Western League Game: Chunichi Dragons v Hiroshima Carp (Game 2) (Farm) March 23rd

Second farm game against the Carp was played yesterday in Nagoya and it was an unfortunate loss for the home team as the Dragons were on the wrong end of a 3-7 scoreline putting a stop to a 4 game winning streak.

Not as many what you would call "first-teamers" in this game. But Dayan Viciedo, Nobumasa Fukuda and Masahiko Morino all played roles today. Takuya Kinoshita, the rookie catcher, who was perhaps unlucky to miss out on the opening day roster, started behind the plate.


Pitching

"Yudai" (Yes, just Yudai) started proceedings for the Dragons and pitched 5 innings giving up 4 runs and 9 hits with only 2 strike-outs. Development player Junki Kishimoto threw one inning after the veteran starter and claimed a strike-out with not hits conceded. Takeshi Kaneko gave up 2 runs in 1 relief inning with no strike-outs showing he has to do a lot more to polish his form. Kentaro Nishikawa came in as closer but couldn't stem the tide as he conceded a run from his two innings but managed to claim 2 strikeouts against the 9 batters he faced.

Batting

Noticeable contributions in the batting came from no other than one of the potential ichi-gun players, in Nobumasa Fukuda who absolutely raked today with 4 hits from his 4 at-bats. Morino as well showing he was no slouch by scoring twice today and getting two walks and a hit. Kinoshita as well showed his batting credentials with two hits from two.

More Fukuda flips incoming!

Perhaps the most noticeable concern however was a complete lack of production from Viciedo who struck out once and didn't reach base in his 4 at-bats today. Let's hope he was just trying out a few new things.

No reports of any house fires today unfortunately, so no extra fun bits!