The Marines return home today for a wet tilt with Pa-league leaders Rakuten. The WBC trophy is also in attendance, so perhaps there’s some good mojo to be had after a disastrous 5 game road trip.

Hmm, looks like not so much.

Watanabe took the hill for his first start of the season vs up-and-coming star Masahiro Tanaka. Tanaka has been great for the first two years of his career, averaging a strikeout per inning and more than a 2-1 strikeout to walk ratio.

Tonight he was quite impressive, holding our Marines to only three hits with 10 strikeouts in a 129 pitch complete game. Watanabe pitched quite well also, giving up a run each in the 4th and the 5th and going for 7 innings. Normally that would give the team a chance to win it, but Tanaka struck out Iguchi and Ohmatsu to end it.

I decided not to make this game as rain loomed in the forecast – and in fact it did rain quite a bit during the game. I’ll be in the outfield tomorrow, hopefully to cheer Lotte on to a better result!