The Giants, who had to sweep, did so in the dramatic fashion we have come to expect from teams managed by Shigeo Nagashima. Of course, for Nagashima's Giants to stay completely in character, they will now collapse as if they were hit by a ton of bricks--that is dramatically.
But the Swallows are now coping with their own drama. They got some much needed help when shortstop Shinya Miyamoto returned to the lineup last Sunday. Although No. 6 gave his usual wide smile and nod when asked if he had recovered from the shoulder injury that had sidelined him for more than a month, no one is buying it.
Swallows skipper Tsutomu Wakamatsu said before Sunday's 1-0 loss that
Miyamoto's shoulder was not completely sound. But the Birds' brain said
the veteran's presence would be a factor. Miyamoto has a reputation for
always having the right
thing to say to a pitcher in a jam and without Atsuya Furuta behind
the plate due to an elbow injury, the Swallows pitchers can use some help.
Kosei Ono has been a great fill-in at catcher, but Furuta has done it all before and knows his way around each baseball game like he wrote the script. With his return on hold, the Swallows are not as solid as they could be should the Giants surprise everyone by forcing the Swallows to win some games.
While the Swallows have a lot of veterans who were around the last time they won the Japan Series, in 1997, third baseman Akinori Iwamura is finding the experience exhilarating.
"There's nothing like it," Iwamura said Sunday at Tokyo Dome. "Last season, the whole issue was whether or not we would finish in the upper division or not."
Meaning their fight with the BayStars to finish third, instead of fourth--where the Birds nested for the winter. But one would think that the difference between third and fourth place would not be that big.
"It's very big, if you're a player and that's where your team is."
But compared to being in the pennant race, fighting for third is no comparison.
Despite losing the first two games of the series against the Giants and not knowing when Furuta would be ready, Iwamura was as upbeat as can be.
"You can say that (not having Furuta is a problem) and there's no doubting we could use him, but we all want this, we're going to get it."
That was before Sunday's loss, which Wakamatsu admitted was a painful one. And now the birds are on the road and if they thought the Giants were tough, they ran into a buzz saw at Koshien against the Hanshin Tigers.
Tomorrow, they head to Hiroshima, where the Carp have been as hot as
any team this year.
!!!
As to the question of how left-handed hitter Atsunori Inaba became consistent at the plate this year, helping to turn the Swallows' offense into one of the best in the league, batting coach Yukio Yaegashi provides some insight.
Yaegashi, who as a player possessed the oddest batting stance in decades, said Inaba's explosion at the plate has been due to his progress at hitting inside pitches.
"He kills the ball over the plate and away, always has," said the coach. "What you see this year is the payoff from two years of work.
"He used to have trouble with pitches inside because his left hand was too strong," said Yaegashi, squeezing the finish off an imaginary bat between his large thick ex-catcher's hands.
"On pitches in here, his right hand would be out in front, so he couldn't get the barrel of the bat around and he'd get jammed."
"Whenever a pitcher got ahead, he'd come inside and Inaba would pop it up. That's why he became such a streaky hitter with big upswings and downswings in his performance.
"But we've been practicing especially in toss batting and he can handle those pitches pretty well. Now and then a pitcher will come inside he'll take him deep. So now he sees a lot more pitches away, pitches that he lives on. This year it's really come together.
"He's still streaky, but not nearly as much."
!!!
Right-hander Kevin Hodges, a mid-season addition to the Swallows pitching staff has been quite sharp despite going for a stretch of nearly 40 days this year when he didn't throw at all.
Other than being tender for a while after he started pitching again, Hodges has been on the money. He was sharp against the Giants last Saturday only to get burned when Kazuhiro Kiyohara took a pitch over the outside corner and knocked it against one of the big billboards above the right-field stands.
The homer broke a 1-1 tie and made a loser out of Hodges who fell to 4-2 in seven games. But the newcomer kept his sense of humor about him.
After hearing that Kiyohara would get 2 million yen for hitting the sign, Hodges sent word to the Giants slugger suggesting they split the prize for their successful "collaboration."
"I figure I deserve half," Hodges said. "After all, I threw the pitch. So I think we ought to split it 50-50."
True enough, if Hodges had not been good enough to throw strikes, Kiyohara
would not have gotten any richer.
!!!
Lost in the rush to track the path of Tuffy Rhodes' progress toward Sadaharu Oh's home run record, little was said when Rhodes passed the year-old record of Michihiro Ogasawara for runs scored on Monday. If the Buffaloes really get rolling, Rhodes might score the run a game he needs to reach the Japan record of 143 set by Makoto Kodzuru with the Shochiku Robins in 1950.
It's hard to imagine, but the Robins played just 137 games that year en route to the first Central League pennant. The Robins that season had nearly 2,000 runners on base so it should come as no surprise that Kodzuru, who hit .355 with 51 homers while striking out just 53 times, also set the current RBI record with 161.
It was an odd season, in which a year after the strike zone was reduced, the number of pro teams nearly doubled, from eight to 15. Nine CL pitchers threw 200-plus innings with ERAs of 4.00 or over that year.
Oh hit his 55 home runs in a 140-game season, the same number that the Buffaloes will play this year. But while some might argue that Oh was handicapped by drawing 20 intentional walks that season, the Giants were out of the pennant picture by the end of July. That year, Giants finished 11 games back of the Hanshin Tigers, who edged the Taiyo Whales by a game.
Another record in danger this season is the 45-year-old mark for doubles set by Kazuhiro Yamauchi for the Mainichi Orions in a 154-game season.
Yoshitomo Tani of the Orix BlueWave had 44 as of Monday with 18 games to play. Tani can expect to see some good pitches to hit. After all, should some PL pitcher refuse to throw him a strike, the misguided hurler can expect to get tossed, not by the umpire but by Tani's girlfriend, Olympic judo champ Ryoko Tamura.
The Hot Corner appears each Thursday in The
Daily Yomiuri .