Yakyu All-Stars

Hello everyone. Yes I know that I am behind with my games to be posted but I wanted to get this one on the blog rather quickly as it turned out to be a great game and all around great day for Pro Yakyu. Also, just a little note, I will be doing an official stadium report on Starfin Stadium sometime during the off season because hey, we need to keep the Yakyu news flowing all year long right? So for now, my initial impressions of the stadium and today's game will have to do.

So, right now the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters are hosting a 3 game series with the Rakuten Eagles. Well, the first 2 games of this series are being held here in Asahikawa at Starfin Stadium as part of the Fighter's "We Love Hokkaido Series". So what that means basically is that every year, the Ham play a certain number of games in different parts of Hokkaido in order to bring baseball to the far reaches of the island and believe me folks, some of these places here in Hokkaido are far reaches. This is brilliant marketing on the Ham's part as they drew a little over 15,000 people for a day game on a weekday today. Oh yeah, and you'll notice too that the Fighters are wearing different uniforms too as part of the "We Love Hokkaido Series". Last year they were black and dark blue I believe but this year they decided to go with a purple colored uniform and I've got to say that I like it because it's different.



Infielder Chung-Shou Yang warming up before the game.



FINALLY! Some decent pics of Atsunori Inaba! You can run but you can not hide HA HA! Seriously, I've tried long and hard to get good pics of Inaba but just couldn't.



Inaba loves Hokkaido and so should you!



Did I mention that Inaba is so cool? I honestly think he's part machine and that makes it even better.



Kensuke Tanaka really does love the color pink but the new inflatable hands that the team is selling really suck which will be covered in a rant on a future blog entry.

Come to think of it, the "We Love Hokkaido" games are sort of similar to what Seibu does with its "Lions Classic" games because they play against every team in the Pacific League while wearing special uniforms and promoting a common theme (Seibu's reflects on its past while the Fighters concentrate on bringing baseball and itself subsequently closer to the entire island of Hokkaido). But it's strange that the Ham didn't play any "We Love Hokkaido" games against Orix this season. I don't know the reason for that but the concept for these games works and "I Love Hokkaido" even more as a result.

I'm going to assume that we all know who Victor Starfin is but for those who don't, who can find out who he is at this page here. I had bought my tickets via telephone back in April when they went on sale and had been looking forward to this trip for a number of months and it was well worth the wait. Asahikawa is a nice small city in the northern part of Hokkaido with some of the best ramen in all of Japan. But, the reason why I came to Asahikawa was to visit Starfin Stadium and what a great stadium it is indeed. The minute you walk into the main gate, you are presented with this statue:



Simply amazing and awe-inspiring is all I have to say. A true icon in Pro Yakyu is Mr. Victor Starfin and even though I don't know as much about the history of Pro Yakyu as some other people I know, I really did feel humbled and blessed to have the chance to visit such an awesome place. If any of you ever get the rare chance to come to Asahikawa for a game, by all means do it. You won't be disappointed. The actual stadium itself seemed kind of small to me and reminded me of Hiratsuka Stadium in Kanagawa Prefecture where I used to live (I did a write up on a Shonan SeaRex game at Hiratsuka Stadium earlier this year if you want to learn more about that place).

Now, as for the game itself, the staring pitchers were Hisashi Iwakuma for Rakuten and Tomoya Yagi for the Fighters. Nippon Ham started the game out really good by getting to Iwakuma in the bottom of the 1st. Kensuke Tanaka singled to left to start things off and was later driven in on an RBI Single by DH Shinji Takahashi and just like that it was 1-0 Fighters. It seemed like this was going to be a bad day for Iwakuma who gave up 3 hits in the first inning alone, but he got the help he needed in the top of the 2nd when Takeshi "Hulk Smash" Yamasaki walked to start the inning off and then was brought home when Fernando Seguignol homered to left to give Rakuten a 2-1 lead. Then in the 3rd, Rakuten struck again thanks to Tomoya Yagi's bad control. Rakuten lead off man Todd Linden singled with one out and was then moved over to third on a single to right by Naoto Watanabe. Shortly after that, Teppi hit an RBI Single to shallow right which made it 3-1 Rakuten. "Hulk Smash" Yamasaki then fouled out to 3rd and Yagi then proceeded to give up back to back walk to Seguignol and Rick Short which brought in Watanabe from third and widened Rakuten's lead at 4-1. But we weren't finished yet as former Yakult Swallow Ryuji Miyade singled to shallow center to put another run on the board and make it 5-1 Rakuten. Nippon Ham added another run of their own in the bottom of the 3rd when Kazuya Murata singled to left and then proceeded to steal 2nd while Atsunori Inaba was batting. Shinji Takahashi then hit his second RBI of the game which was a single to shallow left and that made it 5-2 Rakuten. Fernando Seguignol added another run in the top of the 8th via a solo home run to make it 6-2 and pinch hitter Yoshitoro Satoh added a solo home run of his own in the bottom of the 9th to make it 6-3 but the Ham could do no more and that's where the score ended up.



Hisashi Iwakuma catches a ball with his eyes closed.



Iwakuma delivering a pitch in the bottom of the 1st.

Yagi settled down after the 3rd inning and ended up pitching into the 7th inning. Meanwhile, Iwakuma just dominated the Fighters after he got that run support and ended up going all 9 innings on 111 pitches to get the win although he did give up 10 hits and 3 runs to the Ham while striking out 4 and walking 1. But despite Yagi's performance (5 runs 7 hits 6 strike outs and 4 walks though 7 innings), this was his first loss in a month or so I believe and he does hold an 8-2 record this season with a 2.90 ERA as of now and that has to count for something. Every pitcher has his off day and I think this was Yagi's so we'll see if he can rebound in his next start or if this is something else.


Tomoya Yagi sporting the special issue jersey for the "We Love Hokkaido" games.



Yagi delivering a pitch in the 6th inning.

All in all, a great day for Yakyu as I got to visit Starfin Stadium for the first time and see Iwakuma pitch a fantastic game. Hopefully, the game tomorrow will be just as good and I will end my time here in Asahikawa on a good note but until then, please enjoy some sights from the game today as posted in the blog here and as always, thanks for reading and keep supporting the game of Pro Yakyu.



Speaking of good things, today was Ryuji Miyade's birthday and he gave us all a present by hitting an RBI single in the game. Thanks Ryuji and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!



Makoto Kaneko also loves Hokkaido.



Kensuke Tanaka puts the tag on "Hulk Smash" Yamasaki as he tried to go for extra bases in the 5th. I really think I need more action shots like this in my blog which is something I'll try to work on in the future.



Fernando Seguignol crosses home plate after his second home run of the day. Ironically, since he bats switch, he hit his first one from the right side of the plate and his second one from the left side of the plate which was really neat to see.



Seguignol STILL loves Hokkaido and Hokkaido and Fighters fans still love him.



Yoshitoro Satoh does his best Seguignol impersonation in the bottom of the 9th.



Kazuya Murata warming up in the 9th inning and yes, He does love Hokkaido too so don't ask.


And much like "Everybody Loves Raymond", it's a safe bet to say that "Everybody Loves Hokkaido" just as much if not more.

Greetings everyone. It's been a little while I know, but I haven't had much time for Pro Yakyu as of late with the Japanese school term ending for the summer holidays. And because of the summer holidays (and the boredom that comes along with it partially), I have this burning desire to write about and go to Pro Yakyu games and I will be doing just that this summer. So, as a sort of treat to everyone out there, I decided to kick things off by making a "culture trip" to Nagano to take in some sites and whatnot. Oh yeah, and there just happened to be a baseball game being hosted in Nagano that didn't affect my travel plans whatsoever when I planned this trip. A strange coincidence indeed.

So, I arrived at Nagano Station at around 12:30pm and after checking my bag into the hotel where I would be staying at, I went back to the station and proceeded to the Nagano Olympic Stadium shuttle bus area. And much to my surprise, none other than the Yomiuri Giants had a bus waiting for them right near where the shuttle buses were. So, as you can imagine, when they were heading towards the bus, they were immediately hounded by at least 20+ people wanting autographs. But, as the players went into the bus and sat down, none other than Marc Kroon came over to where I was standing and shook my hand. Now for those of you who don't know, during the 2007 season, I used to travel around and see the BayStars at wherever they went. And as such, I kind of made it a point to always say "hi" to Marc (it was his last season in Yokohama). So, I guess because I went to so many games, Marc remembered who I was. Now, I hadn't seen Marc in quite some time but when he came over and shook my hand, I got goosebumps. We had a short one minute chat before he headed onto the bus and headed to the stadium. I was in shock to say the least. I guess it was one of those "fan moments" people tend to have when talking with their favorite players and whatnot.

Now, as for the match itself, this looked really good on paper because of the pitching match up. The Giants sent out Wifrin Obispo and Yokohama countered with ace Daisuke Miura. Since being called up to the top team, Obispo has been on fire for the Giants and has turned heads to say the least. Suffice to say, I actually enjoyed watching the Giants play in this game and no that was not a typo (I’m also preparing myself for the numerous amounts of stones and other foreign that will be hurled in my general direction after I post this article too). Nowadays, whenever I see the Giants, I see a lot of players I don’t even recognize. It seems to me like Yomiuri is getting younger in some areas so to speak and it’s obviously working as they have had an iron grip on first place in the Central League for what seems like an eternity now. So while I still don’t really care for Yomiuri, I’ve got to give credit where credit is due.



Former Nippon Ham Fighter Takahito Kudoh.

But aside from all that, the story of the game for me was Yomiuri starter Wifrin Obispo. After a rocky start in the first inning which included a bunt hit and a hit batter, Obispo became untouchable and went on to throw his first complete game on 120 pitches while only giving up 2 runs on 6 hits while striking out 7. Obispo really deserves to be on the top roster at this point and I’m glad that the Giants didn’t demote him after Kroon was ready to come of the disabled list. So, congratulations to Obispo on this accomplishment in his career and I hope to see him at least one more time this season before it ends.

Wifrin Obispo reacting after throwing a pitch.

Obispo delivering a pitch.

Wifrin Obispo getting ready to deliver a pitch.

Daisuke Miura standing on second after hitting a double in the 3rd.

Miura immediately after hitting the ball.

Miura getting ready to hit the ball.

Yokohama on the other hand, was really a huge letdown by the way they played. It simply amazes me that about 2 weeks ago, they were riding a really impressive 5 game winning streak but now have reverted to their old ways. Bad pitching and the disease known as “iipatsu byou” (a disease in which pitchers have been known to give up an extraordinary amount of home runs throughout the course of a season) were Yokohama’s main problems. The lack of offense too also contributed to this loss as well but when your ace pitcher is serving up homeruns like nobody’s business, well that takes precedence in my opinion.

Michihiro Ogasawara or rather his “clean-shaven dopplelganger” as my friend Deanna from Marinerds would say, started things off for the Giants by hitting a solo home run to left in the top of the 1^st to give Yomiuri an early 1-0 lead. Then in the top of the 2^nd, the home runs continued as Yoshiyuki Kamei and Shinosuke Abe each hit solo home runs to right field (Abe’s barely cleared the wall) to give Yomiuri a 3-0 lead which basically spelled the end for Yokohama. While Yokohama ace Daisuke Miura didn’t really pitch all that well, he did help out with the bat by leading off the bottom of the 3^rd with a double to left. Miura then was then moved over to third on a single by Yokohama leadoff hitter Takehiro Ishikawa and was later brought home on a sacrifice fly to center by Seiichi Uchikawa which cut Yomiuri’s lead to 2. However, that’s about all the offense could do as the Giants kept on going. Shigeyuki Furuki tripled in a run in the top of the 7^th which was the only run of the game which didn’t come by the long ball and gave Yomiuri a 4-1 lead and Ogasawara’s clean-shaven doppleganger added 2 more in the top of the 8^th with a 2 run home run to left which was his second on the night. Yokohama 1^st baseman Dan Johnson added a solo shot of his own to center in the bottom of the 9^th hoping to start something for Yokohama’s offense but it wasn’t meant to be as Yomiuri scored often and early to put away Yokohama 6-2.

Alex Ramirez taking some batting practice before the game.

Michihiro Ogasawara's clean-shaven doppleganger watching his first home run of the night sail into the left field stands in the first.

Yomiuri catcher Shinosuke Abe hitting a home run in the 2nd inning.


Not a very good way for Yokohama to head into the All-Star break and here's hoping that they can have a respectable second half. But all in all, it was a great time as I did end up in the outfield around the 5th inning and got to cheer with some of my friends who had also made the trip to Nagano.

Yokohama closer Shun Yamaguchi and Yuta Sekiguchi greeting people at the entrance before the game. I think like the first 100 or so people in the gate also got a free BayStars fan book as well.



Shingo Takeyama and Takehiro Ishikawa also greeting people by the entrance gate I was at.

Hello again everyone. I'm slowly trying to get my backlog of posts done but until they get posted, here's something special I did today. Now as many of you know, I used to live near Yokohama City in Kanagawa Prefecture for nearly 3 years and I used to frequent Yokohama BayStars games quite often (almost everyday to be exact). But last year I moved out to Chichibu City in Saitama to continue working as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT). So, you can imagine my surprise that Seibu actually hosted a game out near where I live and that meant I ONLY had to take a 30 minute bus ride over a mountain to go see a game Woo Hoo!!! Ogano town is actually in the western part of the Chichibu District of Saitama which basically means it's even deeper in the mountains than Chichibu City is and is further away from civilization. But, the area has it's charm and I do enjoy going there.

And also, because this was a local game in my area, baseball clubs from all over Chichibu came to watch the game and I spent almost the entire game in the outfield with one of my school’s baseball club. It was very fun and I got to know the kids a little better after it was all said and done. In addition, I recently purchased a Cannon PowerShot SX10 IS and used it to take pictures at a game for the first time so you may notice that the quality of my pictures has gotten better. I was quite pleased with how the pictures came out and I’m glad I just decided to get a new camera to replace my crappy point and shoot with it’s fuzzy pictures. But, enough with all that and let’s get to the game shall we?

The weather was gorgeous for the game on Sunday and Seibu did quite well in terms of attendance drawing almost 2,000 people to the game with the actual total being 1,861. Before the game too, Seibu held a サイン会 or autograph session in which the first 100 people to line up in front of the autograph tent got the chance to receive a signature from a player after paying a 200 yen fee. After paying, you received a numbered ticket with the letter A, B, C, D, or E on it and whoever sat in that particular chair that’s whose autograph you got. I was fortunate enough to get pitcher Koji Onuma’s autograph because he wasn’t signing at all. It appears that Seibu does this regularly before each local 2-gun game they play as they did it in Kumagaya and Omiya as well. Also too, I spent the morning with a student of mine autograph hunting before the game and got really sunburned in the process. But, the effort paid off as I made off with quite a number of autographs that day. Here’s a list of players that I got to sign (excluding Onuma) in no particular order:

Tomohito Yoneno (Yakult)

Masayoshi Miwa (Yakult)

Takayuki Shimizu

Taketoshi Gotoh (who is a really nice guy too btw)

Hideto Asamura

Takuya Hara

I was really angry that I just barely missed getting Shogo Akada’s autograph but despite that, I did quite well I feel as I did get Shimizu’s autograph which I really wanted to begin with.

But I do have a gripe with Seibu though about something. Now I’m not condoning anyone for their personal habits but smoking in an exposed tent in front of little children is a bad thing. It’s no secret that ballplayers smoke but if your going to do it, please do it in an enclosed area. Maybe they just didn’t do a good job of covering the tent up or whatever but that really got to me as these children look up to the players as role models and often imitate what they see. I experience this sort of thing everyday and it’s something I don’t really like to see.

Tokyo Yakult starter Shun Takaichi.

Seibu Starter Ryohei Fujiwara thinking before the game.

The starting pitchers for the game were Shun Takaichi for Yakult and Ryohei Fujiwara for Seibu. Right out of the gate, Fujiwara was bad, as he had zero control as he couldn’t find the strike zone and walked 2 batters in the first inning alone. Yakult struck first on a bases loaded sac fly by Takayuki Saito to make it 1-0 Yakult in the first. Yakult added another run in the top of the 2^nd when 3^rd baseman Ryosuke Morioka hit a solo homer to left that made it 2-0 Yakult. Then, in the top of the 3^rd with 2 on, Yakult centerfielder Tsuyoshi Ueda blasted a 3 run shot to left center to make it 5-0 Yakult. After this, Fujiwara was finished and it seemed that this was going to be a quick game for the Swallows. But, in the bottom of the 4^th inning, something started to happen. Now, I don’t know if it was the clean country air in Chichibu or Yakult just decided to call it a day, but Seibu came back with a vengeance over the next 3 innings. Taketoshi Gotoh started things off for Seibu with a two run homerun in the bottom of the 4^th that made it 5-2 Yakult. Yakult struck back and added another run in the top of the 5^th courtesy of an RBI single by Yakult right fielder Munenori Shida which made it 6-2 Yakult.But not to be outdone, in the bottom of the 5^th, Seibu struck again as Takuya Hara hit a bases clearing triple with 2 on to make it 6-4 Yakult and then Gotoh singled to left for an RBI which pulled Seibu with in one making the score 6-5 Yakult.

Saitama Seibu 1st baseman/DH Taketoshi Gotoh crossing home plate after hitting his 2 run home run in the bottom of the 4th.

Gotoh again going for it all, YEAH!


Before the game, there was a local Taiko drum group that performed for the pre-game entertainment. What’s funny is that they ended up staying for the entire game and would start playing after Seibu scored a run. Needless to say, Seibu set off the Taiko quite a bit as they broke the game open and then some in the bottom of the 6^th. Seibu left fielder Hidekazu Hoshi led of the inning with a walk. Then, Keisuke Mizuta hit a two run homer to deep left to make it 7-6 Seibu. But not to be outdone by his teammate, 3^rd baseman Naomichi Umeda hit his own home run to deep left center to make it 8-6 Seibu. Now, you think that this would be it right? Not even close as Seibu was just humiliating Yakult by this point. Shogo Akada and Takuya Hara drew consecutive walks and were moved over to third and second respectively by a Hiroyuki Oshima single to load the bases. Then, the man of the day himself came to the plate in the form of Taketoshi Gotoh and promptly hit a 2 run RBI double to make it 10-6 and put runners on third and second. What happened next was just incredible as Takayuki Shimizu SMASHED a 3 run home run into the riverbed behind the stadium to make it 13-6 Seibu and as a result of this, Shimizu also managed to send a horde of about 30+ kids into the riverbed to try and get the ball. One of my students actually managed to get the ball so it was pretty neat. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen at a Japanese baseball game to date. But Seibu wasn’t even done after all this. Keisuke Mizuta decided that 13 runs wasn’t enough and hit his second home run of the inning to left center to make it 14-6 Seibu. After that, the inning was finally over as was the game for the most part. Yakult managed to add another run in the 7^th counrtesy of a bases loaded walk by Yakult shortstop Yuji Onizaki but by that time it really didn’t matter as the damage had been done as Yakult would go down quietly in the 8^th and 9^th innings.

Takayuki Shimizu swinging at a pitch early in the game.

This is FORMER Gomiuri Giant Takayuki Shimizu. He looks 1 million times better in these colors than those other ones. Kutabare Gomiuri!!! And yes, he is really really popular with the Seibu fans.

All in all, a truly fantastic game by Seibu despite a rocky start by both the pitching and the hitting and plus the game being played in my backyard basically added to the excitement as well. Both teams did really well I feel and I honestly didn’t know that both teams turned the game into a slugfest as well until I checked the box scores after the game. Plus, seeing my students happy made me feel pretty good too as some of them were able to catch some practice balls that the players threw into the stands in between innings. It’s really great if you are a teacher and are able to share some of your student’s interests as they open up to you a little more and actually listen to what you have to say. If you guys ever get the chance to go to a 2-gun game then by all means go. For 1000 yen and 9 innings of baseball, what better way is there to spend a sunny afternoon on the weekend?

As usual, here’s the box score from the game:

http://bis.npb.or.jp/eng/2009/games/fs2009060700742.html

http://www.seibulions.jp/farm/scoreboard/record/2009060701.html

Shogo Akada is NOT happy with that strike call!



Yakult Swallows catcher Tomohito Yoneno



Saitama Seibu pitcher Tetsuya Iwasaki. He has on of the wildest wind ups I have ever seen seriously.



Takuya Hara using his batting eye to draw a walk.



Yakult outfielders Munehiro Shida and Tsuyoshi Ueda reacting after Tetsuya Hara's triple.



Saitama Seibu catcher Shota Nakata going for the bunt.

Hello once again everyone. So, a few weeks back as you all know, I went to Matsuyama to see the Yakult Swallows take on the Hiroshima Toyo-Carp at Botchan Stadium. These days, whenever I go see the Birds play, there’s one thing or rather one person I’d like to see at each game. That player is Shohei Tateyama. I was really hoping to see Tateyama pitch in one of these games and can you guess what the pitching match up for the day was? It was none other than Shohei Tateyama going for the Swallows against Takahiro Aoki of the Carp. So right off the bat, I’ve got to give the Birds all the credit in the world and a free pass from any “constructive criticism” about the team for a while even though it makes me angry to see Tateyama get ZERO love from the Birds in terms of merchandise. But, aside from that little jab now, no more dissing the Birds for a while. The attendance for this game was 14,981, which was pretty good. I thought that more people would’ve come out for the Sunday game but nonetheless, Yakult drew good numbers for both games in Matsuyama.

This is Hiroshima first baseman Kenta Kurihara. Seriously, this guy is an amazing ballplayer.



Kurihara again. By the way, do you notice anything strange about this picture? Now correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't really see many pro ballplayers doing this sort of thing or at least I haven't. Bonus points to Hiroshima for including this baseball fundamental during their practice time.



New Hiroshima outfielder Scott McClain taking his swings before the game.



Hiroshima second baseman Akihiro Higashide in the batting cage while manager Marty Brown plays with a bat.



Hiroshima starter Takahiro Aoki.

The game itself was much like the previous day. Both pitchers started off pretty good but Hiroshima starter Takahiro Aoki ran into trouble in the 3^rd inning. After a groundout by pitcher Shohei Tateyama to start the bottom of the 3^rd, Yakult shortstop Keizoh Kawashima singled to left and then Yakult left fielder Kazuki Fukuchi singled to right which put runners on first and third. And then, Aoki singled to right to make it 1-0 Yakult and Botchan Stadium promptly erupted. Seriously, the ovation that Aoki got was loud.

After that, Hiroshima finally got on the board in the top of the 5^th. THE MAN, Takuro Ishii, doubled to left to start off the inning and then advanced to 3^rd on a groundout by Hiroshima 2nd baseman Eishin Soyogi. After that, Sohichiro Amaya hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Takuro to tie the game at 1 a piece. However, that's all that Tateyama would give up as Hiroshima couldn't score any more runs for the rest of the game.

But not to be outdone, Yakult came back in the bottom of the 6^th with a vengence. After a line out to first by Aaron Guiel and a flyout to right by Shinya Miyamoto, catcher Ryoji Aikawa singled to right. Then, Yakult second baseman Hiroyasu Tanaka hit a grounder to second which Hiroshima second baseman Eishin Soyogi misplayed for an error and that put runners on first and third. Then, Takada kantoku made the play of the game in my opinion when brought in Shinichiro Takeuchi to pinch hit for Tateyama even though the fans want to see Tateyama pitch anpther inning at least. Takeuchi promptly singled to left to make it 2-1 Yakult and put runners on 1^st and 2^nd. But Yakult wasn't done yet. Shortstop Keizoh Kawashima singled to right to score Hiroyasu Tanaka from 2^nd but due to the slide from Tanaka, catcher Yoshiyuki Ishihara missed the ball and Takeuchi came around to score as well to make it 4-1 Yakult.

After that, Masao Kida and Ryota Igarashi would hold Yakult scoreless for the next 2 innings and this allowed Yakult super closer Chang-Yong Lim to pick up his 10^th save of the season. Naturally, Shohei Tateyama picked up the win by going 6 strong innings and giving up 1 run while striking out 7. It was just a pleasure to see Tateyama pitch and I hope I can see him pitch at least one more time before the season is over.

Yakult starter Shohei Tateyama. Sorry, all the pictures I took of Tateyama turned out bad. But, it still doesn't diminish the great season he's having.

Tateyama again.

Yakult setup man Ryota Igarashi warming up before the 8th. So, if Igarashi does indeed make it big and go to the Majors after this season is over, I can officially say that I saw him way back when. Oh yeah, and that's Shinya Miyamoto talking to an umpire in the background too.

Ryota Igarashi throwing the ball...

Now, I've got to say that Yakult has surprised me this season so far. As of this writing (05/20/2009) they are in second place in the central with a record of 22-13. Hopefully, they can continue to play well as I'd like to see a team other than the Giants, Tigers, and or Dragons in the Central League postseason this year. So keep it up Yakult and I'm pretty sure I'll be seeing you at Jingu on the last day of Inter-League play when you host the Lions.

The final score for the game.