Chiba Marine Stadium was awash with downpours tonight as Rakuten rolled into Makuhari for the first of a 3-game weekend set with Lotte. Tonight’s starting pitchers have had as dramatically different fortunes this year as their respective teams. Lotte starter Shimizu Naoyuki comes in with an 0-2 record and a 6.26 ERA, while young Rakuten …
Tag: Toshiaki Imae
Game Report: Fighters vs Lotte, 5/4
It’s the top of the third of Monday’s holiday day game between the visiting Fighters and the Marines. I’m going to try a little live blogging of this one to give my impressions of the game as it unfolds. Lotte is trying for its first win against the Fighters this year – the Fighters took …
Game Report: Orix vs Lotte, 4/30
After Tuesday’s extra-inning heartbreaker and yesterday’s tantalizing-comeback-that-fell-short Lotte entered tonight’s game needing a strong performance to avoid their second straight series sweep at the hands of Orix. Would Marines ace Shimizu Naoyuki (0-2 with a 9.20 ERA in ’09) be able to shut down the power-hitting Buffalo bats? Would the erratic Lotte offense be able …
Game Report(s): Lotte vs Rakuten, 4/21-23
Due to life infringing upon my baseball-watching time I’ve been unable to blog anything from the first two games of this series. Actually, there was nothing to blog from Game 1, as it was rained out due to monsoon-like conditions at the lovely K-Stadium Miyagi. As an aside, I am quite looking forward to visiting …
Series report – Lotte vs Orix, Kyocera Dome
I haven’t yet blogged anything about this series as I was hoping to wait for an optimistic moment following the disappointment in Tokyo last week. I figured the next post should be on a positive note. Oh well. The two game losing streak became a 5 game losing streak, and the 2-1 record is now …
Lions Tamed by Marines
Steve has already covered the opening game on Friday night and since he preferred golf to Marines baseball!! I guess I have the honour of saying a few words about Saturday and Sunday at Marines stadium. Saturday – With Steve gone and a spare ticket available our friend Patrick joined me for Saturday’s fiesta of …
A season of optimism, as always
I don’t think that I am going out on a limb here when I say the start of the baseball season is possibly the most optimistic time of year. Baseball isn’t particularly unique in this regard, but the length of the season and the Springtime in the air somehow makes it more so than the …