Series Roundup: Eagles at Marines
What had the chance to be a sweep quickly crumbled to a two games to one series loss, which this team simply cannot afford at this point in the season.
Game one saw Mr. Hyde make an appearance. Rasner pitched his best game of the season, throwing one-hit ball over seven innings en route to a 4-0 victory.
The middle frame of the series saw Kohei Hasebe take the mound. With the Eagles protecting a slim 2-1 lead, the lefty uncorked a wild pitch that scored not one, but two Lotte runners. Rakuten never recovered from that blunder, dropping the game 3-2.
Rakuten looked to salvage a series victory on Sunday, and with Masahiro Tanaka taking the mound optimism was high. The Eagles managed yet again to turn victory into defeat, this time courtesy of the defense. Up 3-0 in the third inning, SS Kensuke Uchimura bobbled an easy grounder to put the leadoff batter aboard. Lotte promptly cashed in when the next batter, Yoshifumi Okada, cracked a double to right center field. The next inning Lotte would tie up the game, again due to a Rakuten error. With runners on first and second base, Kiyota hit a shot to right center, scoring Kim Tae-Kyun. RF Teppei had a chance to throw out Kiyota at second but Uchimura couldn't field the ball cleanly, causing it to skip beyond third base, allowing Ohmatsu to score as well, tying the game at three. The scorer gave Teppei the error, however I think it should've went to Uchimura. Nevertheless the game would remain deadlocked at three until the bottom of the 12th inning, where Imae smashed a 3-run Sayonara Home Run to end the game in spectacular fashion. Marines 6, Eagles 3.
As I said at the top, Rakuten had the chance to sweep this series yet they came away winning only one. This team just cannot afford to literally throw away opportunities like this. Call it bad luck, call it what you will, but it's getting to be pretty infuriating to watch this team play. It's all there on paper: solid pitching, speed, hitting, power... yet it's very rare that any of these attributes are in sync with each other. It's going to be a long October finishing out the schedule I'm afraid...
Gaijin lines and videos inside.
Series Roundup: Eagles at Fighters
Optimism was high heading into this series in Sapporo after sweeping the Marines earlier in the week. The mood quickly changed however as the home team outscored Rakuten 18 to 7 in the first two games of this set, both Eagles losses.
The first game featured the team's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, also known as Darrell Rasner. Relatively speaking this was a 'good' start by Rasner, who allowed three runs over five innings. Things quickly fell apart after he exited the game though as a five run 7th inning quickly ended the Eagles chances. Rakuten would drop the opener 10-4.
Game two was very similar to the first. With the game tied at one, the Fighters exploded in the sixth, dropping seven runs on starter Takashi Kawai and the Eagles bullpen. By the time the dust settled, Nippon Ham had 18 hits en route to an 8-3 victory.
On Sunday the team managed to rally around their young ace Masahiro Tanaka, not that he needed much help. The fans in Sapporo witnessed some classic Ma-kun (if you can call anything from a 22 year old classic), as he went the distance, striking out 11 and surrendering a single solo homer.
Video highlights and the gaijin lines inside, as always.
Series Roundup: Eagles vs Buffaloes
The Eagles dropped two of three at home last week. In the series opener, the bullpen couldn't stop a threat in the sixth inning, giving up four runs just after they'd scored four themselves, losing 6-4. Former closer Tsuyoshi Kawagishi (2-5, 5.70) took the loss.
Takashi Kawai (1-2, 4.10) started the second game but couldn't keep the ball in the park as three Buffaloes home runs put the visitors up by five runs early. T. Okada blasted a pair, his 23rd and 24th of the season. Rakuten tried to make a game of it late, but ultimately fell 8-5.
Sunday's game marked the return of Masahiro "Ma-kun" Tanaka (9-6, 2.83), one of the league's best pitchers, and he didn't disappoint, striking out six in a 94 pitch, six inning performance. The bullpen was able to hold onto the lead this time, as Koji Aoyama and Shinichiro Koyama prevented Orix from the series sweep. Koyama picked up his seventh save of the year, and Randy Ruiz hit his seventh home run, a solo shot.
Video highlights, and the foreign players series stats after the break.
Eagles vs Hawks Postgame: Night of the Living Rasners
KLEENEX STADIUM, SENDAI - Darrell Rasner (3-7) went seven strong innings for the third straight time last night, picking up his second consecutive win. He's somehow managed not to lose a game since May 24th. Marty Brown, I don't what you've done with Razzy, but keep it up! Video highlights inside.
Eagles vs Tigers Postgame: Streakin’
© rakuteneagles.jp
KLEENEX STADIUM, SENDAI - The Rakuten Eagles continued their strong play of late with their second walk-off (sayonara) hit in the past three games, and are now undefeated in five. Teppei Tsuchiya provided the heroics last night, along with a strong debut by Randy Ruiz and a surprisingly effective effort by starter Darrell Rasner. You know what's inside, just click it.
Week In Review, Vol.6
The Eagles slid into the pre-interleague play on a 4 game losing streak, let's see if anyone made The Good list, how many people made The Bad list, and if you can guess who's all alone on The Ugly list.
Eagles @ Lions Postgame: Snakes On A Plane
© seibulions.jp
SEIBU DOME, SAITAMA - Not much to say about this one, the Eagles got their asses handed to them in royal fashion yesterday afternoon on the Children's Day national holiday in Japan. Indeed it was like children against men out there, with the Lions scoring 10 runs in the abortion that was the bottom of the sixth inning. Box score, video, and some thoughts about the Rakuten's pitching after the break.
Eagles @ Hawks Postgame: Swept, Away
YAHOO DOME, FUKUOKA - Back to back sweeps! One good, one bad. One will make you grow, one will make you shrink. One will make you look like Grissom from CSI (Marty Brown), one will make you look like a zombie (Takeshi Yamasaki). As always, the box score, video highlights, and some rants after the break.
Week In Review, Vol.4
It's Monday or Tuesday, so let's get to the next edition of the Week In Review. The Eagles went 4-1 last week, including a sweep of the cellar-dwelling Nippon Ham Fighters. The "Big 3" also won their starts, and my favourite gaijin whipping-boy Darrell Rasner picked up his first win of the year as well! Without further ado, let's see who's made it onto The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly lists!
Series Roundup: Eagles vs Fighters, April 23rd – 25th
The Rakuten Eagles got their first (victorious) series sweep of the season, taking out the Nippon Ham Fighters under rain, clouds, and sun (sometimes all at the same time). Game recaps and video highlights after the break.
Last Series (Away)
13th: Win 4-0
14th: Loss 3-2
15th: Loss 6-3
Current Series (Away)
17th @ 6:00 pm
18th @ 6:00 pm
19th @ 6:00 pm
2010 Season Standings
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Yakyu Baka » NPB
- Takahiro Okada has a strained hamstring September 10, 2010Takahiro Okada (ORI) had an MRI earlier today and was diagnosed with a left hamstring strain and will require 6 weeks for a full recover. But it seems the Buffaloes won't be taking Okada off the active roster and will have him join up with the team in Sendai on the 10th. […]
- Swallows would like to see Lim, Whitesell return next season September 10, 2010The Yakult Swallows are hoping both Chang-Yong Lim and Josh Whitesell return to the team for the 2011 season. With regards to Lim, it seems the club may be willing to offer him a multi-year deal and / or a substantial raise (his 2010 salary is 146M yen) in order to keep him in Jingu. Lim [...] […]
- Hanshin Tigers pitching news and notes September 10, 2010Atsushi Nomi (HAN) will get tonight's start against the Chunichi Dragons. This will be his first Ichi-gun start since he suffered a fracture in his right foot during his last Ichi-gun start on 5/2 (vs Yomiuri). This is going to be a big start for Nomi, not only because Messenger had a short start last [...] […]
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2009 Season Standings
2009 Playoffs, 1st Stage
16th Win 11-4
17th Win 4-1
Eagles win 2-0
2009 Playoffs, 2nd Stage
21st Loss 9-8
22nd Loss 3-1
23rd Win 3-2
24th Loss 9-4
Fighters win 4-1