Wow, what a well-played game for both teams! The final game of 2009 between Lotte and Hanshin (barring a 2005 Japan Series rematch) had it all – a pitching duel, great defense, unexpected plays, and best of all – a clutch hit to drive in the winning run in a 4-1 Marines victory. Lotte starter …
Tag: Yuki Karakawa
Interleague Game 14: History Repeating Repeating
Lotte and Chunichi finished up their season series this afternoon at Nagoya Dome. For a while, it looked like I would be able to autotext the intro I used yesterday (but hoped desperately that I wouldn’t get to use). By the end of the 6th inning, Lotte was down 2-0 despite a 4 hit, 6K …
Interleague Games 7 & 8: Zoom-Zoom Uh-Oh
As this series happened a few days back I’ll keep this brief. Lotte moved to Hiroshima after the Hanshin series for a 2-game set. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to either game as I would really have liked to have seen the lovely new Mazda Stadium. I was in Hiroshima a few weeks previously but …
Interleague Game 1: Return of the Baby-Faced Killer
Yokohama cruised up the Shuto B today to visit Chiba Marine Stadium for the opening game of the 2009 Interleague season. Looking every bit like an escapee from one of the many school groups visiting tonight who jumped the fence, grabbed a uniform, and took the mound – 19-year old Karakawa Yuki mowed down batter …
Hail Karakawa!
I missed the game report from yesterday’s 6-2 loss to Rakuten, but I will include some notes/commentary in this post. I sat in front of the TV this afternoon with the game on, ready to write some about the last game and I just couldn’t. Why? Budding ace Karakawa was on the hill, and he’s …
Game Report: Lotte vs Softbank, 5/2
After a disappointing 6-2 loss to Softbank in the opener of the weekend series on Friday, Lotte needed a win to get closer to coming out of the Pa-league cellar. Pitching tonight was Karakawa Yuki, who has had a strong start to the season with an ERA of 2.57 in 3 starts. Yahoo Dome is …
Game Report: Lotte vs Seibu, 4/24
Lotte came into tonight’s tilt with Seibu looking to continue the recent good pitching, and more importantly, their second road win of 2009. Well done on the first, not so great on the second. Taking the hill tonight was Karakawa Yuki, who has shown signs of excellence in his second year. Facing Karakawa was Lions …
Game Report: Rakuten vs Lotte, 4/15
Just what the doctor ordered! I was in the outfield bleachers tonight with Patrick and his family for Lotte’s inspiring 7-1 victory over Pa-league leading Rakuten. All facets of the team were in sync tonight as gutsy pitching, clutch hitting, and solid defense brought and end to the 6-game losing streak. Karakawa pitched a great …
Series report, Lotte vs Nippon Ham, Tokyo Dome
As the site is just barely up and running, I figured I would wait to fix some odds-and-ends around here and blog this series a little later. John and I actually had tickets to the first game of this series, but he was unable to attend. While I gave thought to coming over to catch …