Tetsuya Utsumi will likely be getting tonight's start against the Chunichi Dragons.  It seems the Giants have also decided to swing Shun Tono around in order to start him on Sunday -- he only last 2 innings and threw 40 pitches during his last start on the 31st and has done relatively well against the Dragons this season (a losing record of 2-3 over 5 starts, but a 2.53 ERA / 1.34 WHIP).

Not quite sure who will pitch on Saturday, but based on last month's schedule, Satoshi Fukuda could get that start (pure speculation).

The Yomiuri Giants will likely add Seung-Yeop Lee to the active roster tomorrow.  Lee isn't expected to see a lot of playing time, but with the Giants needing a spark, the hope is that he'll be able to make some noise in the few chances he does get.

It should also be noted that Lee is being called up for the Giants three game series against the Chunichi Dragons at Nagoya Dome.  Lee is 3-for-8 with 2 homers at Nagoya Dome this season.  His numbers at Nagoya Dome since 2006:

An underground sewage pipe near the indoor training facilities at Giants Stadium apparently burst yesterday morning, affecting all the toilets in the facilities (not the showers).  The only toilets in operation were the ones located in the stadium, about 100 meters away.

The Yomiuri Giants ended the month of August 12-14.  Throw in the 9-12 from July and the Giants are a dismal 21-26.

On a side note: for the first time since 2003, the Yakult Swallows managed to extend their winning streak against the Giants to 5 in a row with a 12-8 victory last night.  The Giants streak of 9 consecutive seasons of recording a winning record against the Swallows may also be in jeopardy.  The Swallows are currently 9-9 against the Giants this season with 6 more games to play, four of which are at Jingu Stadium, where the Giants are 4-2 this year.

Shinnosuke Abe (YOM) was taken out of last night's game after only two innings.  While it may appear that Abe was taken out of the game because the Giants were already down 9-2 and wanted to give Abe the rest of the night off (he's a bit banged up), it seems there may have been another reason: the Giants may have thought Abe wasn't doing a good job leading the pitching staff.

The Giants will apparently give an unnamed foreign player an extra week or two before deciding whether or not to offer him a contract.  It seems the Giants really like the foreign player for his power, but are still not sure how well his other skills will translate.

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See also:

Yomiuri Giants giving player from Dominican Republic a tryout

It seems the Yomiuri Giants are setting their rotation so that Shun Tono gets tonight's start against the Yakult Swallows (which also lines him up for a start against the Hanshin Tigers between the 18th and 20th; Tono is 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA in three starts against the Tigers) and Tetsuya Utsumi gets Friday's start against the Chunichi Dragons (based on the current setup, Utsumi should be starting tomorrow, but the Giants are pushing his start off to Friday because he's is 2-1 with a 2.37 ERA in four starts against the Dragons).

And taking over Seth Greisinger's spot in the rotation will likely be Shugo Fujii -- he'll probably get tomorrow's start against the Yakult Swallows.

Tatsunori Hara told reporters yesterday that he still plans to utilize Marc Kroon (YOM) as a closer despite his last two outings.

On the 27th, Kroon blew a save opportunity and gave up a game-tying 2-run homer to Takahiro Iwamoto (HIR) in the bottom of the 9th (with one out).  The Giants ended up losing that game 9-7 in the bottom of the 12th.

Kroon then followed up that game by serving up another 2-run homer to Iwamoto in the bottom of the 9th (this time with two outs and the score 12-9) on the 29th.  Fortunately for the Giants (and Kroon), Micheal Nakamura was able to protect the one run lead and close out the game.

Shugo Fujii (YOM) worked out at Ishikawa Baseball Stadium today in preparation for a start against the Yakult Swallows on the 31st. This will be Fujii's first start since 7/30.

This could be a big start for the Giants as they continue to look for some stability out of their starting rotation.  Since June, the starting rotation has recorded just 15 victory against 26 losses (compared to a 26-12 record between March and May).  The bullpen has also gone from tossing 58.0 innings in May, to 78.0 innings in June, 87.0 innings in July, and finally 90.2 innings in August (and with one more game left to go).

Michihiro Ogasawara (YOM) hit a home run off Hideki Kishimoto (HIR) yesterday and made Ogasawara just the 5th player in NPB history to hit a home run off at least 200 different pitchers.  The top two spots on the list are held by Tuffy Rhodes (228) and Kazuhiro Kiyohara (223).