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크리스토퍼 펠레그리니,
クリストファー・ペレグリニ
This is channel 10's idea of how to stress a point that they really want the viewer to understand.
"...and just how many people's pension money has been misplaced? [out of the corner of his mouth] Pssst, hold up the sign."
"Oh. Now?"
"Yes, now! It looks more official if we're holding them up at the same time!"
I nearly died laughing, but fortunately I was able to snap this photo before they switched to some gritty, on-the-scene reporting of a parliamentary debate.
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We were never going to win that game anyway with Tateyama (0-2, 4.15 era) on the mound. In the third and final inning of Tateyama's afternoon he gave up five runs on five hits and three walks (the last of which forced in a run).
And it definitely didn't help that we were facing Hiroshima's ace, Kuroda (4-2, 2.72).
Kuroda got through nine innings on only 89 pitches this afternoon (7 hits, 5 strikeouts, and 1 walk). Both of Tokyo's runs were brought around by Guiel's bat (7th inning solo dinger and 9th inning rbi single to center)
Final score:
Hiroshima 5
Tokyo 2
Silver Lining:
Ishikawa (0-3, 7.08), one of Tokyo's many starters who forgot how to pitch during the off-season, made a two-inning middle relief appearance. He retired all six batters he faced and had two strikeouts.
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Tokyo Swallows
After seven straight losses, the Swallows got a win! Greisinger pitched six solid innings while giving up two runs on five hits.
Tokyo blew the game wide open in the third when the first five batters had base hits. That six hit inning translated into five runs.
In an interesting development, Guiel and Ramirez have been switched in the batting order. I would imagine that Furuta is trying to figure out where Guiel feels the most comfortable, and Ramirez is probably more than happy to give up the cleanup slot if it means that the team will knock in extra runs and win more ballgames. He's easy like that.
For those who are keeping track, Ramirez went 2 for 5, and Guiel was 2 for 4.
Final score:
Hiroshima 2
Tokyo 6
Update: This win enabled Tokyo to escape their first 8-game losing streak in 15 years.
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Tokyo Swallows
Fujii gave up a few big walks early on, and those proved to be the difference. Tokyo has now lost the first two games of the series versus Chunichi.
There have, however, been a couple of bright spots over the past week:
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Dropped the entire series versus Hanshin. Tons of fun.
Beautiful thing about baseball--it just takes a couple of iffy pitches for the whole thing to fall apart. Happened twice tonight.
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It's turning out to be that kind of season. We have another starting pitcher who is in need of time away from the rotation, so we are temporarily without the services of our steadiest hurler, Greisinger. Seems he has some shoulder issues...hopefully he'll feel healthy enough to get back into the rotation before he's missed three or four starts (fingers crossed).
So the current tally is one loss to the Baystars followed by consecutive losses to the Hanshin Tigers. Game three of the Hanshin series is this evening. Yes, I will be at the game.
In (slightly) positive news, the bats at the top of our lineup continue to move runners around the diamond. Aoki, Ramirez, and Miyamoto are getting it done. Iihara and Guiel are also coming into their own week by week. Fujii pitched quite well (by his standards) the other night, so that was a heart-warming sign as well.
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As an encore, the Tokyo Swallows have followed up their solid win on Sunday versus first place Yomiuri with two straight wins against the second place Yokohama Baystars (who have been having an amazing season thus far).
Didn't see that coming.
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Tokyo Swallows
Ishii proved that he still has it when he shut down the Yomiuri lineup tonight. He allowed one run off of only four hits in eight innings of work!
His seven K's were qualified by a pair of walks and one plunked batter.
He maintained decent control of his slider from start to finish, and he displayed some very good glovework on the defensive end of things.
Miyade (solo home run) and Guiel (bloop single, Iihara scored from 3rd) were responsible for Tokyo's two runs.
Final score:
Tokyo 2 - Yomiuri 1
Winning Pitcher: Ishii
Losing Pitcher: Takahashi
Save: Takatsu
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Tokyo just wrapped up another big loss at the hands of cross-town rivals, Yomiuri.
Our pitching is in shambles. We don't have two of our starters, Kawashima and Gonzales, and that has hurt us dearly. What's more, past greats like Ishii and Ishikawa, who represent the old and the new of Tokyo's bullpen, are not getting it done. Matsui, a rookie (and not our best rookie), was handed the ball again tonite. It didn't go well.
Only a few of our hitters are pulling their weight at the moment. Aoki (despite a sore neck), Ramirez, and Miyamoto are playing very well. Other than that, the lineup leaves a lot to be desired. Iihara and Tanaka, two of Tokyo's prized up-and-comers, are still a year or two from valuable production from home plate. Riggs's absence from the lineup has further complicated things by leaving a gaping hole in the business-end of the order. Guiel still sways between moments of brilliance and utter stupidity when he's up to bat. I think it's fair to say that consistency isn't really our strong suit.
And can we please buy a catcher who can hit?
At sixth in the central, it seems like we'll be content to win one out of every three games for the next few weeks. No run support was offered tonight (final score Tokyo 0 - Yomiuri 8), and that definitely needs to change. But run support is largely ineffective when your starter's era is above six (which is true for several of our starters [wipes away tears]).
Names that won't be back next year if this continues: Furuta, Ishii Kazuhisa, and Ramirez [even though he's playing very well right now. The foreigner will probably take one for the team (ie. not be offered a new contract) if Tokyo stays in the cellar all season].
PS. Hoshino, famed former Hanshin and future national team head coach, was an annoying guest announcer this evening during NHK's oft-interrupted telecast of the game. Perhaps I'm being overly sensitive due to the big loss this evening, but he managed to dance all over one of my pet peeves. Bear with me...
I think he explicitly mentioned that a player was a foreigner (gaikokujin senshu) at least two dozen times during the game. Sounds innocent enough because they are, by all accounts, not Japanese, but it just seems like more of the same.
Is it really important that these men, who pay taxes here in Japan, are repeatedly differentiated as foreign? Some may argue that it is. I say it isn't. I think that the repeated reference to a person being foreign (and therefore un-Japanese) belies ignorance, and when repeated often enough, it belies an attitude of superiority.
In his defense, Hoshino is a man that operates in the pro sports world of us and them. Soon this rhetoric will sound all too acceptable when the Beijing Olympics roll around. Perhaps we want this sort of attitude from the skipper of our national side--he may be able to instill a sense of nationalism in his charges that will help inspire them to reach the gold medal game. Also, there were a few times when he was referring to all foreign players in Japan (as in, "The foreigners are brought here to hit"), and I can't really think of a more efficient way to say that in Japanese than the way he did.
But I would be surprised if Hoshino could come up with the nationalities of the three position players on Tokyo's roster (Ramirez is from Venezuela, Guiel is from Canada, and Riggs is from the United States of America). For him, they are all foreigners. Every time he repeated the differentiation, it seemed to be more out of habit and less out of necessity.
Perhaps it's too small a gripe for me to dedicate half a post to, but this guy is a role model. I think that many people, particularly folks who have spent part of their lives living in a foreign country, will agree that Hoshino's words are emblematic of a larger problem. Japanese, Venezuelans, Canadians, and Americans don't outrank each other in any way, shape, or form. It would be nice if everyone, especially people who spend a lot of time coaching foreign players, realized that.
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