I have no voice, nothing left in me at all right now. But I must tell you this, fellow traveller in Lotte fandom – Our beloved Marines sent Nippon Hamu to an early bedtime on this Monday with a tense, thrilling 2-1 win in Sapporo. The streak of first round victories in the playoffs is intact, the Golden Year dream lives on. It’s a wonderful day to be a Lotte supporter.
Tag: Alfredo Despaigne
The Road to Climax is Clear
On Monday night at a jam-packed, roaring Seibu Dome, the hated Lions had a chance to virtually end Chiba’s season with a defeat. Instead, ace (yeah, I said it) Ishikawa delivered a wonderful start, the bullpen brought out their best pitching, and the mighty bat of one Alfredo Despaigne smashed through Seibu’s pitching to earn a absolutely essential 4-2 victory.
Race to the Bottom (of A-Class)
You’ve probably noticed we haven’t written in a while. There’s a reason for that – it’s been a tough team to write about for many months now. But here we are roaring into the final 8 games of the season and… we’re alive. Not only that, but we’ve got a real chance, but Our Marines need to play by far their best baseball of the season – without two of the best players on the team – for the Climax Series to become a reality.
Some Things I Like – Start of Interleague Edition
We’re at roughly the third-of-the-way point of the 2015 Chiba Lotte Marines Golden Year presented by Steve and Craig at We Love Marines (dot) Com campaign and I gotta say that… yeah, the 21-23 record is a wee bit disappointing. With a win on Sunday at Orix we Fans of Lotte could have said, “Hey, at least we’re at .500”, but instead I’m just going to say “Hey, at least we ain’t Orix.” With that in mind, I want to focus a bit on the things I like so far this year.
Despaigne: “Japan Polished Me as a Player”
As difficult as the 2014 Chiba Lotte campaign was in so many ways, the play of several newcomers to the team really provided a boost to the spirits. Arguably the most exciting of those newcomers was Cuban legend Alfredo Despaigne, who in just 2 short months in a Marines uniform provided a year’s worth of highlights with his immense power and ability to get on base. The great news is Despa is back at QVC for 2015 and 2016 thanks to great work by the front office, though he is still playing for his Cuban team Granma in the Cuban Serie Nacional and will not join Our Marines until late April.
The Last Hurrah: Seibu @ Lotte, 1 October 2014
Rookie phenom Ayumu Ishikawa completed his season – and Lotte’s – season in style with his best pitching performance of his nascent career. Backed by a ferocious offensive attack and the collective will of a jam packed home outfield cheering section, Ayu went the distance in a complete game, no walk, 10 strikeout masterpiece. It’s the sort of performance that wins a guy a Rookie of the Year award.
The Final Stretch: Hamu @ Lotte, 23-26 September 2014
If you want to be totally negative, you can say the 2014 Chiba Lotte Marines’ backs are flush against the wall. The margin of error is not slim; it’s non-existent. Our Marines must win every game – 6 of them. Hamu must lose every game – 11 of those. If that happens, if these guys can pull off that miracle, Hamu collapses that badly – Chiba STILL needs help in the form of Rakuten and Seibu losing a game or two.
Yes, it’s the unlikeliest of scenarios, indeed, but until all chance is drained from the season we will cheer and cheer with ALL our zeal for Our Marines to move on.
Lotte @ Rakuten, 16-18 September 2014
Last road trip of the year? Yup, last road trip of the year. Hard to believe we’re at that time of year already but indeed it’s true – this series in Sendai makes the last three road games of the 2014 season.
This series sadly also is the final opportunity for Our Marines to win a season series with a PL team. Chiba has 12 losses (exactly) in every head-to-head matchup except with Rakuten, against whom we have 11. Hey, it’s not much, but it would be nice to be better than at least one PL team.
Lotte @ SoftBank, 13-15 September 2014
Our Marines might be out of contention, but all kidding aside, it’s been an entertaining September. Take away the three shutout losses and 29 inning scoreless steak – which in it of itself became compelling – and Our Marines are 5-1. Playing spoiler to the Hawks’ first place run this holiday weekend could add some more September gratification.
Lotte @ Seibu, 2-4 September 2014
The goals for the remaining games are basically (a) get the younger players some more experience (b) play the spoiler. Wait, I forgot to list the most important goal! (c) BEAT SEIBU. Interestingly enough, we get 7 games in 10 days vs our Tokorozawa – this 3 game set at Seibu Dome and next week a 4 game tilt at QVC – and that’s it for the season. Seibu’s in just about as hopeless a position as is Chiba, so really we should look at this as a 7 game series to determine PL Kanto supremacy once and for all.