 2.33 15 6 1 vs. Nippon Ham 1.88 3 0 0 Last 3 Starts W/L IP ER R 10/17 vs. Softbank W 9 0 1 10/5 vs. Orix W 8 3 3 9/25 vs. Seibu L 6 5 5

© Yahoo! Japan #29 Tomoya Yagi Throws: Left Age: 26 NPB Seasons: 4 ERA W L S Season 2.88 9 3 0 vs. Rakuten 3.91 2 1 0 Last 3 Starts W/L IP ER R 10/3 vs. Lotte W 9 1 1 9/22 vs. Softbank ND 6.1 3 3 9/18 vs. Orix ND 6 2 2

Yagi pitched well to end the regular season, but the Eagles have been crushing left-handed pitching since the postseason began.  The two lefty starters they've faced, Toshiya Sugiuchi and Masaru Takeda, combined to pitch 9 innings, giving up 14 hits, 3 home runs, 3 walks, and 12 earned runs against the Rakuten lineup.

© Teppei46.com

Who's Hot

Teppei Tsuchiya continued his fantastic postseason last night, going 2 for 2 and reaching base all five times.  The center fielder has been nothing short of spectacular in the playoffs.

• On Base Percentage (OBP) - .722
• Slugging Percentage (SLG) - .778
• On Base plus Slugging (OPS) - 1.500

It don't get much hotter than that.

Who's Cold

Watanabe & Takasu

The leadoff and second batters in the Rakuten lineup, that's who.  The middle infielders, 2B Yosuke Takasu and SS Naoto Watanabe, went 1 for 9 last night, including a trio of strikeouts for Takasu.  Over the last three games now they've combined to go just 4 for 25 (.160) with zero runs batted in.  Rakuten has a pretty deep bench, but there's nobody on it to replace these two offensively.  They couldn't have slumped at a worse time.

Don't expect to see anyone from the bullpen either, unless Ma-kun gets roughed up early.  I have a feeling that both Nomura and Tanaka will want to go the distance tonight, win, lose, or draw.

I'm going to head down to Kleenex Stadium to catch the public viewing of the game from the stands, and cheer on the team with the other fans for possibly one final time.

First pitch is at 6:15 pm local time, 2:15 am PST.

Related posts:

1. Eagles vs Fighters CS Game 3 Preview
2. Eagles vs Fighters CS Game 5 Preview
3. Eagles vs Fighters CS Game 2 Preview
4. Eagles vs Fighters CS Game 4 Postgame: Not over yet
5. Eagles vs Fighters CS Game 2 Postgame: Paradise Lost

About Andrew

Andrew has lived in Japan since 2006, spending time exploring the Tohoku region. He frequently attends Rakuten Eagles games in Sendai. You'll find him sitting along the 3rd base line drinking Guinness wearing a #46 Teppei jersey, next to a Japanese girl in a #5 Seguignol jersey.          You can follow him on Twitter if that makes you happy.