Cleveland Sports Forum

Let’s look, then, at a summary of some of the top single-season pitching outings by Cubans who have found their way onto the prime-time stage of the North American major leagues. As good as Chapman was this year, he has worked his way onto but two of the following half-dozen-plus categories. Such is the inevitable fate of a one-dimensional modern-era closer.

This summary list does not of course include some stellar achievements over the short year-end trial of post-season action. Both Liván Hernández and half-brother and Orlando Hernández were playoff MVPs in their earlier big-league seasons. And Dolf Luque as well claimed important World Series wins in an much earlier era – becoming the first Latin important to claim a pitching victory in the Fall Classic (during the Black Sox Series of 1919) and also registering the deciding win of the 1933 title match between the New York Giants and Washington Senators. Pete Ramos singlehandedly saved not only eight-straight crucial games but also a league pennant for the 1964 New York Yankees. Chapman’s own post-season sojourn has so far been credible but hardly spectacular (2 NLDS outings, 5 game appearances, 4.2 total innings, 4 runs surrendered, one loss, and no wins or saves). If the $30 million investment was intended to contribute mightily to a Cincinnati trip into the Promised Land of World Series glory it so far hasn’t even come close. But then we still have a long and winding road stretching out there before us. Aroldis Chapman may very well still eventually have his day in the big league post-season sunshine.

Here then is my own personal selection of the top one-year performances by Cuban big-league mounds men. Quite obviously it is a subjective ranking and one subject to hours of pointless debate. But two claims can likely be made without much fear of contradiction. The first is that this listing does indeed reflect the best-ever one-year mound performances by more than a century of Cuban big leaguers, even if there is plenty of room for argument about their relative weights to be assigned to such performances. And a second seemingly indisputable claim might be that Chapman may well belong on this list, but his status among Cuban big league super achievers is not yet in the same ballpark with the likes of Luque, Tiant, Cuéllar, the Hernández Brothers, Camilo Pascual – and perhaps even largely overlooked, and all too quickly discarded Danys Báez.

Top Ten Single Season MLB Achievements by Cuban-Born Pitchers
(1) Dolf Luque in 1923 – Enjoying indisputably the best-ever season for a Cuban big leaguer (either pitcher or position player), Luque paced the National league with his 27-8 mark, a .771 winning percentage, six shutouts, and a 1.93 ERA. The victory total and ERA ledger still stand nine full decades later as Cincinnati ball club records. A single season earlier Luque had also paced the National League with a career-worst 23 losses. The first Cuban to win a World Series game (1919), to post 100-plus victories, and to win 20 games in a season, Luque in 1923 also become the first of his countrymen to pace either league in either games won or ERA percentage.

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(2) Luis Tiant in 1968 – Tiant posted a remarkable league-best .160 ERA for Cleveland in what would later be known as “the year of the pitcher” (Bob Gibson authored an even-better 1.12 mark that same season over in the senior circuit). “Little Louie” also won 21 games and posted a league-best nine shutouts. This was the first of four eventual 20-win seasons for Tiant and the first of two sub-2.00 ERA campaigns (the other being his 1.91 mark in 1973 with Boston).

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(3) Mike Cuéllar in 1970 – The Santa Clara native became the first-ever Latin American and still the only Cuban ever to walk off with a Cy Young Award, splitting the trophy with Detroit’s Denny McLain. Cuéllar also finished eleventh in the AL MVP balloting and tied teammate Dave McNally for the AL best ledger with 24 victories (against 8 losses). For added measure he also led the circuit with 21 complete games for the World Champion Baltimore Orioles and eventually hurled a complete-game victory in the World Series Game 5 title clincher

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(4) Pedro Ramos in 1964 – A longtime league pacesetter in losses with Washington, Ramos was a late-career September sensation after being traded to the Yankees from Cleveland for $75,000 and two players to be named later (they would be Ralph Terry and Bud Daley). In only 13 relief appearances Ramos saved eight games, posted a 1.25 ERA and struck out 21 batters (walking none) in the same number of innings. The heroic effort allowed New York to hold off Chicago and Baltimore in a tight AL pennant race but Ramos unfortunately was ineligible for World Series action. (The following year he also led the Yankees bullpen with a career-high 19 saves).

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5) Liván Hernández in 1997 – The first “defector” to make a huge big league splash, Liván posted a 9-3 mark in his rookie campaign for the World Champion Florida Marlins and finished second in the National league top rookie voting. He also walked off with both the NLCS and World Series MVP trophies, the first time any rookie had claimed either distinction. Hernández posted unblemished 2-0 marks in both the NLCS and World Series and tied a LCS record with 15 Ks in his NLCS Game 5 outing against Atlanta.

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(6) Orlando Hernández in 1998 – Liván’s half-brother rang up a sterling 12-4 (3.13 ERA) mark in his debut season with the pennant-winning New York Yankees – a feat underscored by his unique status as a 29-year old rookie. Duque finished fourth in American League rookie-of-the-year balloting. He then capped the impressive season with solid Game 4 ALCS victory over Cleveland and also a Game 2 World Series victory in the Yankee sweep of San Diego’s Padres. (Hernández would also win the ALCS MVP award one season later.)

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(7) Camilo Pascual in 1963 – The veteran curve-ball ace won 20-plus games (21) for a second straight season for the third place Minnesota Twins and also paced American Leaguers in complete games (18) for the second consecutive year and also in strikeouts (202) for the third year in a row. Pascual received the fifth highest number of AL MVP votes among pitchers in an era when only a single CY Young trophy was awarded in the two major leagues.

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(8) Sandy Consuegra in 1954 – As a true one-year wonder, Consuegra enjoyed a remarkable 16-3 season (.842 winning percentage) for the Chicago White Sox while posting his sole career campaign with double figures in the victory column. The ledger included two shutouts and an additional three saves. Of his 39 game appearances, nearly half (17) were in relief.

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(9) Danys Báez in 2005 – The Pinar del Río native finished fifth in the American League in saves while also posting the most ever in that department (41) by a Cuban native. Báez registered saves in 61% of the team victories for a Tampa Bay ball club that finished last in the AL East and was tied for the second fewest wins among all 30 big league clubs. He authored a team-best ERA of 2.86 (while the Tampa Bay team ERA was actually a dismal 5.39).

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(10) Aroldis Chapman in 2012 – Chapman anchored the bullpen staff of the division champion Cincinnati ball club with third most National League saves and stellar numbers for both strikeout frequency and strikeout/walks ratio. Nonetheless his overall numbers seem tainted to a degree by the mere fact that Chapman remained on the hill for only a single inning in all but a couple of his 68 season outings.

The biggest question now surrounding Chapman’s career is one of durability – yes he can throw with the best of them, but as a pure thrower rather than savvy pitcher how long will that elastic arm hold up? One arm-taxing 105 mph heater too many and that remarkable arm could turn into a dead appendage in a split second. Aroldis also had his stellar moments in Cuba but could never sustain them for long; he led the league in Ks on a single occasion (2007, but with only half the totals of earlier paragon Maels Rodríguez a half-dozen seasons earlier). He would shine briefly in his maiden outing with the National Team (the 2007 Taipei World Cup) but failed to impress in a handful of other pressure-packed international outings (especially the 2009 WBC) and several times lost his slot on the Cuba A Team roster. Inconsistency has always been a problem, one perhaps avoided in large part this year through exclusive use as a short-appearance one-inning fixture. Any flame-thrower is extremely fragile and to underscore that point one has only to look at what happened to Chapman’s perhaps even more promising countryman Maels Rodríguez. Maels once struck out 263 Cuban League batters (in 2001, with only 76 walks) in a mere 178 innings; Maels tallied percentages that match those posted this year by Chapman (yes, against lesser competition, but also across twice the work load). But less than two years later (while still not 25 years old) his arm was dead (his 100 mph heater reduced to an 85 mph floater); in the mere wink of an eye a most promising career was suddenly over. Such a scary prospect unfortunately always looms right around the corner for a lights-out cannon-ball hurler like Aroldis Chapman.

(9) Danys Báez in 2005 – The Pinar del Río native finished fifth in the American League in saves while also posting the most ever in that department (41) by a Cuban native. Báez registered saves in 61% of the team victories for a Tampa Bay ball club that finished last in the AL East and was tied for the second fewest wins among all 30 big league clubs. He authored a team-best ERA of 2.86 (while the Tampa Bay team ERA was actually a dismal 5.39).
[ I had no idea that Baez did so well after we got rid of him ]

October 17, 2012

Dominican Winter League

•Juan Diaz (SS, Estrelles de Oriente): 1-for-4, R, BB, K. Diaz made his offseason debut and reached base twice and was his steady self defensively making all of the routine plays. It will be interesting to see how much playing time he gets with his team. He should get a lot of time as the regular shortstop since there are no high profile shortstops on the roster.

•Danny Salazar (RP, Tigres del Licey): 2.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R/ER, 0 BB, 4 K. Salazar finished the regular season on an incredible roll going 4-0 with a 1.85 ERA in 6 starts for Double-A Akron after a late July callup. At least in the early going he has continued that roll pitching well in his two appearances in the DWL going 4.0 innings and allowing 1 run on 4 hits, 1 walk, and 4 strikeouts.

Venezuelan Winter League

•Gregorio Petit (SS, Leones del Caracas): 0-for-2, R. Petit is worth keeping tabs on since he is still technically the property of the Indians for another few weeks. He is now 1-for-6 in two games out in Venezuela.

•Hector Rondon (RP, Leones del Caracas): 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K. Rondon had an interesting outing as he came in relief of the starter in the 5th inning with two on and two out and made just one pitch to get the third out on a line out to shortstop. As it turns out that one pitch was all he would end up throwing as he was replaced by a new pitcher the next inning. When you see him come out so quickly you immediately start to worry about an injury, but from the looks of it he probably was just taken out and did not get hurt. In any case, talk about a short night throwing just ONE pitch. That’s efficiency!

Competing in markets not subject to the draft has always been problem. Not only does their scouting have problems identifing talent but once they identify players, they have trouble competing with the 29 other teams trying to sign the same players.

A lot harder to hide talent these days. If the Tribe likes a player, chances are somebody else likes them too.

They better get a lot better at scouting and a lot better at convincing players to sign with Cleveland.

Unless, of course, they don't give a shit.

Seagull

Competing in markets not subject to the draft has always been problem. Not only does their scouting have problems identifing talent but once they identify players, they have trouble competing with the 29 other teams trying to sign the same players.

The new rules implemented this year is supposed to change that kind of thinking.

Welcome to the Dominican Prospect League

Baseball's international signing period, which begins July 2, is one of the most important dates on the calendar in Latin America. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) has restricted all teams to a $2.9 million dollar budget internationally in 2012; teams who have been aggressively signing players in the past, stretching their budgets and signing unlimited prospects throughout the International space now have to evaluate their appointed budget. This year's signing class is as solid as ever but by circumstance it has made the signing period more strategic than ever.

Who Is Shohei Otani?

Patrick » 18 October 2012 » In mlb prospects, nichibei, npb draft » No Comments


Okay, so the cat is out of the bag about high school pitching prospect Shohei Otani. Here’s everything I know about him.

I first found out about Otani about a year ago, when Yakyu Kozoh had a story on potential successors to Yu Darvish. Otani caught my eye because he graded a perfect 5/5 “Darvishes” and, at 17, he was the youngest pitcher profiled. Every tall, young righty elicits some kind of comparison to Darvish from the Japanese media, so Otani is not unique in that regard. What is a little more unique is that in terms of physique and ability, the comparison stands up reasonably well. At 193 cm (6’4) and 86 kg (189 lbs), Otani measures similarly to Darvish, though a little shorter and perhaps a little heavier than Darvish was at 18. Otani also has a similarly live arm, though with a little more velocity and a lot less polish than Darvish exhibited as a high schooler.

I’ve only seen one Otani pitch one full game, his appearance in this spring’s Koshien Senbatsu tournament against fellow draft phenom Shintaro Fujinami. It was a frustrating game to watch, as the raw quality of Otani’s stuff was evident, but his command was non-existent. He featured a fastball ranging from about 145-152 km/h (90-95 mph), a slider around 132-136 km/h (82-84 mph) and curve around 125 km/h (77 mph). Everything had movement, and his wildness was of the effective variety until the 6th inning, when he and his defense faltered, before melting down (video) in the 7th. For the day, Otani struck out 11, walked 11 and gave up nine runs (five earned) while taking the loss. That looks bad, but Otani was facing a quality lineup with aluminum bats on a big stage, and his manager left him out for 173 pitches. The raw talent is there, but it was clearly just that in that game – raw.

Helpfully, the Koko Yakyu site live-blogged this game in English, so it is available for your perusal.

I didn’t see the July 19 prefectural tournament game that Otani has since become known for, when he hit 160 km/h (99 mph) on the scoreboard gun, but I did Tweet about it when it happened. I’ve since found about 14 minutes worth of Otani footage from that game (skip to the 7:58 mark if you want to see the 160 km/h fastball). Obviously the 14 minutes we have are biased, but Otani appears to be a lot more confident with his stuff than he was in the Senbatsu game, and accordingly his command is much better. Grains of salt apply; he was facing weaker competition and the stadium gun was hot, as the scouts in attendance had his velocity a bit lower. Still, an even more limited set of highlights from his appearance in the IBAF 18U tournament implies that he’s capable of better command than he showed in the spring.

So Otani is a prospect, and an excellent one at that. If his command was better I might call him the best high school pitching prospect I’ve seen in the 12 years or so that I’ve been paying attention, but for now I think that distinction will remain with Hayato Terahara. My preferred print publications Shukan Baseball and Yakyu Kozoh have him at the top of this year’s draft class, and NPB Prospect Watch ranks him third, noting his command issues but also his excellent track record as a batter. Draft Reports has a long list of comments from scouts on him, too many to translate individually but unanimously in praise of his potential. A couple of notable comments were from the Dodgers’ Logan White, who said that he went to Japan just to see Otani, and the Rays’ Tim Ireland, who compared him to Felix Hernandez.

What happens now? The NPB draft will take place on October 25, and Otani has declared eligible. As of September he was 50/50 on NPB vs MLB, but some Japanese media outlets seem convinced that he’s headed to MLB. I’m not sure if I find those reports credible just yet. Otani has met with the Dodgers, Red Sox and Rangers, and had a meeting with the Orioles that he couldn’t get on to his schedule. Otani will not meet with any more MLB clubs. One wrinkle that Otani will have to consider is that if he signs with an MLB club, he’ll be barred from joining an NPB team for a period of three years after he leaves MLB, under a rule enacted after Junichi Tazawa signed with Boston.

Coincidently, Otani attends Hanamaki Higashi high school in Iwate Prefecture, the school that produced lefty Yusei Kikuchi. Kikuchi was a similarly hot prospect back in 2009, and went through his own dramatic NPB/MLB decision in which he was publicly courted by all 12 NPB teams and eight MLB teams before choosing to remain in Japan. The Otani situation has not developed in to the same kind of media frenzy that the Kikuchi situation did, which is good because the stress clearly took it’s toll on Kikuchi. Perhaps Hanamaki manager Hiroshi Sasaki is applying the experience he had with Kikuchi to this year’s edition.

We should know which way Otani is headed in the next week or so. Wherever he winds up it’ll be fun to see how he develops.

A Midsummer Night’s Blog Post

Patrick » 18 August 2012 » In mlb, nichibei, npb » 2 Comments


While my baseball consumption has not returned to it’s previous levels, my itch to write has returned, so tonight I’m taking a hiatus from my hiatus to share a few thoughts on the season so far.

•After years of anticipation, Yu Darvish, has made his Major League debut. The results have been mixed — lots of strikeouts, lots of walks. The walks are a surprise to me; the mid-season struggles are not. I must admit that fate has conspired against me, and I haven’t seen a single Darvish start all the way through this year.

•Nippon Ham has carried on without Darvish, currently leading the Pacific League by a game over Seibu. 24 year-old lefty Mitsuo Yoshikawa took advantage of the hole left by Darvish, and is enjoyed a breakout season. While he lacks Darvish’s eye-popping dominance, a 10-4 record with a 1.91 ERA isn’t too shabby.

•I never thought I’d see Ichiro traded, but last month it happened. It felt more like Ichiro was on the path to retirement this season, but his bat has woken up a bit with the Yankees. Perhaps playing for a winning time will revive his career.

•The Japanese Players Association is threatening to sit out next year’s World Baseball Classic if WBC Inc doesn’t give them a bigger share of the revenue. So far neither side is willing to budge. I hope they can work out some sort of agreement because a Japanese boycott would be bad for both sides.

•I didn’t get to finish my predictions this spring, but every year I think that Chunichi is going to stumble and that Seibu is going to be good. And, every year I’m wrong, at least about the Chunichi side of the prediction. This year was no exception. I thought Chunichi was set for a big step backwards, but they’re comfortably in second place in the Central, and had been in the hunt for first until Yomiuri started to pull away. Seibu got off to a rough start and appeared to be headed for a disappointing season, but has righted the ship and is now in the hunt for a league title.

•I was going to write something about Brad Penny here but I don’t think I’ll bother.

•Softbank veteran Hiroki Kokubo announced his retirement last week. Otsukare-sama.

•Yomiuri veteran and personal favorite Yoshinobu Takahashi slugged his 300th career home run last week. Jason Coskrey has more.

•The two young players I’ve enjoyed watching the most this year? Hiroshima’s Yusuke Nomura and Yokohama DeNA’s Sho Aranami.
Yusuke Nomura Sho Aranami

•While it doesn’t stack up to MLB’s three perfect games this season, NPB has seen a pair of no-hitters this year: Toshiya Sugiuchi’s against Rakuten on May 30, and Kenta Maeda’s against DeNA on April 6. Although, I did not witness either of these games, I did catch a pair of near no-hitters. Another personal favorite, Daisuke Miura, took a no-no into the 9th against Hanshin on May 12, but pinch-hitter Shinjiro Hiyama put up a veteran at-bat, working a full count before finally hitting a long single. Hanshin eventually scored and Miura lost his shutout, but won the game. The other was another Sugiuchi gem, thrown on May 4 against Hanshin. The only solid contact I recall Sugiuchi surrendering happened to be the only hit Hanshin managed, a sharp single, hit mid-game by Takashi Toritani. The game lacked the drama of a late-innings no-hit bid, but was a dominant performance nonetheless.

Yusuke Nomura has pitched in Nippon Pro Baseball.

He was a college pitcher when he helped Japan win the Gold Medal at the 2009 Asian Championship. He led the final round with 10 strikeouts. He struck out over 300 batters during his college career. In the 2010 World University Championship, he tossed five shutout innings for Japan, fanning 11 and allowing one hit and no walks.

He was the first-round pick of the Hiroshima Carp in the 2011 draft. He made his Nippon Pro Baseball debut on April 1, 2012. He turned in a fine start against the Chunichi Dragons, allowing one run in six innings but was losing a 1-0 duel to veteran Masahiro Yamamoto (who was pitching professionally before Nomura was even born). Nomura was yanked in the 7th for pinch-hitter Tomonori Maeda.

Rookie Yusuke Nomura Notches 9th Win on August 22, 2012 22:36 beating the DeNA BayStars. Yusuke Nomura, from Koryo High School in Hiroshima and then Meiji University, is now 9-6 with a 1.56 ERA.

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Matt Murton returns to the United States

Posted on September 29, 2012 by sethcer


After a wild up-and-down season, Hanshin Tigers outfielder Matt Murton was taken off the active roster and allowed to return home before the end of the season. His teammate and fellow Americans Jason Standridge was allowed to return home earlier this week while Craig Brazell was allowed to leave even earlier. With Murton under contract for next season, the Tigers, whose regular season went in the toilet a long time ago, are going to start looking at a new fresh faces for the remaining few games. Murton to his credit did finish strong as he raised a low .220 batting average to his season ending .260 batting average, a very respectable batting average all things considered.

As far as the Tigers look in 2013, they are going to have a totally different look, especially if All-Star shortstop Takashi Toritani decides not re-sign with the Tigers. The Tigers are looking to sign a power hitter, and will most likely sign Triple-A slugger.

Hanshin Tigers

On December 4, 2009, Murton was released by the Rockies,[8] who sold his contract to the Hanshin Tigers of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball.

In Murton's rookie season with the Hanshin Tigers he became only the fourth player in Nippon Professional Baseball history to have a 200-hit season.

On October 5, 2010, Murton broke the single season hit record, set by Ichiro Suzuki, hitting his 211th hit (in 130 games). He successfully finished his first regular season in Japan with 214 hits (in 144 games), .349 batting average, 17 home runs and 91 RBIs.

How about a minor league contract for Murton??? Basically a left fielder, he's played all of the outfield positions.

After the night off yesterday, Jesus Aguilar was back in the lineup tonight. Good news. Jesus was 1-4 with a double and an rbi. The bad news.......3 more strikeouts ! That's an alarming 12 strikeouts in 20 at bats

Friday, Oct. 19, 2012

'Lucky Seven' Itoi carries Fighters to brink of Japan Series

By KAZ NAGATSUKA

SAPPORO —

For the second night in a row, Yoshio Itoi bashed the ball beyond the fences. And with it, the Fighters are one win away from reaching their first Japan Series in three years.
Postseason heroics: Fighters slugger Yoshio Ioti belts a two-run home run in the seventh inning against the Hawks on Thursday in Game 2 of the Pacific League Climax Series final stage at Sapporo Dome. Hokkaido Nippon Ham earned a 3-0 win over Fukuoka Softbank. KYODO


With Hokkaido Nippon Ham leading 1-0, Itoi launched an insurance two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh as the Fighters sank the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 3-0 in Game 2 of the Pacific League Climax Series final stage on Thursday night at Sapporo Dome.

Having entered the final stage with an automatic one-win advantage, the regular-season champion Fighters are now up 3-0 in the series.

Game 3 will begin at 6 p.m. at the same place. Brian Wolfe takes the mound for the Fighters, while 17-game winner Tadashi Settsu starts for the defending Japan Series champion Hawks.

Behind Itoi's heroics, starting lefty Masaru Takeda had a solid outing as he tossed six scoreless innings. He allowed just three hits and struck out two in 81 pitches.

"I got a run support early on and it helped me give the team a chance to win," Takeda said. "I think I could focus on each batter at a time."

Takeda (1-0), who's the leader of Nippon Ham's pitching corps, earned the win.

Nippon Ham quickly got on the board on an error by the Hawks' Seiichi Uchikawa in the first. Yet it failed to capitalize on multiple scoring opportunities after that.

Itoi changed the gloomy atmosphere in the dome with just one swing. He smacked the first pitch from Hawks left-handed side-armer Masahiko Morifuku to send it into the right-field bleachers.


No satisfaction: It was a frustrating night for losing pitcher Nagisa Arakaki, the Hawks starter, and his teammates at Sapporo Dome. KYODO

"It was a one-run ball (game) and I was eager to give the team an additional run," said Itoi, who also had a triple that led to a score in the first inning and a walk. "I was going to hit hard from the first pitch, if it was hittable enough."

Itoi belted a seventh-inning two-run dinger in the Fighters' 3-2 win in Wednesday's Game 1. He had another in the same inning on the following day.

"It's truly a 'Lucky Seven,' " the No. 3 hitter joked.

The Hawks had a much-awaited scoring opportunity in the sixth when Nobuhiro Matsuda led off with a double before he proceeded to third on a sacrifice bunt. Matsuda tagged up on a Uchikawa shallow fly ball, but Fighters center fielder Daikan Yoh threw a perfect ball to nail Matsuda at home plate for the third out.

"We were playing a one-run game and got out of it without giving up any runs there, it was huge," Takeda said. "I think it really gave us the chance to win the game today."

Fighters relievers Yuya Ishii and Hirotoshi Masui pitched the seventh and eighth innings, respectively, before closer Hisashi Takeda worked the ninth to end the game.

Hawks starter Nagisa Arakaki (0-1) struggled with his command, although he somehow ended up giving up just one hit and one run before he was pulled from the mound after the third inning. He took the loss.

Wily Mo Pena had two hits for Softbank.

Friday, Oct. 19, 2012

Opportunistic Dragons take 2-1 series lead over Giants

By JASON COSKREY

Junki Ito turned 21 years old in January. That's three fewer years than his batterymate Motonobu Tanishige has been a professional baseball player.
In a zone: Dragons hurler Junki Ito picks up the win in Game 2 of the Central League Climax Series final stage on Thursday at Tokyo Dome. Ito retired 17 straight batters in one stretch of Chunichi's 5-2 victory over the Yomiuri Giants. KYODO

Still, the generation gap between them doesn't seem as wide as the one that separated them from the Yomiuri Giants on Thursday night.

Ito threw 7 2/3 strong innings, third-year outfielder Yohei Oshima drove in a pair of runs, and the Chunichi Dragons beat the Yomiuri Giants 5-2 in Game 2 of the Central League Climax Series final stage on Thursday at Tokyo Dome.

"Our players did a great job tonight, and this win gives us confidence we can win the series," said Dragons manager Morimichi Takagi.

The Dragons entered the series already trailing by one game, as the Giants were given an automatic one-game advantage by virtue of winning the CL pennant, but Chunichi put itself in a position of power with a 2-1 lead courtesy of two straight wins.

"I went into this game thinking it was one we could not lose, and I wanted to pitch as well as I could for as long as I could," Ito said.

Ito gave up an RBI double to Hayato Sakamoto in the first, but proceeded to retire the next 17 batters in order. Giants catcher Shinnosuke Abe snapped the streak with a one-out single in the seventh, but Ito got the next batter to hit into an inning-ending double play.

"I was a little nervous when the game started and gave up a run in the first inning but felt better after we got the lead in the top of the second," Ito said.

"I got into a rhythm and was able to relax as the game went on and got really comfortable."

The Giants finally got to him in the eighth, with Yoshiyuki Kamei connecting on a one-out single and Tetsuya Matsumoto drawing a walk. Shigeyuki Furuki hit into a fielder's choice for the second out, with Kamei moving to third, which spelled the end of Ito's night. Kamei would score later in the inning.

Ito gave up two runs on four hits and struck out seven. Takuya Asao relieved him in the eighth and allowed an RBI single by Hisayoshi Chono, before a diving catch by shortstop Hirokazu Ibata robbed pinch hitter Yoshihito Ishii of a run-scoring hit.

Ito aided his own cause at the plate, finishing 2-for-4 with an RBI.

The youngster's performance came on the heels of 24-year-old Yudai Ono's solid outing in Chunichi's Game 1 victory on Wednesday.

"Yesterday Ono, today Ito," Takagi said. "These young pitchers did really well under pressure."

Oshima also had a big night, finishing with a pair of hits, a solo homer and two RBIs.

"I'm not really the type to hit home runs," Oshima said. "I was able to hit one today, so I'm happy."

Chunichi second baseman Masahiro Araki also sparked his team with two hits and an RBI, and Tanishige finished 0-for-3, but for the second consecutive night added an important insurance run in the ninth, this one coming off a sacrifice fly to right.

"Anytime you give the Dragons five runs, it will be tough to beat them," Giants manager Tatsunori Hara said.

Sakamoto and Chono each finished 2-for-4 with an RBI, accounting for both Yomiuri runs.

Giants starter D.J. Houlton gave up three runs on seven hits and lasted 3 2/3 innings. He struck out three and walked two.
Good times: The Chunichi Dragons celebrate their 5-2 victory over the Yomiuri Giants on Thursday. KYODO

His night began going south from the outset. Oshima hit a grounder back to the mound to lead off the game, but Houlton had trouble getting the ball out of his glove and ended up tossing both to first clearly ahead of Oshima. The umpire, however, ruled Oshima safe.

In the second, Ito hit a ball that bounced in front of the batter's box with the bases loaded and no outs. Houlton and Abe thought the ball hit Ito's foot and thought it would be called foul. By the time they realized it had been ruled fair, Ito was safe at first and a run had scored.

"Houlton was not able to pitch tonight as well as he usually does, and Ito really threw a nice game. He kept our hitters in check," Hara said.

The Dragons can take another step toward reaching the Japan Series for a third straight season with a win in Game 3 on Friday at Tokyo Dome.

"I don't think anyone has any pressure," Chunichi slugger Tony Blanco said. "Just go out and have a great performance."

The Dragons entered the series already trailing by one game, as the Giants were given an automatic one-game advantage by virtue of winning the CL pennant,

Talk about incentive to win a division pennant !!!!!