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 vs Lions
Coming off of a dominant performance by Masahiro Tanaka on the 8th, Rakuten looked to build some momentum heading into the week against the Seibu Lions. Marty Brown's team left Sendai disappointed however, dropping the opening and closing game of the series, with a rainout sandwiched in between.
Hisashi Iwakuma (7-7, 2.85) has been struggling recently, surrendering three or more earned runs in his last three starts. This trend continued on Tuesday, bowing out after giving up four runs in just four innings. The Lions offense ran roughshod over the Eagles, winning 9-3. There was some concern that he would miss his next start, but soon afterwards manager Brown reported that he had no plans for 'Kuma to skip his next assigned start.
Thursday's match featured Satoshi Nagai (7-8, 3.45) in a pitcher's duel with Masamitsu Hirano, at least for the first five innings. Takeshi Yamasaki hit his 21st homer of the year, a 2-run shot, to put Rakuten in front 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth, but the boys from Saitama came back with their own 2-run home run, courtesy of Tatsuyuki Uemoto. The Lions won 4-3. Like many games this year there's been a home run that swings the game in the opponent's favour, and the Eagles have rarely been able to respond accordingly.
Video highlights and the gaijin lines 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 Marines
As this August heatwave continues to punish northern Japan, it would appear that the Eagles too have started to warm up. In the sweep of the Lotte Marines the Eagles began to resemble their 2009 form - aggressive running, solid pitching, timely hits, and home runs. Let's see if this was just a blip on an unimpressive 2010 season, or the start of a push up the standings.
Hisashi Iwakuma (7-6, 2.69) didn't have his best stuff on Tuesday, but it was just enough to keep the Marines at bay. Norihiro Nakamura hit a three run blast, and the Eagles held on to take the opener 5-3.
Lefty Kohei Hasebe (3-2, 5.85) went seven innings but left the game trailing 3-2. Koji Aoyama came on in relief, and Rakuten got some heroics from Teppei Tsuchiya and Takeshi Yamasaki to complete the come from behind victory. Shinichiro Koyama picked up his ninth save of the season.
Satoshi Nagai (7-7, 3.43) had a chance to complete the sweep on Thursday night, the eve of the Tanabata Festival, and didn't disappoint, going the distance as the Eagles beat the Marines 9-3. Rarely used catcher Suguru Ino and Daisuke Kusano both collected three hits and a pair of RBI, powering Rakuten to their first series sweep since July 8th, also against the Marines.
Video highlights, and the foreign players series stats, and some other breakdowns after the break.
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.
Series Roundup: Eagles vs Marines, July 6th – 8th
Back from a busy month at work! The Eagles started off this week well, sweeping the Chiba Lotte Marines at home in Kleenex Stadium. It looks as though manager Marty Brown has mixed things up a little; Shinichiro Koyama picked up a pair of saves in this series, and has three already this month. Video highlights of the three games, and a postgame interview with Todd Linden awaits you inside.
Week In Review, Vol.8
This irregular interleague schedule is really messing with my writing... that and I'm getting busier and lazier at the same time. And my wife's co-worker gave me a bottle of scotch. Let's see who did what last week!
Eagles vs Giants Postgame: Where Impossible Happens
© rakuteneagles.jp
KLEENEX STADIUM, SENDAI - The Rakuten Eagles won a surprising victory over the Yomiuri Giants last night, coming back from a 4-0 deficit in the eighth and ninth innings to take the first of this two game set.
Tomura and Arime Injured, Linden Update
Rubbing salt into their 19-3 loss yesterday, rookie starter Kenji Tomura and reliever Kanehisa Arime, both left-handers, will spend a little down time as they nurse some injuries. Gen from Yakyu Baka has more:
...Kenji Tomura and Kanehisa Arime were taken off the active roster on Wednesday due to an apparent injuries -- Tomura felt tightness in his left flank and Arime felt discomfort in his shoulder.
Source: Yakyu Baka
And an update on Todd Linden's status, he should be ready to play again by the end of the week. They could use some pop and defense from the switch-hitting left fielder.
Todd Linden and Kohei Hasebe Injured
Looks like Rakuten's woes are now manifesting themselves in different ways. Gen from Yakyu Baka reported yesterday that both their starting left fielder and one of their starting pitchers will spend a few weeks on the disabled list:
...Todd Linden was held out of the starting line-up on Friday and was diagnosed with ligament damage in his left thumb. He apparently suffered the injury while playing defense on the 15th against the Seibu Lions. The injury is expected to take 3 weeks to heal. Linden's status moving forward is still not known.
...Kohei Hasebe was taken off the active roster on Friday after being diagnosed with an injury in his left posterolateral meniscus. Hasebe complained of pain in his knee after his start on the 14th against the Seibu Lions and had the knee checked out on Thursday. He will likely be out 3 weeks.
Source: Yakyu Baka
* Update: For the time being, it looks as though 3B Daisuke Kusano will fill the void in left field. 1B Norihiro Nakamura moved over to third base, and Kenshi is starting tonight at first. Depending on how this all pans out, we may see Andy Phillips back with the big club soon...
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
Categories
Archives
- August 2010 (5)
- July 2010 (7)
- June 2010 (7)
- May 2010 (26)
- April 2010 (29)
- March 2010 (14)
- November 2009 (1)
- October 2009 (40)
- September 2009 (16)
Recent Comments
- muratafan on Series Roundup: Eagles vs Buffaloes
- Andrew on Series Roundup: Eagles vs Buffaloes
- muratafan on Series Roundup: Eagles vs Buffaloes
- Kyle on Series Roundup: Eagles vs Buffaloes
- Kyle on Series Roundup: Eagles vs Buffaloes
Multimedia
- Climax Series Game 1, Oct 16 2009
- Eagles Magazine Covers
- Eagles vs Buffaloes, Oct 9th 2009
- The Rakuten Golden Angels
- Various Stadium Photos
- Yusei Kikuchi vs Rakuten (Ni-gun)
- Video Clips From Games
- #3 Todd Linden Gallery
Yakyu Baka » NPB
- NPB: Roster Changes for 9/4/2010 September 4, 2010Pacific League Roster Updates Added to the Active Roster Nippon Ham Fighters - Sunaga, Hideki P Rakuten Eagles - Kitani, Hisashi P Removed from the Active Roster Nippon Ham Fighters - Ishii, Yuya P Rakuten Eagles - Hasebe, Kohei P […]
- Tsuyoshi Nishioka scores 100th run September 4, 2010Tsuyoshi Nishioka (LOT) recorded his 100th run scored last night and became just the third player in franchise history to reach the 100 run milestone (the last Lotte player to do it was Hiromitsu Ochiai in 1985 with 118; the other player is Kaoru Betto with 108 in 1950). […]
- Kanemoto, Shimoyanagi, Hiyama to return to Tigers next season? September 4, 2010It seems the Tigers feel Tomoaki Kanemoto, Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi, and Shinjiro Hiyama are all still capable of putting up numbers and are considering them as pieces of the puzzle for the 2011 season. […]
Popular Tags
7 Takeshi Yamasaki 46 Teppei Tsuchiya 21 Hisashi Iwakuma 37 Motohiro Shima 18 Masahiro Tanaka 3 Todd Linden 12 Daisuke Kusano 30 Satoshi Nagai 99 Norihiro Nakamura 4 Yosuke Takasu 2 Naoto Watanabe 17 Darrell Rasner 51 Tsuyoshi Kawagishi 5 Fernando Seguignol 15 Hiromichi Fujiwara Climax Series 57 Shinichiro Koyama 0 Kensuke Uchimura 20 Kohei Hasebe 23 Ryo Hijirisawa 44 Jin Nakatani 42 Randy Ruiz 41 Koji Aoyama 58 Wataru Karashima 5 Andy Phillips 64 Toshiya Nakashima 00 Masato Nakamura 26 Kanehisa Arime 28 Hiroshi Katayama 65 Akira Matsumoto 50 Juan Morillo 61 Kenshi Kawaguchi 11 Kazuo Fukumori 22 Kenji Tomura 62 Kazuo Fukumori 2010 Season Preview 16 Hiroki Yamamura 19 Katsuya Nomura 32 Makoto Kosaka 31 Akihito Fuji 39 Suguru Ino 45 Takashi Kawai Muratafan 14 Kenta Sakate 33 Yosuke Hiraishi 38 Yusuke Kusuki 63 Akihisa Makida Contest! Golden Angels Photos Rainout Satire Tokyo DomeNPB Links
- Eagles' Official Website (Japanese)
- NPB Official Site (English)
- Yakyu Baka
- Pro Yakyu Now
- NPB Tracker
- Japan Baseball News
- Japanese Baseball Cards
- Marinerds (Fighters Fansite)
- Steve Says Kanpai (Tigers Fansite)
- The Tokyo Yakult Swallows (Fansite)
- Tigers Mania (Hanshin Fansite)
- We Love Marines (Fansite)
- Yahoo! プロ野球 (Japanese)
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