I really hope Itoh-kantoku sat his players down for a meeting, and they all concluded that it would be more fun if Lotte just let the rest of the Pacific League catch up a bit in the standings.  Otherwise, the reality might be that we are just that terrible.¹ In what was billed as a “Rivals Series” between Chiba and Saitama, the only real fair challenge of the series was Seibu trying to best their previous day’s run total.

¹ I apologize for the negativity, it was engrained in me growing up a Red Sox fan.

Totaling up everything after Sunday’s 11-2 loss, our Marines were outscored by the Lions 25-7 while being swept in 3 games.  We are now riding a 5 game losing streak, and are a perfect 0-5 in the month of July.  We now sit 2 games back of Rakuten in second place in the very tightly packed PL standings, with Seibu breathing down our necks 1 game behind us in the third spot.

Seibu had this game in hand pretty early, thanks to a 6 run 2nd inning, with all 6 runs scoring with 2 out.  Our starter Ohmine could have escaped a 2 out bases-loaded jam if a weak Yuji Kaneko ground ball had rolled foul.  Instead Ohmine, realizing he had no play on the grounder, avoided the ball and watched it roll past him and remain fair (image right) for Seibu’s first run of the game.  A 5 pitch walk to Kuriyama forced in the second run, and the sometimes-fragile Ohmine would never recover.

Asamura came up next and blew the game open with a 3-run triple to center.  Last year’s Golden Glove recipient Okada nearly robbed Asamura as he almost pulled off what would have been an amazing Spiderman wall-climbing catch.  With the degree of difficulty at 10 out of 10, Okada slightly mistimed his jump and the ball would be just out of reach.  Ryan Spilborghs added another run on a RBI single on his second hit of the inning. With the score now 6-0, Ohmine was pulled after just 1 2/3.  That’s pretty much it folks.

After an off day Monday, we have 3 games at home versus Orix.  Newly signed Craig Brazell should be making his Lotte ichi-gun debut on Tuesday.  Oh ya…Did someone say Tuesday’s game would be a “Beer Stadium” (discount tickets and half priced beers)?  Count me in!