The Dragons took on Yomiuri Giants, in what I am now choosing to dub the “Mr Baseball Classic,” for three whopper games at the Tokyo Dome. Somewhat mixed feeling for Dragons fans as the Giants have the potential to punish, the Dragons line-up hasn’t been firing and our away form hasn’t been too hot. I certainly wasn’t expecting much out of the series but who knows. It’s baseball and in the current state of the Central League, there’s really no such thing as an upset as all the teams are pretty inconsistent and no one team is showing any particular dominance so far this season.
Game 34 of the season would see Shunta Wakamatsu up against
the young Jun Hasegawa for the first face off at the Tokyo dome this season
between the two teams.
Takeshi Kaneko would come in for the injured Ryosuke Oguma for the only team change.
The opening blow would come off the bat of Soichiro Tateoka
in the third as he drove home Seiji Kobayashi two make it 1-0 to the Giants.
Hasegawa’s first outing of the season looked to be progressing until the
Dragons made their comeback in 5th inning as a Hirata sac-fly
allowed Ohshima to come home to score, 1-1. Ricardo Nanita would push the
Dragons into a winning position with a hit into the right sending Masahiro
Araki into score, 1-2. With that Makoto Tahara was brought in to relieve for
Hasegawa and his first contribution to the game was an awful baulk to third
which allowed Viciedo to trot home to open the deficit to 1-3. Truly absent
minded. Hernandez would make things worse for Tahara as he hit for two bases
sending Nanita home to make it 1-4.
Sakamoto would do his best to bring things back with his solo homer in
the 6th.
However another Hirata hit would put Araki into score to keep the
difference at three, 2-5. Hernandez would continue his run of RBIs to send his
captain and Viciedo into score making it 2-7 on the night. A big win!
Hernandez hit 3 RBIs today to certainly stake his claim over
the likes of Masahiko Morino and Tetsuya Tani for the spot at third-base. The
only thing that will count against him is the foreign player limit of four on
the roster. Araki absolutely raked as he hit four in five at-bats. Stunning
from the veteran chasing his 2000th career hit. Hirata was the man
of the moment though as he came through at important intervals to claim two
RBIs with Ricardo Nanita claiming the final scoring hit.
Game 35 would see a return to the mound for Drew Naylor
while Imamura, the pitcher responsible for the Giants loss against the Dragons
in Nagoya earlier this season, would be Naylor’s rival on the night.
The night would start off on a sour note for Chunichi as,
after one strikeout, Naylor was
withdrawn from the mound after suffering from some elbow soreness. Not great
for the starting rotation when you include Oguma’s injury against the Tigers.
Hiroto Fuku was brought on for long-relief duties and had one scary moment against Sakamoto, as
Fuku’s pitch was sent clanging into the fence and luckily not over it. Fuku
however stayed calm and fanned Garett Jones to end the inning.
Scoring started for the Dragons at the top of the second as
Viciedo opened his shoulders inhis first plate appearance of the night and
swiftly sent Imamura’s pitch over the fence for a solo homer and the first run
of the game, 0-1.
The party would continue for the Dragons attack as Katsura’s
hit loaded the bases allowing the
unlikely hero, Fuku, to bat home his first pro-RBI, 0-2. Imamura’s wayward
pitching continued against Ohshima as a walk bumped in another run before Hirata hit home two to make it 0-5. With the
batting line-up now coming full circle, Viciedo stepped up, addressed the
situation, and with runners on 1st and 3rd, dispatched
another pitch over the fence to claim a 3-run homer!
His second, in the same
inning, in a consecutive at-bat! Crazy scenes!
Hayato Sakamoto would claim one back through a solo homer in the 4th.
That would be all she wrote as the Dragons ran out 1-8 winners.
Viciedo was the man on the night to make a massive
difference. 4 RBIs, two homeruns in 4 plate appearances. El Tank has been
rolling along very nicely. Big wraps too for young Fuku who ran out as winning
pitcher as well as achieving his first
RBI in pro-ball. Another big win against the Giants, as good as it gets really.
The injury to Naylor isn’t the best, but neither have his performances been in
honesty. It will be interesting to see
who fills the 6’5” peg in the starting rotation.
Game 36 would see the return of former Bluejay, Raul Valdes to
the starter’s mound for his first appearance of the season. I must admit I was
thinking the 38 year old would be lucky to make any type of appearance this
year. Injuries have helped. Hayato Takagi would start for the Giants to try and
claim his 3rd win of the season.
Yuu Satoh and Valdes were the only two addition to the squad while Drew Naylor's injury saw him de-registered from the roster for the time being.
The Dragons would be the ones to start the party as Naomichi
Donoue launched one into the right stand to grab a solo homer.
Araki would take
advantage of Valdes’ surprise good contact and send the Cuban pitcher home to
score in the 5th. Hirata would then oblige Ohshima as his sac-fly
allowed the number 8 speedster to score and make it 0-3. Donoue would however
be in the midst of things again in the 6th as he sent Nanita and
Hernandez home with timely single to make it 0-5. Kataoka hit back in the bottom
of the inning with a 2-run homer into the left stand.
It would be Donoue
again, with the bases loaded, hitting a high Mathieson pitch into the outfield to send 3 home and make it 2-8. Hirata would continue
the damage in the 8th inning with a 3-run homer off Yamaguchi to
firmly rub the salt into the wounds of the Giants to make it 2-11
.
The Giants
would take a liking to Takeshi Kaneko in the 9th though as Kamei hit
a 2-run homerun to make it 4-11.
The last laugh would be had by Kaneko however
who closed out the game with no further loss.
You can take nothing away from Naomichi Donoue today as his performance
with the bat was nothing short of outstanding. He claimed a personal best of 6 RBIs on the night while his captain,
Ryosuke Hirata picked up 4. A season
high of 17 hits marked a stark contrast to the batting line-up that failed to
show up against Carp and the Tigers.
Valdes also marked his return with a well-earned win where his unique throwing
style picked up 7 strikeouts giving up 2 earned runs.
Three great wins for the Dragons and the first sweep of the
Giants at the Tokyo Dome since 2006 when the Dragons won the Central League
with a team studded with the likes of Tyrone Woods, Masahiko Morino and a
certain Masahiro Araki (who is now 86 hits away from the magic 2000). Not much of an omen really with the up and
down form of this team, but certainly a refreshing change in the breeze to send
a buoyant Dragons into the day break with 3 big wins under their belt. The win
would send the Dragons top of the league, but as Tanishige mentioned “there’s
still about 100 games left…”
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