I originally wrote this post as “On Pitching: Lotte vs Kyojin, Interleague Games 3 & 4”. It was a bit of a sarcastic title as there was little pitching to be found in that series. Actually, Naruse was quite decent in Saturday’s 4-2 loss in Tokyo Dome, if you look past the three HRs he gave up – which were, incidentally, numbers 14, 15, and 16 on the year. I was at Tokyo Dome on Sunday for Lotte’s 10-8 loss – yet again, the pitching was purely to blame as Lotte hurlers coughed up 5 HRs. Ohmine took the loss on 4 ER but he actually pitched much better than his replacement, Kodai Matsumoto. The 1st inning HR Ohmine gave up to Abe was probably the biggest HR I have ever seen in person. It was listed at 145m (~475ft) and I don’t doubt that for a second.

Despite the 5 HRs given up the Lotte offense made a go of it and tried to wipe out a 6 run deficit in the 9th with blasts of their own. Nishioka started with a 2-run shot (scoring Aono, making his first appearance at ichi-gun since 2007) and Kim Tae Kyun hit his second of the night into the left field stands. The rally would fall two runs short, though. [Click for more]