[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“I don’t have any pictues of Kenta Maeda to put up, so this is the next best thing.”] [/caption] I don’t know why I’m surprised to see Maeda pitched when I see the Carp played a shutout. He really is the best pitcher in the Central League so far. 27 May NPB Chiba Lotte Marines (0) at Hiroshima Carp (3). Maeda scatters four hits over 8 while Yokoyama notches the save. This brings Hiroshima’s record up to 20-29-0 in fifth. ...

Q: When is it ok to get swept by the Red Sox? A: NEVER! 27 May NPB Chiba Lotte Marines (9) at Hiroshima Carp (1). When you give up four home runs in one game, it takes some mighty fine offense to catch up. Hiroshima’s offense is so streaky, this will never happen when they need it. The Carp record declines to 19-29-0 in fifth. I want to see them be < 10 games back for the rest of the season. Come on, guys! ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“268” caption=“Don’t mean to spoil, but…”] [/caption] Roaming around the temple, I was hit by two blasts from Dan’s past. The first was running into a man among the cult who seemed to recognize me. Imagine my shock when I learned that it was Georgie, now grown into a man after being abducted by evil forces in Dan’s statue period. The funny part was that he recognized Dan as the old statue. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Seibu gets its revenge.”] [/caption] Hiroshima takes an ugly loss from the first place Lions, but at least they won the day before. 25 May NPB Saitama Seibu Lions (10) at Hiroshima Carp (7). Takeya Nakamura blew this game open in the third with a grand slam. Hiroshima desperately tried to recover in the 8th with a five-run rally partially fueled by a Kenta Kurihara blast, but it wasn’t enough. The Carp record drops to 19-28-0 in fifth. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Home of the (evil) Philadelphia Phillies”] [/caption] Believe it or not, I didn’t always hate the Phillies. One of my earliest baseball memories is watching Darren Daulton in the 1993 World Series, don’t ask me why that name sticks out, but it just does. I was even on a little league team that took the name Phillies (even though I desperately wanted to play on the Marlins). My childhood hatred was mostly directed toward the Atlanta Braves, the most dominant team in the NL East, and baseball in general, throughout the 90s. It wasn’t until I was in college that I began hating the team, mostly due to a co-worker’s insane degree of love for the Phils. Now that I live in Maryland, the proximity of the state of Pennsylvania doesn’t help things either, meaning I have to deal with fans of Philadelphia teams all year round. Couple in their bad fan reputation and their winning ways the past five years and you’ve got yourself genuine hatred for the division rivals. ...

The Rays were the only MLB team I follow with a game yesterday, which they promptly went ahead and blew. 24 May NPB Saitama Seibu Lions (0) at Hiroshima Carp (3). Eric Stults is really starting to bring it all together. His second win comes against a tough first place Seibu team. Hiroshima’s record improves to 19-27-0 in fifth. Rakuten Eagles (0) at Chunichi Dragons (3). Can’t totally blame Rasner for this one, especially not when the Rakuten bats are silent. He turned in a quality start, after all. Rakuten is now 21-28-0 in fifth. ...

Ok, so this space isn’t really about Lost, but how great was it? Oh yeah, there was baseball played too. 21 May NPB Hiroshima Carp (7) at Softbank Hawks (1). Kenta Maeda is a beast. Really. This guy is the best pitcher in the Central League with his 1.59 ERA and he’s consistently dominant. Yomiuri Giants (4) at Rakuten Eagles (5). Always good to see the Giants lose. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“There was much rejoicing in Citi last night.”] [/caption] Luis Atilano has his worst start yet, giving up the game. 20 May NPB Off day. MLB Florida Marlins (2) at St. Louis Cardinals (4). Nate Robertson just wasn’t good enough to hold the Cards down while Wainwright had all the right stuff to keep the Fish from putting too many on the board. Florida remains in second place with their 22-20 record. ...

I have no idea why I’ve been sitting on this completed installment. Just remembered it was done and decided to post it this week. At the top of Talon Tower Dan, Dave, Beca, and Sancho meet up with a very familiar face. Slon the Rook, the second third of the duo that murdered Pankraz. Dan already killed Kon the Knight right before being turned into a statue, so I was on my toes worried about what might happen after Dan took out Slon. Thankfully, nothing did and I was left feeling a little relieved and gratified that I had enacted Dan’s revenge on yet another of his father’s murderers. On a whim, I decided to check in with the party to see what they had to say about the fight. ...

After embarrassing the team, acting like a primadonna, insulting the manager, and making everyone involved look bad, Hanley Ramirez either apologized to his teammates or the team has decided not to make a fuss about it, because he was back in the lineup last night doing fairly well. Thank god that’s over. The Marlins are rarely in the news, but I don’t want them in there because of this. ...