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The Swallows have now won five straight series and have crawled out of the CL cellar.

Last Week’s Games (4W 1L, 26-28-1 Overall, T-3rd in CL)

Tuesday June 5 vs. Fukuoka Softbank Hawks at Meiji Jingu Stadium 12-6 Win

Conventional wisdom coming into this game was that the Swallows early interleague success came on the back of the PL’s weaker teams and that the Hawks would be their first real test. The Swallows passed the test with flying colors. The Swallows jumped on the Hawks’ Settsu and chased him from the game after scoring five runs on him through the first three innings. The runs came in the form of an Aoki RBI double in the first, a Yamada three run homer in the second, and a Balentien solo shot in the third. Ishikawa pitched the minimum requirements for a quality start (6.0 IP, 3 ER) and got the win. Kazahari and Matsuoka pitched a perfect seventh and ninth, respectively. Muranaka struck out the side in the eighth but he also gave up a double, a walk and a Uebayashi homer for three runs. Tomotaka Sakaguchi got beaned in the arm in the first inning, and was replaced on defense before the fourth.

Wednesday June 6 vs. Fukuoka Softbank Hawks at Meiji Jingu Stadium Cancelled Dave Huff had yet another scheduled start cancelled due to rain, his third weather cancelled start of the season. The Swallows are now taking orders for a Huff Rain man t-shirt. This game is now scheduled to be played on Tuesday June 19.

Thursday June 7 vs. Fukuoka Softbank Hawks at Meiji Jingu Stadium 4-3 Win

Shingo Kawabata returned to the lineup this game, batting third and starting at first base. David Buchanan pitched on five days rest and found himself starting on a Thursday for the first time this season. Buchanan allowed an unearned run over seven innings but didn’t factor into the decision. Shuta Ishikawa was also quite efficient for the Hawks. However, Yuhei did hit solo home runs in the second and the seventh to stake out a lead for Buchanan. Hikaru Nakao who had not given up any runs in five interleague games gave up back-to-back solo homers to Yuki Yanagita and Nobuhiko “Blinky Hopper” Matsuda to give up the lead. Without Dennis Safarte to close out the game, the Hawks sent out the less intimidating Yuito Mori to close out the game. Coco fouled off a bunch of pitches and took a 2-2 offering to center to tie the game. Ishiyama came in and got three swinging strikeouts in the tenth to give the Swallows another sayonara chance. Liván Moinelo had some control issues and gave up a lead off walk to Ueda. After getting Yamada and Aoki out, Moinelo surrendered a single to Kawabata. While the Hawks didn’t intentionally walk Balentien they walked im on five pitches to face swing happy Yuhei. The free swinging lefty was disciplined enough to let draw the sayonara walk. Obiki was replace on the basepaths after a single in the fifth with an apparent injury.

Friday June 8 vs. Orix Buffaloes at Meiji Jingu Stadium 0-3 Loss Dave Huff gave up a two run homer in the third but was otherwise effective in limiting the Orix bats from getting anything else done. Yuki Nishi was even more effective as he only allowed a hit and a walk in seven innings. The Swallows didn’t fare much better against the Orix relievers as they ultimately got shutout to the tune of three hits and two walks. Akiyoshi gave up an extra (unearned) run in the ninth although most of the blame probably goes to Ryota Yachi who committed two errors in the inning. Coco was replaced prior to the top of the ninth even though he was due up in the bottom of the inning. It appeared he hurt himself chasing a foul ball in the eighth.

Saturday June 9 vs. Orix Buffaloes at Meiji Jingu Stadium 7-3 Win Juri Hara returned and labored through two innings on 40 pitches. He gave up a run in the first and two runs in the second. Luckily for Swallows fans the offense exploded for six runs in the bottom of the first capped by a three run homer by Nakamura. Matt Carasiti came in from the third and kept pitching. Carasiti managed to pitch five shutout innings of one-hit ball on 49 pitches before he was replaced before the eighth. Kondo pitched the eighth and the Swallows got an insurance run in the bottom of the inning. Ishiyama pitched the ninth in a non-save situation.

Sunday June 10 vs. Orix Buffaloes at Meiji Jingu Stadium 9-5 Win Rain fell weakly but steadily through the game. The Swallows offense managed to score eight runs through four innings, but some fans were afraid that too much offense might lead to the game being called before it became official in the fifth. This ended up being a non-issue as they managed to play the full nine despite numerous break to tend to the mound. Yasuhiro Ogawa gave up a single unearned run in the fifth and lasted for seven innings. Nakao pitched a perfect eighth. Shotaro Tashiro hit a solo homer in the eighth, his first as a Swallows. Things got ugly in the ninth as Kazahari and Matsuoka managed to allow four runs to score while leaving men on the corners and just one, turning an eight run lead into a save situation. Ishiyama came in and saved the game and secured yet another series win for the Swallows.



Roster Moves

Kawabata was reactivated on Wednesday and took Okumura’s place on the roster.

Obiki was deactivated and Miwa was called up in his place on Friday.

Akiyoshi was deactivated prior to Saturday’s game to make room for Hara.

Upcoming Games

The Swallows will play six straight games at on the road starting with a three game set with the Seibu Lions starting tomorrow. Game one will be played in Omiya before the action heads to Seibu Dome, or whatever they’re calling the open-sided sauna these days. Then they will play the Fighters up in Sapporo from Friday.

Miscellaneous

The Swallows now stand atop the Interleague standings at 9-2. They are guaranteed to have a .500 or better interleague record for the first time since going 15-9 in 2009. Their previous best record in the 18 game format was in 2015 when they went 8-9-1.

Tomotaka Sakaguchi has not started since Tuesday’s game although he did enter Thursday and Friday’s games as a pinch runner. No doubt Kawabata’s triumphant return (8-for-15) has taken some pressure off and is keeping Sakaguchi on the bench to heal.

All Star fan voting has been underway and this is the last week of voting. Yamada has a healthy lead on the Carp’s Kiuchi for second base. Aoki has hovered in and out of the third outfield spot but he currently sits behind the Carp’s Seiya Suzuki in the fan vote. No other Swallows are poised to get in via the fan vote.

The Swallows will now see if they can actually win on the road against teams that do well in their own home parks. While the sweep in Sendai was nice, Rakuten had a dismal 6-18 home record while the Swallows went in with a 6-17 road record. (That’s right, a full third of the Swallows’ road wins in 2018 have come in Sendai.)

Jordan Armengot is still in the States seeking a second opinion on a lower body injury (the Swallows have decided to be more vague about player injuries this season) and will likely not pitch for the Swallows. The rumor currently making the rounds is that 35 year-old RHP Jason Urquidez currently pitching in Mexico is close to signing with the team.