Darvish Watch 08: Episode 8

After a disappointing walk-off road loss for Darvish against the Seibu Lions, the Chiba Lotte Marines marched into Hokkaido to take on the Fighters at home. Darvish's 136 pitch effort had gone to waste and it was on his mind to take revenge and right the ship on this night.

For the most part, this contest proved to be fairly unremarkable although the lack of control that Nippon Ham's ace displayed continues to be the major flaw that he must correct to dominate completely. In the end, he scattered five hits and struck out eight, but walked four batters and racked up another lofty pitch count (130) over eight innings of work. He was in trouble in the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 8th innings but managed to limit the damage to a single run in the 6th.

His opponent Hiroyuki Kobayashi was a bit more effective, working nine innings on seven hits and a single walk. He did, however throw a ridiculous 150 pitches for Bobby Valentine prompting me to think that Kobayashi must have hit on Bobby V's wife or something. The game did close on an exciting note, as Lotte scored two big runs in the top of the 11th inning on a two-run homer by Shoichi Ohmatsu. The Fighters answered with three in the bottom of the inning to reverse the score and walk off with a victory.