The Saitama Seibu Lions ended interleague play with a 4-2 loss in Yokohama against the Yokohama DeNA Baystars on Monday. To sum it up in short, the bats were leaving everyone on base while a few pitches were hung up for a short home run in a hitter-friendly park.
Despite finishing with a winning record of 10-8, it has you yearning for more after the team's bullpen blew several games open, from an outing against the Yakult Swallows to a three-run extra inning lead against the Hiroshima Carp.
Entering interleague play, the Lions were only one game ahead of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. They exited interleague play with the same lead and the race for a pennant is wide open. Five of the six Pacific League teams will finish with at least a .500 record or better while the competition remains fierce.
While the bats have their ups and downs, they do one thing right which is get on base. They have a league-leading OPS at .803 through Saturdays's games while their team on-base percentage is .360. The only offensive category they don't lead the PL is in home runs, where the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks and Fighters have more.
On the flip side, the Lions have the worst run prevention stats, which is mostly due to their bullpen. Starting pitchers have held their ground from Ken Togame, Fabio Castillo, Yusei Kikuchi, Shinsaburo Tawata and even newcomer Daiki Enokida all doing a respectable job. Unfortunately a few starters are being left in too long due to manager Hatsuhiko Tsuji not trusting his bullpen.
The obvious elephant in the room has been all the relief pitchers struggling. Early on, they gave up runs in garbage time when it was forgiving, but now the games have been close and they've found an inability to close things out.
Only two relievers have stayed at the ichi-gun the entire season from opening day. They are Masuda and Hirotaka Koishi. Tatsushi Masuda has been unreliable and his strikeout clip has fallen from previous years, leaving to more balls being in play or even out of the park. Katsunori Hirai and Shota Takekuma were expected to be reliable setup man and depth options to complement Neil Wagner, but all of them have been giving up home runs left and right as they were recently deactivated.
Shogo Noda has also been nibbling, leading to walks and only being good for one batter at most. Among losses, it's clear how much this team is missing Kazuhisa Makita as he was posted and signed with the San Diego Padres/
Can this team find a closer or any reliable tandem? It's an uncertain question after Masuda was given a 7th inning appearance on Monday in Yokohama. Other pitchers who've come up to the ichi-gun this year include Sho Ito, Naoaki Matsumoto, Tadasuke Minamikawa, Ichiro Tamura, Shunta Nakatsuka and recent signing Deunte Heath.
The Lions technically have three roster spots available with only 67 players on the 70-man roster. They likely have two spots reserved for a possible promotion of ikusei players Wataru Takagi and Masato Saito. Rumors were saying that Dragons pitcher Yudai Ono is on the trade block, but the Lions could also go for another import if they feel desperate.
It's easy to say this team still has time to figure things out, but if they don't, we could be looking at 2015 all over again the longer this issue continues.
===
Follow us on Twotter @GraveyardBall
No comments:
Post a Comment