Glenn Davies

Tokyo, Japan

 

Almost time for the mid-season all-star break here in Japan – so time for a quick update on the season so far.

 

Central League

CL topping Yakult are the Indians-like surprise package so far this season, six games ahead of the second place Dragons, and eight over the third placed Tigers is far from what was predicted by many back in April. 8-2 in their last 10 including a three game sweep of the floundering Giants makes them look fairy unstoppable at present. Slugging duo Kazuhiro Hatakeyama (.295 11 35) and Vladimir Balentien (.264 17 34) have combined well with stellar pitching from Shohei Tateyama (7-1 1.50) and Yoshinori (5-3 2.66) to keep the team at the top, and its hard to see anyone catching them by the end of September.

 

The Dragons, Tigers, and Giants, in that order, look likely to beat up on each other for the rest of the season to contend for the second and third playoff spots. So far this season all have been as equally woeful with the bat, hitting a team .235, .252, and .239 respectively. Team pitching for all three at about 2.82 keeping them in games and making them competitive. The Giants, as always, have the youth and depth to go on a tear, as the Tigers and Dragons nurse concerns about the age and durability of their older stars.

 

Team	W	L	T	GB
Yakult Swallows	36	22	7	-
Chunichi Dragons	33	31	1	6
Hanshin Tigers	31	33	1	8
Yomiuri Giants	27	36	4	11.5
Hiroshima Carp	25	35	5	12
Yokohama BayStars	24	40	5	15

 

 

Pacific League

Two horse race anyone? Softbank and Hokkaido have been the class of the PL since opening day, and the gulf in quality between them and the chasing four has been a little too obvious this season. Yu Darvish (Fighters) continues to be dominant (12-2 1.47) with 131 strikeouts in 116 innings pitched so far. He is surely destined for the majors, and to be quite frank, appears to be going through the motions against some of the PL teams, and still beating them handily. Softbank’s D.J. Houlton has been equally as stellar so far at 10-3 2.13.

 

Takeya Nakamura (Seibu) has been the lone highlight for the Lions so far, leading the league with 25 HRs (.275 25 52). Rakuten under fiery manager Hoshino have been better as of late, but Chiba appear most likely to come through and claim third as the pitching is already there (2.39 team ERA) and have had a recent strong showing against the Fighters and Lions. Orix hold on to third at present, but have lost two of three from their past three series, and seem to regularly mess up the little things to lose leads late in games.

 

 

Team	W	L	T	GB
Softbank Hawks	43	22	3	-
Nippon Ham Fighters	42	23	2	1
Orix Buffaloes	32	34	4	11.5
Chiba Lotte Marines	30	33	3	12
Rakuten Eagles	30	36	3	13.5
Seibu Lions	28	36	2	14.5