Daily Update: NPB All-Star Game @Nagoya Dome, 14th July; Pacifically speaking...

Homerun Derby

Well, going over everyone will take time, so let's just go with Guerrero. 

Alex beat out the holder Shohei Otani in the first round as he hit 2 homers to Otani's one. The rules are a bit different in Japan where the players each get 10 balls to slug as many homers as they can get. Interesting little side note, you'll see that Casey McGehee is providing the throw downs for Guerrero.

Guerrero would then take on Yuki Yanagita of the Hawk to decide the winner. I'm not sure exactly what happened here, but Guerrero got 4 homers from his alotted 10 but Yanagita had 4 in 7 balls and I believe the win was ultimately given to him because he got there faster. Anyway, great achievement for Guerrero to make the final, but Yanagita has been on fire this year. He picks up his first derby win.

The All-Star Game #1

WP: Taisuke Yamaoka (Orix) 2IP 1ER 1SO                     Nishikawa 2-2, 2RHR, 2RBI       

LP: Marcos Mateo (Hanshin) 1IP 3ER 2SO                      Tsutsugo 3-1 1HR, 1RBI

It was to be the Pacific League boys to come out on top of the Central League as they mashed their way to victory slugging home 3 homeruns including a game winning 2-run homer from Haruki Nishikawa. 

The Pacific took the lead through Shogo Akiyama's lead-off solo homer of Raul Valdes. The Central would be back in the hunt however in the 4th as Yoshitomo Tsutsugo teed off against Seibu ace, Yusei Kikuchi. The Central would take the lead in the 6th through a Guerrero double but it was to be the Pacific who would have the last laugh as Fighters duo Sho Nakata and Haruki Nishikawa added 3RBI through their fence clearning heroics while Hawks duo Seiichi Uchikawa and Alfredo Despaigne added the extra runs to make it a clear victory for the Pacific League representatives. 

Raul Valdes struck out Otani as his highlight for the game, while Katsuki Matayoshi struck out two and gave up a run in his one inning of relief. Guerrero made a steady contribution with his RBI double while Yohei Oshima got on the board with a hit in his two plate appearances. 

Not the greatest result for the Dragons involved nor the Central League itself but these things happen.

Chiba awaits tomorrow and we'll see how many Dragons will get a run out. Another HR derby will be had, but this time Carp's Seiya Suzuki will be mashing with Tsutsugo to represent the Central League. Fully otherwise expect to see Tomoyuki Sugano on the mound to start for Central while Matayoshi and Valdes may not see any more time in this series. 

Daily Update: Fresh All-Stars (Western League v Eastern League) @Kusanagi , 13th July; Kasahara whiffs 3

For those unfamiliar with the farm system in Japan unlike the NPB, the two farm leagues are split in Eastern and Western conferences with the line being drawn at Nagoya. Any team West of Nagoya is part of the "Western League" any team east of it is part of the "Eastern League." 

Once a year there is an All-Star game for the farm teams held usually in a regional ground. This is more or less like the MLB Futures game and it's a way to showcase new talent. However, due to there not being as much depth to the farm systems in Japan as there are in the US, you don't always get the best farm-team players per se, but usually the best rookies or the blokes that haven't played in the game before. 

This year the representative from the Dragons were Shotaro Kasahara, Taisuke Maruyama, Hiroki Kondo and Ryota Ishioka. All four of the players have been involved with the first team at some stage this year and Kasahara only recently put in an innings worth of relief against the Tigers but this doesn't really matter as none of them have competed in the game before and there all Chunichi representatives. Masami Ishigaki, the high school rookie infielder was meant to play in place of Kondo, but due to a wild pitch from Shintaro Fujinami earlier in the month the copped him in the head, he was stood down from duty. 

SP: Taiki Ono (Tigers) 1IP 0ER 1SO　　　　　　　Kaisei Sone (Hawks) 3-2
SP: Tatsuya Imai (Lions) 1IP 0ER 0SO

For the first time in history the game ended in a 0-0 tie. Both sides only had 4 hits a piece and we saw a lot of different pitchers. Unfortunately there weren't a lot of highlights for this one so I'll just run down what the Chunichi boys did.

Ishioka and Kondo started in the line-up both in the outfield but only the latter was able to make contact. Kondo went 3-1 on the night while Ishioka was withdrawn after two hitless at-bats.

Taisuke Maruyama pitched the 3rd inning and gave up a hit but it was to be Shotaro Kasahara who would prove to be one of the most impressive whiffing 3 batters and giving up one hit in the 4th inning.

Seibu's Suzuki the first to fall.

Fighters' Moryama get punched out

DeNA's Sano goes down for the third.

The Western League all-stars on a whole struck out more but it was a very even game where neither team really created enough of the chances they were afforded. Kaisei Sone of the Hawks with his two hits captured the MVP award for the game.

Tonight and tomorrow we have the real deal, the NPB All-Stars games with Raul Valdes starting on the mound tonight in front of the home crowd. Kodai Senga of the Hawks will start of the Pacific League.

In other news, Dayan Viciedo has finally returned from the United States having completed his citizenship processing. He is hoping to be back for the series against the Giants starting on Monday. Whether or not the team will let him is another thing. Jordan Norberto however has been in the mean time be de-registered from the first team with media sources suggesting that Kazuki Yoshimi will be coming up to replace him. 

Shigekazu Mori has gotten solid backing from the Chunichi owner, Bungo Shirai as the businessman has been very happy with what Mori has done with the team so far. Shirai has said that he would like to see the Dragons finish in the top 3 this season. Mori has said that his first objective is hitting .500 which he thinks would see the Dragons well into the fight for a playoff spot. 

Daily Update: Dragons v Tigers @Koshien, 12th July; Valdes start, bullpen loss.

Dragons 4-5 Tigers

WP: Rafael Dolis 1IP 0ER 0SO                                     Yamato 4-3, 4RBI
LP: Katsuki Matayoshi 1IP 1ER 1SO                            Alex Guerrero 4-2, 2RBI, 1HR

It was to be a game where the Dragons lost everything late in the game despite looking very good to start proceedings.

Alex Guerrero teed off in the 1st against Akiyama to notch a 2-run homer. His 23rd of the year and only the 5th that's registered more than one RBI.

Yamato's timely double in the in the second allowed Oyama to scuttle home. At the top of the 6th, Yota Kyoda would get on first and be helped along by a Kamezawa safety bunt. With the king of average with RISP at the plate, Yohei Oshima, and the Yota "Flash Gordon" Kyoda on second, an added run seemed a foregone conclusion, but Oshima helped Kyoda to save his legs by knocking in his 2nd homer of the year.

That was not to be all she wrote however as in the bottom of inning Nakatani and Yamato helped get the Tigers back on level terms in a 4-hit, 1 walk inning for Valdes.

Hitoki Iwase would do his thing and hold on in the 7th but Katsuki Matayoshi with 2 outs on the board gave up the game winning RBI to "Battleship" Yamato in the 8th. 

Left with little recourse, the Dragons were unable to get past Rafael Dolis to grasp a better result.

Two fairly disappointing games. Valdes hasn't been the same since he was lit up earlier in the year and sent down to the farm. This is particularly a shame when you consider he's going to the All-Star games on Friday and Saturday. The bats didn't produce quite enough either going down 6 hits to 10 today, but the pop was there today where it wasn't so much yesterday. 

Our next game won't be until the 17th against the Giants as we have the aforementioned All-Star game. I will cover both games in the similar report form that I do here. Yohei Oshima, Alex Guerrero, Raul Valdes and Katsuki Matayoshi are our participants this year. Guerrero will be participating in the home-run derby on Friday in Nagoya while Seiya Suzuki will take his place in Chiba on Saturday. 

In other news, owner Bungo Shirai has ordered the club go after Waseda Jikkyo slugger, Kotaro Kiyomiya at all costs in this years draft. He seems convinced that the capture of the 1st baseman currently receiving national attention would change the complexion of the team and more importantly bring in more spectators to Nagoya Dome. Kiyomiya has slugged over 100 homeruns in his high school career (including practice games) and is slated to be the number 1 pick for the majority of teams. Whether or not the high schooler will choose to go to the draft is still a matter of debate as he may go straight to college instead. With our heads scout Tsuneo Tanaka keen on Kiyomiya as well it seems like we already know who's going to be our first round pick. 

Daily Update: Dragons v Tigers @Kurashiki, 11th July; I am Uemoto, destroyer of worlds

Dragons 1 - 10 Tigers

WP: Randy Messenger 7IP 1ER 6SO                              Uemoto 4-4. 3 RBI, 1HR    
LP: Jordan Norberto 3IP 3ER 1SO                                  Guerrero 4-2, 1 RBI

Both teams went ham on each other's pitching but it was the Tigers that took the initiative slamming home 10 runs to the Dragons one in Kurashiki, Okayama.

The Dragons took an early lead in the first through Alex Guerrero scoring Kyohei Kamezawa but a dubious balk call on Jordan in the bottom of the next inning put the Tigers on level terms. The call may well have thrown Jordan off as he then surrendered 2 homeruns in his third and final inning. One to Hiroki Uemoto, the star of the day, and 2-run homer to former Dragon Kosuke Fukudome.

阪神、上本の第5号ホームランと福留の第7号2ランで勝ち越し！ https://t.co/dpuSckpwg9 pic.twitter.com/oVWN1XeU0e

— NANJ of US プロ野球速報 (@nanj_of_us) 2017年7月11日

The Dominican southpaw was withdrawn for Shota Suzuki who was enlisted for emergency long relief duties. The young starter had a torrid time however as he did worse than his rotation partner giving up 5 earned runs over his two innings including giving up an RBI double to Messenger. With the Tigers well and truly in the ascendancy, the Dragons gave the bullpen a run out with rookie Shotaro Kasahara continuing his scoreless streak with zero earned runs in 4 appearances. While Koji Fukutani and Ryuya Ogawa closed out.

The Dragons just didn't have it in them today. Although they managed 10 hits, there was no connection to turn them in to runs. One hopes the slated return of Dayan Viciedo in 2 weeks time will help improve things, but the team has suffered a bit recently.

Tomorrow the team lines up against the Tigers once again with Raul Valdes taking the mound despite being selected for the All-Stars games on Friday and Saturday. He'll be up against Takumi Akiyama at Koshien.

Writers Update and Apologies

Dear Readers,

I know you come here for fresh, up to date information on the Chunichi Dragons in English. I know that there comes an expectation when someone puts effort into producing something regularly and I'm sorry I haven't be able to keep up. As you may have picked up from earlier in the year my updates were getting less and less frequent as I kept falling behind. The fact is that this blog is a hobby of mine and whilst I love doing it, there are several other things that take priority in my life.  I desperately want to continue doing what I  love here and I am looking into more time efficient ways I can keep this blog updated regularly. One option I am exploring is daily updates given I can probably devote 1 hour a day to the blog, but not 3 hours in one day to do a weekly recap. This is something I will try to do.

I am also unhappy that I haven't been able to give you more than just match reports this year. There is much, much more I want to explore with you about the Dragons. I have had plans to do features on what I consider the Dragons best ever 12 along with the best ever foreign 12 but this is a plan I've continually had to shelf due to my work and family commitments. Perhaps this is something I can consider in the off-season.

In any case. I do apologise for not giving any notice up until this point. The blog has been inactive since the start of interleague. I don't like to leave gaps, but I think at this stage I have to consider that I've lagged too far behind now to catch up. My plan now is to attempt daily updates in a concise form starting from Tuesday the 11th. There's only a few games during that week due to the All-Star break so it might be a good way to test the waters. I will also endeavour to cover the All-Star games and if possible give a run down of how our first year players are doing and what the general state of the team is.

Some of you may have noticed that I am still pretty active on Twitter @chunichisoul and I have also done some updates with a Facebook page I set up, albeit not too much recently.

I once again apologise for my inconsistency as this is something that happened last year as well, but I will endeavour to find a sustainable way to keep this blog going and updated on a regular basis. For the time being, please follow me on Twitter as it is a simple way I can keep you up to date with Chunichi stats and news.

Thank you all for your understanding,

Sincerely,

Scott