Gary
Garland /
the
japanese insider
May 13,
2002
Monday's
Games
Shimizu Gets First Por Shutout
Against Nippon Ham
As the hardest luck pitcher in the Pacific League, Hiroyuki Sekine perhaps
resigns himself to games such as this one, since he is 2-3 now after a 3-0
loss to the Chiba Lotte Marines at Chiba Marine Stadium despite a very good
for the Pacific League 3.16 ERA. Maybe he can give Yomiuri's Kimiyasu Kudoh
a call and they can commiserate a while. Sekine went 7.1 innings and permitted
just five hits and three earned runs, but saw his teammates in the batting
order get mowed down on six hits and four double play balls in a complete
game shutout from Naoyuki Shimizu. Shimizu was clocked at a high of 92mph.
Lotte second baseman Koichi Hori gave Shimizu the only tally he would really
require in the third, crushing a Sekine offering over the leftcenterfield
fence to make it 1-0 home team.
In the seventh, Sekine hung a slider on the inner half of the plate to third
baseman Ryosuke Sawai and he drove it through the wind into the rightfield
seats to put Lotte up 2-0.
Lotte then tacked on another in the eighth with a leadoff knock to left from
shortstop Masato Watanabe, an infield hit from Hori and a two out single
to right from DH Frank Bolick to go up by three at 3-0.
Shimizu then put down the Nippon Ham lineup in order in the ninth for his
third victory and to halt a five game losing skein.
For Nippon Ham, D.T. Cromer was 2-4 and is at .279. DH Sherman Obando was
1-2 with a walk and is at .225.
For Lotte, Bolick was 1-4 with an RBI and is at .245. Leftfielder Derrick
May was 0-3 and is at .183.
Pitching Lines:
Nippon Ham:
Sekine (L,
2-3) IP 7.1 PC 108 H 5 HR 2 K 3
BB 2 R 3 ER 3 ERA 3.26
Kato
IP 0.1 PC 5 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 3.29
Muto
IP 0.1 PC 2 H 1 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 4.30
Lotte:
N. Shimizu (W,
3-1) IP 9.0 PC 134 H 6 HR 0 K 6 BB 3 R 0 ER 0 ERA 1.72
E: M. Watanabe
SB: Morimoto
2B: Y. Tanaka
HR: Hori (5), Sawai (1)
RBI: Hori, Sawai, Bolick
GIDP: Noguchi, M. Ogasawara, Kimoto
LOB: Nippon Ham 5, Lotte 5
Game Time: 2:53
Attendance: 8,000
Umpires: Yamazaki (HP), Nakamura (1B), Tsugawa (2B), Hirabayashi (3B)
Nakamura's 490 Foot Shot
Slays Lions
Kintetsu Buffaloes third baseman Norihiro Nakamura slugged a two run homer
in the first inning off of Seibu ace Daisuke Matsuzaka and then finished
the Yokohama native off in the sixth with a tape measure upper tank job to
straightaway centerfield in the sixth for all of his team's runs in a 3-1
victory over the first place Lions at Osaka Dome. Katsuhiko Maekawa racked
up his second win of the season, both against the Tokorozawa nine.
But perhaps the worst thing to come out of this was that Matsuzaka left after
trying to warm up for the seventh, but ended up leaving the field complaining
of elbow discomfort. Right now neither he nor the club believes it's anything
serious. However, those of us who saw Matsuzaka abused for his first three
pro seasons by his previous manager, Osamu Higashio, wonder if Higashio's
overuse of the youngster is now going to manifest itself in injury.
Anyway, Seibu catcher Tsutomu Itoh commented after the game that the movement
on Matsuzaka's pitches was largely missing and though he was clocked at 95mph
in the first inning,.the first time Nakamura dialed Ibaraki 6-5000 on him
was on an 86mph pitch that, at least for Matsuzaka, one wouldn't call a heater,
more like a "lukewarmer." The burly Buffaloes third sacker sprinkles pitches
like that on his natto in the morning. Nevertheless, it should be said that
in spite of not having a damned thing out there, he was still only touched
for three runs on the pair of homers and struckout nine while walking one
in six innings.
The Lions got off to a shortlived 1-0 advantage when shortstop Kazuo Matsui
tripled down the rightfield line to open the game and scored on a one out
single from DH Toshiaki Inubushi.
In the bottom of the inning, though, Matsuzaka hit Buffs centerfielder Naoyuki
Omura with a pitch and saw him sacrificed to second. Leftfielder Tuffy Rhodes
flied out, but then Nakamura went yard to rigthcenter and it was 2-1 Kintetsu.
Maekawa threw a blinder after that first inning, not lending the Lions even
the most ephemeral of sniffs at a scoring opportunity until the ninth. Maekawa
owns these guys, having claimed seven wins against the last season against
three losses in 2001 when he faced the Seibu squad. He has Seibu in his back
pocket like Pedro Martinez does the Mariners.
Nakamura struckout in the fourth and then came up with two away in the sixth
and got an 89mph fastball that was up in the zone and he atomized it, launching
a moon shot into the FIFTH, yes, that's right, the fifth deck in centerfield
an estimated 490 feet away. As Nakamura went into his trot after tossing
his bat aside, he caught Matsuzaka's eyes and all the two could do was laugh
at how far the ball traveled. Matsuzaka walked DH Kenshi Kawaguchi, but then
struckout first baseman Yuji Yoshioka and he was done. Matsuzaka first felt
the twinge in his elbow in the third, but kept at it since he feels the team
depends on him. Nonetheless, he left behind 3-1.
In the ninth, the Lions made some noise when Inubushi clocked a two out single
to center. First baseman Alex Cabrera then rammed a shot up the leftcenter
gap. Kintetsu boss Masataka Nishida went to the pen for Akira Okamoto, who
threw a slider and leftfielder Kazuhiro Wada bit on it for a game ending
groundout to second. That was the 16th one pitch save in Pacific League history.
Nakamura came into this game hitting right around .200 for his career against
Matsuzaka and he is now 11-48 with seven homers lifetime competing against
the 2001 Sawamura Award recipient. That is easily the most dingers
to any one player Matsuzaka has permitted. Tuffy Rhodes and Daiei first baseman
Nobuhiko Matsunaka are tied for second with four. Nakamura is also only the
second player to take Matsuzaka deep twice in one game, joining Orix
centerfielder Yoshitomo Tani, who did it last year. Finally, Nakamura has
at least one homer off of Daisuke in each of Matsuzaka's four seasons as
a pro, the only hitter to have that distinction. Thank go out to Nikkan Sports
for the nifty stats on all this.
For Kintetsu, Rhodes was 0-4 with two strikeouts and is at .244.
For Seibu, Cabrera was 1-4 with two strikeouts and is at .260.
Pitching Lines:
Seibu:
Matsuzaka (L,
6-1) IP 6.0 PC 91 H 4 HR
2 K 9 BB 1 R 3 ER 3 ERA 2.29
Aoki
IP 0.2 PC 16 H 1 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
Doi
IP 1.0 PC 23 H 2 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 1.17
Uchizono
IP 0.1 PC 7 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.70
Kintetsu:
Maekawa (W,
2-3) IP 8.2 PC
128 H 5 HR 0 K 5 BB 1 R 1 ER 1 ERA 4.44
Okamoto (S,
)
IP 0.1 PC 1 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 1.26
E: Aoki
2B: Cabrera, Yoshioka
3B: K. Matsui
HR: N. Nakamura 2 (12)
RBI: N. Nakamura 3, Inubushi
HBP: N. Omura (Matsuzaka)
GIDP: T. Itoh
LOB: Seibu 4, Kintetsu 9
Game Time: 2:59
Attendance: 18,000
Umpires: Yoshikawa (HP), Kodera (1B), Hayashi (2B), Sugimoto (3B)
Yomiuri Wants in on
Cuba
The dance between the Cubans and Japanese pro ball just got ramped up with
the Yomiuri Giants now saying that they want to get involved in the Cuban
market. Negotiations are underway for several Cuban players and coaches to
workout with Yomiuri during that team's fall camp. Morever, like the Yakult
Swallows, they are reportedly hoping to aquire Jose Ariel Contreras (30),
the Cuban National Team's number one starter and/or the young fireballer
Maels Rodriguez (22), who has been clocked as high as 101mph and throws a
90mph slider. The Chunichi Dragons will play two games in Cuba this fall
against Cuban all star teams and while they have been more circumspect in
hopes of aquiring Cuban talent, it appears that they want Contreras as well.
There had been rumors that some of Cuba's older talent such as Omar Linares
(35), Orestes
Kindelan (38) or Antionio Pacheco (37) may be allowed to play in Japan, but
that is still an uncomfirmed rumor. Those three have reportedly been taken
off the national team.
Japanese Players
and Autographs
See Asahi Shimbun story at:
http://www.asahi.com/english/sports/K2002051300449.html
The Economic Impact of Japanese
Players in MLB
See ESPN story at: http://msn.espn.go.com/gen/s/2002/0508/1380155.html
Giants Number One in Salary
for Eighth Consecutive
Year
According to a survey done by the Japanese player's association, the Yomiuri
Giants are number one in total salary expenditure for the eighth year straight
at 3,860,850,000 yen (at the current exchange rate of 128 yen ot one dollar,
that tranlsates to slightly over $31 million. That's an almost $2 million
reduction due to the retirement of long time veterans Hiromi Makihara and
Masaki Saito
The average player salary is about $270,000, a growth rate of just 1.9%,
the slowest inflation of player paychecks since the survey was first taken
in 1986. However, minor league salaries declined by an estimated 12.9%.
Tienmu Stadium Ready for
First Japanese Regular Season Game in
Taiwan
See Taipei Times story at:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/05/14/story/0000136003
Today in Japanese Baseball
History
This report is for May 13th and on that date in Japanese baseball history
in 1979, Hanshin Tigers pitcher Shigeru Kobayashi was still angry about Yakult
players riding him the previous night about his relationship with the great
singer, Keiko Fuji. So on this date, before the game, he went over to their
bench and got into a punch up. Kobayashi ultimately got the best revenge
by
winning 22 games against nine losses that season to earn a Sawamura Award.
By the way, Fuji is the mother of Hikaru Utada, the New York born singer
who set a record for album sales a few years ago with her hip hop soaked
take on Japanese pop and her last single, issued while she was in hospital
for surgery to remove a tumor on her fallopian tubes, went to number one
in its first week.
Yomiuri Beats Up on Ando,
Tigers, in 9-2
Victory
For the first time this season, the Hanshin Tigers relinquished first place
by losing to the new kings of the 2002 Central League, the Yomiuri Giants,
who attained that status by overwhelming the Tigers at Tokyo Dome Sunday
9-2. Southpaw Hisanori Takahashi went eight innings of two run ball, both
of those tallies coming on a pair of solo homers from Hanshin second baseman
Makoto Imaoka, to pickup his third victory without a defeat.
Yuya Ando started for Hanshin and just did not get the job done to the point
where Tigers manager Senichi Hoshino said that his number one draft choice
looked like an amateur at times. To further exacerbate THAT, rookie Ryo Asai
began the contest behind the plate for the first Hanshin freshman battery
in over a decade and he made a throwing error that resulted in a Giants run
in the first. For a guy who came in with a reputation as a very good defensive
player, Asai has performed very poorly on that side of the ball.
Yomiuri got out of the blocks in the first with a one out double from shortstop
Tomohiro Nioka to leftcenter. One out later, centerfielder Hideki Matsui
walked. First baseman Takayuki Saito then banged a single to center bring
Nioka in and send Matsui to third. Saito then took off for second while third
baseman Masahiro Kawai was at the plate and Asai's throw sailed into centerfield
to allow Matsui to score to make it 2-0.
In the top of the third, Imaoka came up with one out and drilled a sinker
from Takahashi into the leftfield bleachers to make it 2-1 Giants. Shortstop
Kentaro Sekimoto singled to center and Takahashi plunked third baseman Atsushi
Kataoka on the lefthand, leaving a deep bruise that eventually necessitated
his being removed before the start of the fifth and his being on the help
for the next two or three days. Rightfielder Shinjiro Hiyama then rolled
into a nifty 4-6-3 twin killing that was started by Yomiuri second baseman
Toshihisa Nishi gloving the ball behind the second base bag and relaying
it to Nioka, who gunned it to first to end the inning. That was the last
time the Tigers would be heard from until the eighth.
The Giants doubled their run outpout in the bottom of the same frame, parlaying
a Matsui leadoff single to left, a single to right from Saito and a hit and
run single from Kawai to right and an Ando wild pitch on a slider to expand
their advantage to 4-1.
Two innings later, following a double off the leftfield wall by Kawai, Nishi
jackhammered a pitch from Hanshin reliever Atsunori Itoh into the leftfield
seats and it was 6-1.
Hanshin put its last run on the board in the eighth with one away, when Imaoka
exited to the lefthand side for the first two homer game of his career to
make it 6-2.
The Giants awoke from the slumber to put this one on ice for real in the
home portion. Nishi leadoff with a screamer down the leftfield line and cruised
into second standing up. Hanshin reliever Takehito Kanazawa nailed catcher
Shinnosuke Abe with a pitch. Leftfielder Takayuki Shimizu walked to load
the bases. Nioka also worked a free pass and Nishi trotted in. Rightfielder
Yoshinobu Takahashi singled to right for another score and Matsui flied out
to center to usher in Shimizu and it was 9-2 Giants.
Hector Almonte took the hill in the ninth for Yomiuri and surrendered a single
to center from first baseman George Arias to kick it off. But Almonte then
induced a groundball to Koji Goto at first from Hiyama and Goto whipped it
over to Nioka and then back to Goto for the double play. Leftfielder Derrick
White walked and Hamanaka stood in. Almonte, though, blew Hamanaka away with
some 95mph heat and it was game setto.
For Yomiuri, Felipe Crespo was 0-1 in a pinch hitting role and is at .107.
For Hanshin, White was 0-2 with two walks and is at .284. Arias was 2-4 and
is at .211.
Pitching Lines:
Hanshin:
Ando (L,
2-3) IP 2.1 PC 55 H 5 HR 0 K 2 BB 2 R 4 ER 3 ERA
3.41
Date
IP 1.2 PC 23 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 5.60
Harada
IP 0.2 PC 11 H 3 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 3 ER 3 ERA 2.70
A.
Itoh
IP 1.1 PC 15 H 1 HR 1 K 1 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 4.09
Kanazawa IP 2.0 PC
51 H 3 HR 0 K 0 BB 2 R 3 ER 3 ERA 5.65
Yomiuri:
H. Takahashi (W,
3-0) IP 8.0 PC 113 H 4 HR 2 K 6 BB 2 R 2 ER 2 ERA 3.35
Almonte
IP 1.0 PC 19 H 1 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
E: Sekimoto, Asai
SB: Takayuki Saito
2B: Kawai, H. Matsui, Nishi, Nioka
HR: Imaoka 2 (7), Nishi (2)
RBI: Imaoka 2, Nishi 2, Nioka, Y. Takahashi, H. Matsui, Takayuki Saito, Kawai
SF: H. Matsui
WP: Ando
HBP: Kataoka (H. Takahashi),. S. Abe (Kanazawa)
GIDP: Hiyama 2
LOB: Hanshin 5, Yomiuri 8
Game Time: 3:09
Attendance: 55,000
Umpires: Tomoyori (HP), Watamari (1B), Watada (2B), Arizumi (3B)
Kanemoto Homer Beats Yakult
Yataro Sakamoto made his first pro start for Yakult Sunday, and the 19 year
old responded beautifully, going six innings and permitting only two hits
and striking out four while walking one on 87 pitches. Unfortunately, Hiroshima
righthander Masayuki Hasegawa was throwing a dandy himself, scattering nine
hits and keeping Yakult from scoring himself for his first pro shutout after
teammate Tomoaki Kanemoto powdered a 93mph fastball from Swallows reliever
Hirotoshi Ishii over the leftfield fence with Takuya Kimura at second in
the top of the ninth at Nagasaki to decide it for the Carp, 2-0. See pic
of Hasegawa's delivery at:
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/baseball/kiji/2002/05/13/20020513005355.jpg
Sakamoto had rendered Hiroshima hitless until one out in the fifth, when
both rightfielder Tomonori Maeda and third baseman Takahiro Arai singled.
Sakamoto the stepped it up and tempted catcher Kazu Kimura into a flyout
and got Hasegawa to groundout to exterminate the threat. He then worked a
"sansha bontai (three up, three down)" sixth before calling it a night.
Yakult had its biggest threat in the seventh, when third baseman Akinori
Iwamura leadoff with a single to center, but he was erased on a double play
on a grounder to second from leftfielder Alex Ramirez. Second baseman Hajime
Miki beat out a grounder to short and Shinichi Sato singled to right. It
didn't go any further than that, though, as centerfielder Mitsuru Manaka
grounded to second for the final out of the inning.
The Swallows then got two on in the following frame via a leadoff single
to center from shortstop Shinya Miyamoto, who was then sacrificed to second
by rightfielder Atsunori Inaba. Hiroshima manager Koji Yamamoto opted to
walk first baseman Roberto Petagine. Catcher Atsuya Furuta grounded to Hasegawa
and Iwamura struckout and that rally was over on Hasegawa's 131st pitch.
In the bottom of the ninth, Ramirez popped out. Miki fouled out down the
rightfield line. Pinch hitter Takahiro Ikeyama singled to left, but was stranded
when Manaka tapped it on the ground to second to secure the W for Hasegawa,
who did an excellent job of mixing his high 80's fastball with his curve
and forkball.
Hiroshima's regula centerfielder, Koichi Ogata, pulled a hamstring in a previous
game and has been taken off the roster to rest and rehab it.
For Yakult, Ramirez was 0-4 and is at .341. Petagine was 0-3 with a walk
and is at .298. The team's number one starter, Shugo Fujii, is suffering
from some back soreness and will miss his scheduled appearance against Yomiuri,
Pitching Lines:
Hiroshima:
Hasegawa (W,
2-1) IP 9.0 PC 152 H 9 HR 0 K 7 BB 2
R 0 ER 0 ERA 3.07
Yakult:
Sakamoto
IP 6.0 PC 87 H 2 HR 0 K 4 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.76
Newman
IP 1.0 PC 11 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 4.38
Kawabata (L, 0-1) IP 1.2 PC 24 H 1 HR
0 K 2 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 5.06
H.
Ishii
IP 0.1 PC 6 H 1 HR 1 K 0 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 1.40
HR: Kanemoto (2)
RBI: Kanemoto 2
IBB: Petagine
GIDP: Ramirez
LOB: Hiroshima 3, Yakult 10
Game Time: 2:55
Attendance: 20,000
Umpires: Suginaga (HP), Honda (1B), Shimada (2B), Mori (3B)
Valdez Ejected for Charging
Mound In Daiei Pounding of
Lotte
The Daiei Hawks teed off Sunday on Chiba Lotte Marines starter Kosuke Kato
while also exploiting an error from the latter club's centerfielder, Saburo
Omura on the way to a 12-5 triumph. However, Hawks rookie Toshiya Sugiuchi
was cuffed around for four earned runs on four hits and three walks and wasn't
able to stick around long enough to take the shiroboshi, so it wasn't all
a picnic for daiei boss Sadaharu Oh.
The Hawks went to town on Kato as soon as they got their turn in the batter's
box. Centerfielder Hiroshi Shibahara singled to left. Second baseman Tadahito
Iguchi singled to left, too. Leftfielder Pedro Valdez doubled to the rightfield
wall to plate Shibahara. One out later, first baseman Nobuhiko Matsunaka,
who had been two for his last 22 over a seven game period, rocketed fastball
into the centerfield seats to make it 4-0. Catcher Kenji Johjima singled
to center and DH Noriyoshi Omichi singled to left, Johjima motoring to third.
Rightfielder Koji Akiyama laced a liner destined for the rightcenter alley,
only it wasn't high enough to get over the head of second baseman Koichi
Hori and he snagged it and went to Kiyoshi Hatsushiba at third for the double
play on Johjima trying to scramble back to the bag.
In the second, Valdez mortared a Kato offering into the rightcenterfield
bleachers with shortstop Yusuke Torigoe on second and it was 6-0 Hawks.
Lotte actually closed up some of that gap in the top of the fifth. Hatsushiba
walked to kick off the inning. Omura singled to right. One out later, Kenji
Yoshitsuru walked to load the bases. Hori then crushed a Sugiuchi delivery
into the leftfield seats for a grand slam homer and it was 6-4 Hawks. Takashi
Kita beat out a groundball to third, bringing up the tying run in the form
of 2001 PL batting champ Kazuya Fukuura. Oh went to the pen for the veteran
Takayuki Shinohara, who got Kita to foul out to first. Kazuhiko Iijima then
strode in and capped off the craziness by having DH Frank Bolick pop out
to second.
Valdez came up again to leadoff the home portion of the fifth and walked.
Third baseman Hiroki Kokubo legged out a bleeder toward third. After Matsunaka
flied out to left, Johjima lifted a routine fly ball to Omura, who geeked
it. While he was chasing it down, both Kokubo and Valdez made it all the
way around and Daiei was back up by four at 8-4. Omichi singled to center
and Akiyama grounded out to third to get Johjima in and the inning concluded
with the Hawks holding a 9-4 edge.
In the top of the seventh, Hori doubled down the leftfield line with one
down. One out later, Fukuura singled to left to drive in Hori to make it
9-5.
Daiei got that back during their turn, Matsunaka drawing a one out walk and
sprinting to third on a single and hit the plate while Omichi was beating
out a roller toward short to resurrect the five run lead at 10-5.
The Hawks added to their lead in the eighth, but had to subtract Valdez.
Torigoe commenced the stanza with a ground ball that was kicked by Lotte
shortstop Taiji Maruyama. Shibahara doubled down the leftfield line and Torigoe
hustled in. Iguchi fanned, bringing up Valdez. Lotte reliever Hiroshi Tobe,
claiming that the ball didn't come out of his hand right, nailed Valdez in
the back. Valdez stewed for a second and then went after Tobe, who fled the
scene as both benches emptied. Once the PL RBI leader was brought under control,
he was ejected and subsequently fined $1500 by the league Monday morning.
Yudai Deguchi jogged in to pinch run. Kokubo walked to load the bases. Matsunaka
flied out to center for his fourth RBI and it was 12-5.
18 year old Hayato Terahara was summoned from the pen to work the ninth and
popped Maruyama up on a 92mph fastball. He then walked Hori, but Kita grounded
into a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.
For Lotte, Bolick was 0-4 with two strikeouts and is at .245. Leftfielder
Derrick May did the same and is at .189.
For Daiei, Valdez was 2-3 with three RBIs, walked and was hit by a pitch
and is now at .324.
Pitching Lines:
Lotte:
K. Kato (L,
2-4) IP 4.1 PC 86 H 11 HR 2 K 4
BB 1 R 8 ER 6 ERA 6.88
H. Kobayashi IP 0.2
PC 14 H 1 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 1 ER 0 ERA 3.43
T.
Tanaka
IP 1.0 PC 10 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.35
K.
Yamasaki
IP 1.0 PC 25 H 2 HR 0 K 2 BB 1 R 1 ER 0 ERA 1.98
Tobe
IP 0.1 PC 18 H 1 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 2 ER 0 ERA 7.36
Kawai
IP 0.2 PC 11 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 4.32
Daiei:
Sugiuchi
IP 4.1 PC 90 H 4 HR 1 K 4 BB 3 R 4 ER 4 ERA 5.76
Shinohara
IP 0.1 PC 3 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
Iijima (W, 3-2) IP 2.0 PC 43 H
3 HR 0 K 3 BB 0 R 3 ER 3 ERA 2.45
Yoshida
IP 0.1 PC 10 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 4.50
Wakatabe
IP 1.0 PC 8 H 1 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
Terahara
IP 1.0 PC 10 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 4.00
E: S. Omura, Maruyama 2,
Kokubo
SB: S. Omura, Shibahara
2B: Hatsushiba, Hori, Shibaharam P. Valdez
HR: Hori (4), Matsunaka (6), P. Valdez (10)
RBI: P. Valdez 3,. Hori 4, Matsunaka 4, Fukuura, Shibahara, Akiyama
SF: Matsunaka
HBP: P. Valdez (Tobe)
GIDP: Kita
LOB: Lotte 6, Daiei 7
Game Time: 3:51
Attendance: 48,000
Umpires: Sato (HP), Higashi (1B), Yamamoto (2B), Yamamura (3B)
Nakamura Gyakuten Sayonara
Blast Stews Nippon
Ham
A one out two run homer by Kintetsu Buffaloes third baseman Norihiro Nakamura
in the bottom of the ninth inning was the killing blow for the Nippon Ham
Fighters, as the 2001 PL champs overcame a 4-3 deficit to emerge victorious
over their Tokyo rivals 5-4 at Osaka Dome Sunday. Nakamura also turned an
around the horn triple play in the third to snuff a Fighters rally.
After a strong outing his last time out, Nippon Ham starter Chris Seelbach
struggled with his control, walking seven, hitting a batter, and throwing
two wild pitches while being touched for five hits, two of those doubles,
in seven innings on a personal Japan record 143 pitches. Despite the wildness,
Seelbach also displayed his trademark doggedness and he was never completely
toppled, the Buffs unable to pickup more than three runs despite 13 baserunners.
Sean Bergman made the start for Kintetsu after being out with shoulder discomfort
the last few weeks and he would tell you that he could have done better,
as he had ten baserunners on in his six innings, three of those crossing
the plate.
Kintetsu drew blood in the first, centerfielder Naoyuki Omura leading off
with a shot into leftcenter alley for a standup double and going to third
on a sac bunt. Leftfielder Tuffy Rhodes flied out to left and Omura dashed
in and it was 1-0 Buffs.
The Buffaloes got a double from rightfielder Koichi Isobe and an RBI single
to center from catcher Kenji Furukubo to up that lead to 2-0.
The Fighters came back to knot it with a leadoff pop fly double that was
made possible by the hustle of their centerfielder, Tatsuya Ide, who then
went to third on a single from Makoto Kaneko. Kuniyuki Kimoto seared a double
down the rightfield line to get Ide in. First baseman Michihiro Ogasawara
walked to load the bases. Third baseman Yukio Tanaka singled to left to push
Kaneko across to make it 2-2. DH Sherman Obando then sizzled one across the
third base bag that Nakamura snagged and, ignoring cries from Furukobo
to go home with the ball, he stepped on the base and snapped it over to Yosuke
Takasu, who rifled it to Yuji Yoshioka at first for a triple play. According
to one of the Japanese sports dailies, Nippon Ham hadn't been the victim
of a triple play since July 11, 1979 against Lotte at Korakuen Stadium. That
doesn't seem right to me, but I guess it's possible. Kintetsu hadn't turned
one in three years.
The Fighters then moved out to their first lead in the sixth, as Ogasawara
homered to center and it was 3-2 visitors.
Nippon Ham then blew a good scoring opportunity in the seventh. Toshihiro
Noguchi singled to center and Ide singled to left and both were moved over
on a sac bunt. But with the infield up, Nakamura grounded to Buffs shortstop
Masahiro Abe, who held the runner and threw to first for the second out.
Ogasawara walked to load the bases. However, Tanaka popped out to second
to throw cold water on the revolt.
Kintetsu countered to even it in the home portion with some help from Seelbach.
With one out, Rhodes singled to right. After Nakamura struckout, Seelbach
walked the next two men to pack the sacks. He then threw one by catcher and
Rhodes ran in to make it 3-3.
In the top of the eighth, Nippon Ham went out in front again when Ide homered
to center, his seventh of the year, and it was 4-3 Fighters.
Nippon Ham manager Yasunori Oshima dispatched his closer, Tomokazu Iba, to
the center of the diamond and he walked the first man he encountered, Fumitoshi
Takano. He struckout Rhodes and Nakamura entered the batter's box vowing
to jump on the first fastball he saw. As his mom Sumiko watched at her home
in Osaka's Yodogawa Ward, Nakamura made contact and knew it was gone as soon
as he struck it, the ball landing deep in the centerfield bleachers.
For Nippon Ham, leftfielder D.T. Cromer was 1-3 with a walk and is at .273.
Obando grounded into a sixth inning double play to accompany the TP, though
he did get his first steal of the season, as parft of a 1-4 day and is at
.220.
For Kintetsu, Rhodes was 1-3 with an RBI, a walk, and a steal and is at .252.
Pitching Lines:
Nippon Ham:
Seelbach
IP 7.0 PC 143 H 5 HR 0 K 6 BB 7 R 3 ER 3 ERA 3.62
Shibakusa IP
1.0 PC 9 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 5.54
Iba (L, 1-2) IP 0.1
PC 16 H 1 HR 1 K 1 BB 1 R 2 ER 2 ERA 6.75
Kintetsu:
Bergman
IP 6.0 PC 76 H 8 HR 1 K 1 BB 2 R 3 ER 3 ERA 3.75
Aikyo
IP 0.1 PC 10 H 2 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.79
Yoshida
IP 0.1 PC 8 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.45
D.
Miyamoto
IP 2.0 PC 20 H 2 HR 1 K 1 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 4.76
Yamamoto (W, 2-0) IP 0.1 PC 4 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R
0 ER 0 ERA 3.00
SB: Obando, Rhodes
2B: Ide, Kimoto, Cromer, N. Omura, Isobe
HR: M. Ogasawara (13), Ide (7), N. Nakamura (10)
RBI: M. Ogasawara, Ide, N. Nakamura 2, Rhodes, Furukubo, Kimoto, Y. Tanaka
SF: Rhodes
WP: Seelbach 2
HBP: Takasu (Seelbach)
GIDP: Obando
LOB: Nippon Ham 8, Kintetsu 10
Game Time: 3:27
Attendance: 20,000
Umpires: Fujimoto (HP), Maeda (1B), Kakigizono (2B), Kodera (3B)
Shiozaki Effective Again
in 9-0 Seibu Whitewash Over
Orix
Tetsuya Shiozaki, one of the last holdovers from the Seibu Lions glory days
of the late 80's-early 90's, has been a bonus as a starter this season after
being originally slotted for a bullpen job and he went seven innings of scoreless
two hit ball in this one to get credit for a 9-0 victory over the Orix Blue
Wave Sunday at Seibu Dome. Since it was Mother's Day, Seibu first baseman
Alex Cabrera dedicated the 450 foot three run bomb he cannonaded into the
leftfield seats in the second inning to his mom back in Venezuela.
A piece of timely hitting in the first by leftfielder Kazuhiro Wada supplied
the Lions with their initial run. With two out, DH Katsuhiko Miyaji beat
out a tapper toward first. Hidetaka Kawagoe hit Cabrera with a pitch. After
staring at Kawagoe for a few seconds, the big ex-Diamondback scowled off
to first. Wada then laced one down the leftfield line for a double to send
Miyaji in and it was 1-0 Seibu.
The very next inning, second baseman Hiroaki Ueda cracked a two out single
to center. Shortstop Kazuo Matsui singled to right. Both men advanced on
a passed ball by Orix catcher Takeshi Hidaka. Rightfielder Tatsuya Ozeki
singled to center to drive them in and it was now 3-0 Seibu. Miyaji singled
to left and then Cabu-chan, as the Japanese affectionately call him, did
the yard work off a hanging slider to widen that lead to 6-0. Wada followed
by going downtown himself throught leftcenter stands and it was now 7-0.
Here's an object lesson for you youngsters out there: leave a lot of fastballs
and sliders up and you're going to get punished.
Seibu got two more hits in the third but didn't score anyone, so moving on
to the fourth and Kazuo Yamaguchi now pitching, Wada leadoff with a single
to right. One out later, centerfielder Susumu Otomo grounded to third and
third baseman Mitsutaka Goto kicked it. Catcher Tsutomu Itoh singled to left
and Wada was, I'm guessing, was thrown out at the plate. Ueda singled to
right for an RBI and Matsui doubled down the rightfield line for another
and it was 9-0.
Orix couldn't buy a hit the last three innings and Seibu finished with a
total of 19 safeties to earn an easy victory.
For Seibu,
Alex Cabrera was 1-4 with three RBIs, was hit by a pitch and struckout three
times and is at .260.
For Orix, DH Fernando Seguignol was 0-3 with a walk and is at .267.
Pitching Lines:
Orix:
Kawagoe (L,
3-4) IP 3.0 PC 97 H 12 HR 2 K 2 BB 0 R 7 ER
6 ERA 4.29
Yamaguchi
IP 3.0 PC 45 H 5 HR 0 K 3 BB 0 R 2 ER 0 ERA 3.31
Tokumoto
IP 2.0 PC 28 H 2 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 4.70
Seibu:
Shiozaki (W,
3-0) IP 7.0 PC 88 H 2 HR 0 K 5 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA
1.19
Onuma
IP 1.0 PC 24 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 6.00
Uchizono
IP 1.0 PC 19 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 3.00
E: M. Goto
2B: Shiotani, Wada, K. Matsui, K. Suzuki, H. Takagi
HR: Cabrera (11), Wada (7)
RBI: Cabrera 3, Wada 2, K. Matsui, Ozeki 2, Ueda
HBP: Cabrera (Kawagoe)
PB: Hidaka
LOB: Orix 4, Seibu 11
Game Time: 2:52
Attendance: 27,000
Umpires: Akimura (HP), Sakaemura (1B), Yamazaki (2B), Tachibana (3B)
Kawakami Pitches, Bats Chunichi
to Triumph Over
Yokohama
Kenshin Kawakami has been the Chunichi Dragons most consistent pitcher this
season and Sunday at Yokohama Stadium, he maintained that status, going 6.1
innings of six hit, two run ball, striking out four and walking two before
being pulled in the seventh. Moreover, he had another RBI, his third of 2002,
to further his cause and win his third game of the year, this time against
the Yokohama Bay Stars, by a 4-2 margin.
The Dragons took the inital lead of the night with a first inning leadoff
single to center from shortstop Hirokazu Ibata, a sacrifice, and a double
into the leftfield corner from rightfielder Kosuke Fukudome to make it 1-0.
Chunichi leftfielder Jun Inoue hammered a slider from Yokohama starter Daisuke
Miura in the second and deposited it in the rightcenterfield seats to expand
that lead to 2-0.
Yokohama cut that disparity in half in their half thanks to a leadoff single
to center from first baseman Boi Rodrigues, Kawakami plunking second baseman
Hitoshi Taneda with a delivery and a one out single to center from
catcher Takeshi Nakamura, 2-1 Dragons after two complete.
During Yokohama's half of the third, there was what will surely go down as
one of the stranger plays of the year. Leftfielder Takanori Suzuki started
it with a single to left. Third baseman Mike Gulan ripped a shot off of
Kawakami's foot, which went right to first baseman Leo Gomez, who threw to
second and then ball was flipped to first, the runner being declared safe.
But then the umpires had a conference and ruled that the ball never touched
the ground and thus Suzuki was out at first for failing to tag up and Gulan
was out when Gomez caught the ball, a wacky twin killing. Kawakami struckout
Rodrigues to put this bizarre inning in the books.
Some timely hits and a productive out then allowed the Dragons to go up by
three in the fourth. With one away, third baseman Kazuyoshi Tatsunami doubled
into the leftfield corner. Inoue singled to right. Second baseman Masahiko
Morino then hit a groundball to Taneda , who tried to get Tatsunami at the
plate, but Tatsunami was in ahead of the tag. Catcher Motonobu Tanishige
then grounded to third for what should have been the final out of the inning,
but Morino was then cashed in by Kawakami with a knock to right and it was
4-1 visitors.
Yokohama played some little ball in the fifth to cut their opponent's lead
to two. Pinch hitter Seiichi Uchikawa leadoff with a double to rightcenter
and went to third on a groundout to first. Rightfielder Kazunori Tanaka legged
out a tapper toward first and Uchikawa hit the dish to make it a 4-2 game.
In the sixth, the Stars had a chance to cut it even closer, but failed to
convert. With a man down, Pinchi hitter Hirofumi Ogawa scalded a triple off
the rightfield wall. However, centerfielder Tatsuhiko Kinjo popped to short
and pinch hitter Yoshihito Ishii grounded to third to put the kabosh on that
threat.
The Dragons loaded the bases in the seventh on a single to Ibata and one
out walks to Fukudome and Gomez, but Tatsunami grounded to second and this
time the throw to the plate nipped the speedy Ibata and Inoue flied out to
keep the
score where it was.
Eddie Gaillard came on in the ninth to try to save it, but ended up putting
the tying run via two one out walks. He turned himself around, though, and
induced a flyout to center from backup catcher Ryoji Aikawa and a pop out
from shortstop Takuro Ishii for his eighth save.
Pitching Lines:
Chunichi:
Kawakami (W,
3-0) IP 6.1 PC 96 H
6 HR 0 K 4 BB 2 R 2 ER 2 ERA 2.55
Iwase
IP 1.2 PC 19 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.93
Gaillard (S,
8)
IP 1.0 PC 24 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 2 R 0 ER 0 ERA 1.64
Yokohama:
Miura (L,
2-6)
IP 5.0 PC 94 H 7 HR 1 K 1 BB 0 R 4 ER 3 ERA 2.91
Takeshita
IP 0.1 PC 3 H 1 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 5.91
Sugimoto
IP 0.2 PC 7 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 3.24
Kizuka
IP 2.0 PC 38 H 1 HR 0 K 2 BB 2 R 0 ER 0 ERA 1.45
T.
Saito
IP 1.0 PC 21 H 1 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.13
E: Gomez, Nakamura
2B: Fukudome, Tatsunami, Uchikawa
3B: Ogawa
HR: Inoue (2)
RBI: Inoue, Fukudome, Morino, Kawakami, K. Tanaka, Nakamura,
HBP: Taneda (Kawakami)
LOB: Chunichi 8, Yokohama 8
Game Time: 3:29
Attendance: 26,000
Umpires: Kittaka (HP), Tani (1B), T. Kobayashi (2B), Fukatani (3B)
Today in Japanese Baseball
History
This report is for May 12 and on that date in Japanese baseball history in
1977, it was decided that in the wake of the Sano incident that all outfield
walls in the various Japanese ballparks would use rubber padding.
Here is wahat caused that decision: on April 29, 1977, in a day game between
the Hanshin Tigers and Taiyo Whales (now the Yokohama Bay Stars) at Kawasaki
Stadium, it went into the bottom of the ninth with the Tigers leading 7-6.
With speedy Whales outfielder Yoshio Noguchi on first and one away, an infielder
named Shimizu was sent up to pinch hit. He unloaded a deep drive into the
leftcenter alley. Hanshin centerfielder Noriyoshi Sano got on his horse and
made a highlight play getting to and catching the ball before smashing headfirst
into the concrete outfield wall. Amazingly, while Sano was knocked unconscious
from what was later diagnosed as a skull fracture, he held on to the ball
while laying motionless on the warning track with spit foaming up in his
mouth.
The other outfielders ran over to Sano and signaled that something was wrong
with him. The Hanshin infielders sprinted out to help their fallen comrade.
Noguchi, seeing that the ball was unlikely to be thrown in anytime soon,
tagged up and made like a bat out of hell around the bases. As he rounded
third, Tigers catcher Koichi Tabuchi called for the ball, but the throw was
ultimately too late.
A rhubarb then ensued, as Hanshin Tigers manager Yoshio Yoshida vehemently
protested that due to this emergency situation, time out should have been
called and Noguchi sent back to first, something that Yoshida believed was
specified in the rule book. His proteststations went for nought, though,
has the umpiring crew ruled the ball was in play and therefore no time could
be called.
Moreover, the last time before that in Japanese basebal history that a runner
had scored for first on a fly out to the outfield was on August 22, 1963
at Hiroshima Municipal Stadium in a faceoff between the Yomiuri Giants and
Hirosima Carp. In that case, the centerfielder had also collided with the
wall and been knocked unconcious for what was ruled as a two RBI sac fly
(there was a runner on second as well).
Aside from there now being padding stipulated by the rule book, they also
revised the rules so that in situations similar to the above the umpire could
indeed call time if he believes the player may have suffered a harmful or
life threatening injury. Too, the play had been ruled an error on the
centerfielder for not returning the ball to the infield by the official scorer
(who must have had too much sake to drink) but was later changed to a fielder's
choice several days later when the players objected to what they thought
was an unkind ruling.
Also on that date in 1973, the longest ever nine inning game was played,
a tilt between the Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Taiheiyo Club Lions (now Seibu),
which went 4 hours and 36 minutes.
Source:
http://www2.plala.or.jp/ippeifuji/p-k2-15.htm
Matsui Says Sayonara for
Second Time in Two Days Against
Orix
Seibu Lions shortstop Kazuo Matsui became only the seventh man in Japanese
baseball history Saturday to crack a sayonara hit in two consecutive games
when he rocked Orix reliever Imamura with a homer to center in the bottom
of the tenth inning at Seibu Dome with a man on to carve out a 4-2 Lions
victory.
Matsui had been in a funk until this weekend, someting he attributed to wanting
to be too much like Ichiro. "I want to be someone pitchers really hate facing,"
said the speedy infielder. He had been watching what Ichiro had been doing
with the Mariners this season and he subconsciously began to shorten his
swing, but not in a way that was entirely comfortable. Getting his old stroke
back took a few days of work in the batting cage, but now he is back in a
groove, going 2-5 in this one with a steal to raise his average to
.293 and get setup man Shinji Mori his second win in two days.
Ed Yarnell started for Orix and he got behind right away, as Matsui leadoff
with a single to left and stole second. Centerfielder Masaji Shimizu sacrificed
him to third, from where he scored on a single to right by DH Toshiaki Inubushi
to make it 1-0. First baseman Alex Cabrera doubled down the leftfield line
to move Inubushi to third, from where he scored on a balk by Yarnell and
it was 2-0 Lions after one complete.
Orix put together a little two out rally in the second, but a baserunning
blunder by first baseman Scott Sheldon killed it. Shortstop Tatsuya Shindo
singled to left and Sheldon beat out a tapper near second. Rightfielder Hayakawa
singled to left and Sheldon made a wide turn for home and then put on the
brakes, but it was too late, as he got caught in a rundown and was tagged
out to end the uprising.
Orix finally got on the board in the fifth, as Daisuke Hayakawa leadoff by
beating out a bleeder toward first and then stole second. One out later,
third baseman Mitsutaka Goto hit a grounder to Matsui, who threw wildly to
first and Hayakawa crossed the plate to reduce the Seibu advantage to 2-1.
Goto then advanced on a grounder to first and scored on a single to center
by centerfielder Yoshitomo Tani to tie the game.
From there, both Yarnell and Lions starter Fumiya Nishiguchi did a fine job
of keeping their opposition from really getting very much going, Yarnell
throwing 8.2 innings while Nishiguchi departed with two outs in the eighth
before Seibu manager Haruki Ihara replaced him with Doi.
Orix had a chance to do something in the tenth against Yoshitaka Mizuo, however.
Pinch hitter Hiroki Fukutome leadoff with a single to left and Goto legged
out an infield roller. One out later, Ihara ordered that Tani be intentionally
walked to load the bases. Ihara then got on the horn and brought Mori in
and he struckout both DH Fernando Seguignol and Ryota Aikawa, now in right
after an earlier pinch hitting appearance, to terminate the revolt.
In the home portion, third baseman Hiroaki Ueda leadoff with a single to
left and then Matsui touched them all on a seventh pitch full count slider
and the fans at the stadium went home happy after a 4-2 triumph.
The last time any player had back to back sayonaras was Orix catcher/DH Hiromitsu
Kadota in September of 1990. Kadota finished his career with 567 homers over
23 seasons, most of them with the Nankai (now Daiei) Hawks. And Matsui is
only the third player in Japanese history to have a second sayonara the night
following getting his first lifetime last inning game winner, joining and
odd couple, Shigeo Nagashima and ex-Angel and Oriole Doug DeCinces. He was
also so excited by his first sayonara Friday that he went and bought copies
of all the sports papers the next morning and he said that after this game
he would do it again.
For Orix, Seguignol was 0-4 with a walk and is now at .275. Sheldon was 2-4
and is at .221.
For Seibu, Cabrera was 1-4 with three strikeouts and is at .261.
Pitching Lines:
Orix:
Yarnell
IP 8.2 PC 138 H 6 HR 0 K 8 BB 3 R 2 ER 2 ERA 3.13
Imamura (L, 1-3) IP 0.1 PC 14 H 2 HR 1 K 1
BB 0 R 2 ER 2 ERA 6.14
Seibu:
Nishiguchi
IP 7.2 PC 120 H 8 HR 0 K 8 BB 2 R 2 ER 0 ERA 3.21
Doi
IP 1.1 PC 16 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 1.35
Mizuo
IP 0.1 PC 14 H 2 HR 0 K 0 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 1.86
Mori (W,
2-2) IP
0.2 PC 8 H 0 HR 0 K 2 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.20
E: Nishiguchi, K. Matsui
SB: Oshima, Hayakawa, K. Matsui
2B: Cabrera
HR: K. Matsui (6)
RBI: K. Matsui 2, Inubushi, Tani
IBB: Tani
WP: Nishiguchi
Balk: Nishiguchi, Yarnell
LOB: Orix 9, Seibu 6
Game Time: 3:14
Attendance: 23,000
Umpires: Nakamura (HP), Hirabayashi (1B), Yanagida (2B), Tsugawa (3B)
Two Sixth Inning Errors
Cost Hanshin Big
A catcher's interference call on Hanshin rookie catcher Ryo Asai and a bad
throw by shortstop Atsushi Fujimoto opened the floodgates in the sixth inning
to allow the Yomiuri Giants to collect four runs, all unearned, for what
became the margin of victory 10-6. over the Tigers at Tokyo Dome Saturday.
Giants starter Koji Uehara claimed his fifth win of the season despite being
taken deep three times in a four at bat sequence in the fourth and surrendering
a total of four runs on five hits in six innings of work.
Yomiuri took a 3-0 lead in the third when catcher Shinnosuke Abe walked to
lead it off and was sacrificed to second. Leftfielder Takayuki Shimizu, who
supposedly doesn't hit southpaws well, then tripled off of lefthanded Hanshin
starter Trey Moore to make it 1-0. Shortstop Toimohiro Nioka and absolutely
demolished the first offering he saw from Moore, powering it off the facade
of the balcony above the leftfield seats, a 450 foot shot, for a two run
homer and a 3-0 Giants advantage.
Hanshin answered with a sock show of their own a half inning later. Fujimoto
singled to center to0 kick it off. One out later, first baseman George Arias
obliterated an 89mph fastball on the outer half of the plate and drove it
just under roof height to the back wall of the leftfield bleachers to get
his side within 3-2. Rightfielder Shinjiro Hiyama then got an 89mph fastball
up in the strike zone and special delivered it into the rightfield seats
to knot it at 3-3. Leftfielder Derrick White struckout, but then centerfielder
Osamu Hamanaka golfed a forkball that was middle out and rocketed it center
backscreen style to put Hanshin in front 4-3.
It would stay that way until disaster struck in the sixth for both Moore
and the Tigers as a whole. With one out and first baseman Kenji Fukui up
at the plate, Asai was called for interfering with Fukui's swing and Fukui
was given first base. Second baseman Toshihisa Nishi then hit a routine grounder
to Fujimoto, who made an inaccurate throw and everybody was safe. Third baseman
Masahiro Kawai singled in Fukui and and Abe doubled to right for another.
Murata was sent up to pinch hit for Uehara and he wacked a two run single
to right to send Moore packing and give the Giants a 7-4 lead.
The Giants then expanded the gap with Hanshin to four with back to back doubles
to rightcenter and leftcenter respectively in the seventh off of Nobuyuki
Hoshino from Nioka and rightfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi and it was 8-4 Yomiuri.
Hanshin attempted a comeback in the eighth, but it fell short. With one away
and Hideki Okajima now on the hill for Yomiuri, third baseman Atsushi Kataoka
walked. Arias whiffed, but Hiyama singled to center. White picked them both
up with a screamer into the rightcenter alley to shorten the deficit to 8-6.
The rally fizzled, though, when Hamanaka grounded out.
The Giants got both runs back in their half with a single from Abe and Shimizu
leaving the yard to right and that is where it ended, 10-6 Yomiuri, as Junichi
Kawahara, who still has yet to be scored upon this season in 12 appearances,
dispatced the Tigers lineup in order in the ninth. The Giants and Tigers
are once again tied at the top of the Central League.
This was the first time Hanshin had three homers in an inning and brought
comparisons in the press with a game in April of 1985, the year Hanshin won
it all, when first baseman Randy Bass, third baseman Masayuki Kakefu and
outfielder Akinobu Okada (now managing for the team in the minors) went back
to back to back over the centerfield wall at Koshien Stadium against their
chief rivals. They won that game, but not this one.
For Hanshin, Arias was 1-3 with two RBIs, a walk and two strikeouts and is
at .202. This also ended the consecutive game streak where Arias has homered
and Hanshin has won at nine. White was 2-4 with two RBIs and is at .290.
White has
struckout about 20% of the time this season, but he also walks some, so his
OBP of around .390 is pretty good. His OPS is just a shade over .900, also
not too shabby.
For Yomiuri, Felipe Crespo was 0-1 in a pinch hitting appearance to drop
to .111.
Pitching Lines:
Hanshin:
Moore (L,
4-2) IP 5.1 PC
109 H 5 HR 1 K 3 BB 4 R 7 ER 3 ERA 2.42
Harada
IP 0.2 PC 9 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
N.
Hoshino
IP 1.0 PC 33 H 2 HR 0 K 0 BB 1 R 1 ER 1 ERA 3.72
Kanazawa
IP 1.0 PC 18 H 2 HR 1 K 0 BB 0 R 2 ER 2 ERA 4.38
Yomiuri:
Uehara (W,
5-2) IP 6.0 PC 98 H
5 HR 3 K 5 BB 1 R 4 ER 4 ERA 3.35
Jobe
IP 1.0 PC 14 H 1 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 1.80
Okajima
IP 1.0 PC 26 H 2 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 2 ER 2 ERA 1.80
Kawahara
IP 1.0 PC 7 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
E: Fujimoto
2B: White 2, S. Abe, Nioka, Y. Takahashi
3B: T. Shimizu
HR: Nioka (4), Arias (12), Hiyama (8), Hamanaka (4), T. Shimizu (4)
RBI: Arias 2, Hiyama, White 2, Hamanaka, T. Shimizu 3, Nioka 2, Y. Takahashi,
Kawai, S. Abe, Murata 2
Catcher's Interference: R. Asai
LOB: Hanshin 4, Yomiuri 5
Game Time:
Attendance: 55,000
Umpires: Kasahara (HP), Watada (1B), Arizumi (2B), Tomoyori (3B)
Swallows Fly with Hamana
Sayonara Single
The Yakult Swallows, down 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth at Nagasaki Prefectural
Stadium against Hiroshima Saturday, overcame a 1-0 Hiroshima Carp lead to
win it on a single to right by pinch hitter Chihiro Hamana off of closer
Yasuhiro Oyamada to sieze the day 2-1.
Kevin Hodges started for the birds and was superb, going seven innings and
giving up just a run on eighth hits while striking out six and walking none,
though he ultimately didn't figure in the decision. That was because Carp
starter Ken Takahashi was also outstanding, though being touched for singles
by the first two hitters he faced in the ninth caused him to get hung with
the
defeat.
The game was a scoreless deadlock until the fourth,
when Carp rightfielder Tomonori Maeda picked on a Hodges delivery and rifled
it over the rightfield fence. The dimensions of the facility are 325 feet
down the lines and 400 feet to straightaway center. You can see a pic of
it at: http://www1.odn.ne.jp/nsfinder/yakyu/ya_main.html
Hiroshima had another opportunity to put runs up in the eighth, but let it
slip through their fingers. Takahashi leadoff with a single to right. Takuya
Kimura did the same and both were sacrificed along to setup a men on second
and third, one out situation. Hodges had been replaced after the Kimura at
bat in favor of Hirotoshi Ishii, who then induced a ground ball to third
and a strikeout to quell the disturbance.
In the ninth, Yakult finally awakened, first baseman Roberto Petagine singling
to right to lead it off. Takenori Daita pinch ran for him. Catcher Atsuya
Furuta singled to left. Third baseman Akinori Iwamura grounded to Takahashi,
who went to third for the force. Hiroshima manager Koji Yamamoto went to
the bullpen and brought in Oyamada, who lured leftfielder Alex Ramirez into
grounding out into a 6-5 force play on Furuta. Kota Soejima walked up to
pinch hit and drilled a double into the rightfield corner and Iwamura motored
around to tie it at 1-1. Now it was the pitcher's spot in the batting order
and Yakult manager Tsutomu Wakamatsu chose Hamana to pinch hit. He lined
a single to right and Soejima sprinted in for the sayonara Swallows 2-1 triumph.
For Yakult, Petagine was 1-4 and is at .305. Ramirez was also 1-5 and is
at .353.
Pitching Lines:
Hiroshima:
K. Takahashi (L,
2-4) IP 8.1 PC 117 H 7 HR 0 K 7 BB 0 R 2 ER 2 ERA
3.09
Oyamada
IP 0.1 PC 9 H 2 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.71
Yakult:
Hodges
IP 7.0 PC 95 H 8 HR 1 K 6 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 3.12
H.
Ishii
IP 1.0 PC 9 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.95
Ryo. Igarashi (W, 3-0) IP 1.0 PC 14 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER
0 ERA 1.00
2B: Ogata, K. Kimura, Ramirez,
Soejima
HR: T. Maeda (6)
RBI: Maeda, Soejima, Hamana
HBP: Miki (K. Takahashi)
WP: Oyamada
LOB: Hiroshima 6, Yakult 8
Game Time: 2:45
Attendance: 24,000
Umpires: Ino (HP), Shimada (1B), Mori (2B), Suginaga (3B)
Asakura Throws Second
Consecutive Complete Game Against
Yokohama
Chunichi Dragons starter Kenta Asakura twirled his second complete game victory
in a row, this time a six hitter, as the Nagoya bunch did in the Yokohama
Bay Stars at the latter's homeground Saturday 8-2. As he got further into
the contest, the 20 year old righthander got tougher, as the Stars managed
only one hit off of him in the last four innings.
Spearheading the Chunichi offensive thrust was centerfielder Koichi Sekikawa,
who went 2-2 and drove in three runs with a bases clearing double while also
walking and stealing a bag before being replaced late in the match by Toshio
Haru, and first baseman Leo Gomez, who launched a 420 foot solo homer
to center off a hanging breaking ball from Shigeo Inamine in the third, his
first circuit clout in five games.
Hiroshi Yamada, who had a couple of impressive outings to begin the season,
displayed the wildness he was notorious for in previous years and it lead
to his downfall. Dragons shortstop Hirokazu Ibata leadoff the game with a
double to rightcenter and went to third on a sacrifice. On the way to striking
out rightfielder Kosuke Fukudome, he unleashed a wild pitch and Ibata hustled
in to make it 1-0 Dragons.
Asakura then had a touch of the same disease in the home half. Yokohama shortstop
Takuro Ishii began the inning with a walk, stole second and went to third
on a sac bunt. In the course of pitching to leftfielder Takanori Suzuki,
Asakura uncorked an uncontrolled delivery of his own and Ishii touched home
to knot the game at one all.
Asakura would straighten himself out, but Yamada didn't. In the second and
with two away, Chunichi second baseman Masahiko Morino singled to right.
While pitching to catcher Motonobu Tanishige, he threw another wild pitch.
It was then decided by Stars manager Masaaki Mori to put Tanishige on, since
Tanishige has eaten Yokohama alive so far this season. Asakura then checked
in, having gone nip for his last 13 with 12 strikeouts, and Yamada walked
him to load the bases. Ibata singled to center to plate Morino and Sekikawa
cleared the decks by scalding a Yamada pitch over the head of Yokohama
centerfielder Kazunori Tanaka and it was 5-1 Dragons and Yamada was
going for a shower when he was replaced by Inamine.
That move didn't workout in the third, when Gomez started it with his longball
to make it 6-1. Third baseman Kazuyoshi Tatsunami singled to center and advanced
on a grounder to first. Morino singled to left and Tatsunami chugged around
and the Dragons were six ahead at 7-1 and Kazushi Hosomi had to be called
in to rescue Inamine.
Yokohama added a run in the bottom of the inning thanks to another mistake
by Asakura and then they would pretty much sleepwalk through the rest of
the battle. With two down, Tanaka singled to center. Suzuki then laced a
double down the leftfield line. While pitching to third baseman Mike Gulan,
Asakura balked and now it was 7-2 Dragons as Tanaka trotted in.
Chunichi went back up by six, however, in the fourth. Ibata singled to center.
Sekikawa singled to left and Ibata hotfooted it for third and made it safely.
Fukudome flew out to right and Ibata tagged and hit home for an 8-2 lead.
And with the way the Stars have just been plain sucking, this one was already
in the fridge as Asakura coasted from there on out.
For Yokohama, Gulan was 0-4 with two strikeouts and is at .221. First baseman
Boi Rodrigues was 1-4 with an error and is at .238.
For Chunichi, Scott Bullet was 0-1 in a pinch hitting role and is at .000.
Gomez was 1-4 with an RBI and is at .246.
Pitching Lines:
Chunichi:
Asakura (W,
4-1) IP 9.0 PC 127
H 6 HR 0 K 3 BB 2 R 2 ER 2 ERA 2.06
Yokohama:
H. Yamada (L,
2-3) IP 1.2 PC 50 H 4 HR 0 K 1
BB 2 R 5 ER 5 ERA 3.58
Inamine
IP 0.2 PC 11 H 3 HR 1 K 0 BB 0 R 2 ER 1 ERA 7.04
Hosomi
IP 1.2 PC 22 H 2 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 3.86
Yoshimi
IP 3.0 PC 57 H 3 HR 0 K 4 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 4.61
Turman
IP 2.0 PC 39 H 2 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 6.35
E: Rodrigues
SB: Sekikawa, T. Ishii
2B: Ibata, Sekikawa, T. Suzuki
HR: Gomez (6)
RBI: Gomez, Ibata, Sekikawa 3, Fukudome, Morino
SF: Fukudome
IBB: Tanishige
WP: Yamada 2, Asakura
HBP: Tanishige (Yoshimi)
Balk: Asakura
LOB: Chunichi 10, Yokohama 5
Game Time: 2:59
Attendance: 24,000
Umpires: Manabe (HP), T. Kobayashi (1B), Fukatani (2B), Kittaka (3B)
Nippon Ham Overcomes a Pair
of Two Run Homers by Rhodes to Win
It
Kintetsu Buffaloes leftfielder Tuffy Rhodes crushed two more homers, his
14th and 15th of the season, to stay atop the PL longball race, but it wasn't
a good enough effort to deal with the Nippon Ham Fighters Saturday at Osaka
Dome, as Fighters first baseman Michihiro Ogasawara went on a rampage, coming
up only a single short of the cycle, to spur his side on to a 9-7 victory.
Carlos Mirabel had one of his worst outings of the season, lasting just five
innings while being bombarded for seven hits, two of them ending up as souvenirs,
and six earned runs. But the eight arms Buffaloes manager Masataka Nishida
sent out there were even less resilient and Mirabal was bestowed with the
W.
Hideo Koike started for Kintetsu and the first inning was a harbinger of
bad things for him. Hiroshi Narahara tattooed a one out double into
the leftcenter alley and that was succeeded by Ogasawara gapping a triple
to the same area for a quick 1-0 Fighters lead. Third baseman Yukio Tanaka
then got around on a Koike delivery and smacked it on the sweet part of the
bathead, but Buffs third baseman Norihiro Nakamura was there to flag it down.
Koike then walked the next two men unintentionally to load the bases, but
he escaped the predicament when leftfielder D.T. Cromer fanned.
In the second, though, the Fighters wouldn't be so charitable. With one out,
centerfielder Tatsuya Ide lasered a two bagger into the leftcenter gap. Makoto
Kaneko ripped one down the rightfield line for a triple and an RBI. One out
later, Ogasawara went yard to right to make it 4-0 Fighters. Koike then got
Tanaka to come up empty, but that was the last anyone saw of him that afternoon.
In the third,. Nippon Ham went right back on the offensive, as Cromer dented
the outfield wall in right for a double with two out off of Kadokura. Toshihiro
Noguchi then tripled up the rightcenter alley for the fifth run. Ide walked.
Kaneko boomed a double to rightcenter for a 7-0 advantage before Narahara
flew out to signal a respite.
The Buffaloes then got to Mirabal. After he had struckout both DH Nigel Wilson
and Akihito Fujii, centerfielder Naoyuki Omura clobbered a shot off the leftfield
wall for a double. Second baseman Yosuke Takasu singled in Omura. Rhodes
unloaded a nine iron on a line into the leftfield bleachers and it was now
7-3. Nakamura walked, but the inning ended when rightfielder Koichi Isobe
bounced out to Mirabal.
Kintetsu drew even closer in the fifth when Takasu tripled (that makes four
for the game, the most this season, iirc) to right and came home on a bomb
to right from Rhodes, making this his third two homer game of the year and
the score 7-5 Fighters.
And the extra base hits just kept on coming. In the sixth, first baseman
Yuji Yoshioka and Kenshi Kawaguchi each doubled to make it a one run game
at 7-6 and disposing of Mirabal.
Nippon Ham gave themselves some breathing space, though, in the eighth, with
a leadoff single to center form Kaneko, a sacrifice from Narahara, an intentional
walk to Ogasawara, an RBI single to right by Tanaka and an RBI knock from
DH Sherman Obando to make it 9-6 Fighters.
Yoshioka homered with one out in the bottom of the inning off of Hiroshi
Shibakusa and this muscle flexing exhibition was over. By the way, Ogasawara
did get a chance to hit in the ninth and he grounded out, so he didn't get
the single necessary to complete the cycle. There were a total of 16 extra
base hits in this one between the two sides, an incredible number to be sure.
For Kintetsu, Rhodes was 2-4 with four RBIs and a walk and is at .250. Wilson
was 1-4 and is at .225.
For Nippon Ham, Obando was 1-4 with a walk, an RBI and two strikeouts and
is at .220. Cromer was 3-5 and is at .271. Ogasawara is now hitting
.406 with his 3-4 day.
Pitching Lines:
Nippon Ham:
Mirabal (W, 5-0
) IP 5.1 PC 119 H 7 HR 2
K 4 BB 1 R 6 ER 6 ERA 4.00
Sasaki
IP 1.1 PC 19 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 3.24
Shibakusa
IP 1.0 PC 21 H 2 HR 1 K 1 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 6.00
Iba (S,
6)
IP 1.1 PC 15 H 0 HR 0 K 2 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 5.40
Kintetsu:
Koike (L,
3-2) IP
2.0 PC 62 H 5 HR 1 K 4 BB 2 R 4 ER 4 ERA 5.55
Kadokura
IP 2.0 PC 50 H 3 HR 0 K 2 BB 2 R 3 ER 3 ERA 5.56
Takagi
IP 1.2 PC 20 H 2 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.89
Aikyo
IP 1.1 PC 26 H 2 HR 0 K 2 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.82
Yamamoto
IP 0.1 PC 10 H 1 HR 0 K 0 BB 1 R 2 ER 2 ERA 3.12
Okamoto
IP 0.2 PC 18 H 2 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 1.29
Misawa
IP 0.2 PC 18 H 1 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 6.39
Yoshida
IP 0.1 PC 1 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.70
E: Kaneko
2B: M. Ogasawara, Narahara, Ide, Cromer, Kaneko 2, N. Omura, Yoshioka, Kawaguchi
3B: M. Ogasawara, Kaneko, Noguchi, Takasu
HR: Rhodes 2 (15), M. Ogasawara (12), Yoshioka (6)
RBI: Kaneko 3, M. Ogasawara 3, Y. Tanaka, Obando, Noguchi, Takasu, Rhodes
4, Yoshioka, Kawaguchi
LOB: Nippon Ham 12, Kintetsu 5
Game Time: 4:03
Attendance: 23,000
Umpires: Hayashi (HP), Yoshikawa (1B), Kodera (2B), Maeda (3B)
Minchey Can't Get Anyone
Out in Ninth and He Loses 1-0 to
Daiei
Daiei Hawks number one starter Keisaburo Tanoue and Lotte's Nathan Minchey
hooked up in a classic pitcher's duel Saturday at Fukuoka Dome, Minchey perhaps
being a little better since he had not only stayed in the game to the end,
but finished having made just 95 deliveries to the plate. Unfortunately for
Minchey, though, he got beat with a couple of infield hits, a bad feilding
decision on his part and then a shot to right that resulted in his defeat.
Lotte had a couple of faint whiffs at scoring in this game, but that was
all. For example, in the first, first baseman Kazuya Fukuura walked and DH
Frank Bolick singled to right. But Tanoue buckled down and fanned third baseman
Kiyoshi Hatsushiba to make it all for nought,
In the seventh and with one out, Tanoue hit Bolick with a pitch. Hatsushiba
rolled into a force play for the second out and then second baseman Koichi
Hori legged out a tapper toward second. Again, Tanoue was up to the task,
such as it was, and got pinch hitter Derrick May to fly out to his opposite
number and that was that.
Daiei, meanwhile, might as well have just had a picnic until the ninth for
all the good trying to figure out Minchey did them for the initial
eight innings, managing just three singles off of him up to that point. But
then the speed end of their order made things happen in the final frame.
Pinch hitter Mitsuru Honma beat out a bleeder toward third to lead it off.
Centerfielder Hiroshi Shibahara then attempted to sacrifice. Minchey pounced
on the ball and winged to second, where Honma just barely beat the throw.
Second baseman Tadahito Iguchi then bunted and beat it out to laod the bases.
Leftfielder Pedro Valdez, the PL RBI king right now, wasn't about to pass
this opportunity by and cracked a drive to right that Takashi Kita dove for
but missed for the game winner to say "sayonara" to Lotte and add to the
latter's misery.
For Lotte, Bolick was 1-3 and was hit by a pitch and is at .256. Boy, has
he come a long way since that dismal start! May was 0-1 and is at .196.
For Daiei, Valdez was 1-4 with an RBI and is at .317. First baseman Morgan
Burkhart was 0-3 and is at .202.
Pitching Lines:
Lotte:
Minchey (L,
1-6) IP
8.0 PC 95 H 6 HR 0 K 4 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 3.65
Daiei:
Tanoue
IP 7.2 PC 107 H 4 HR 0 K 6 BB 2 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.16
Yoshida
IP 1.0 PC 9 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 4.61
Okamoto (W, 1-0) IP 0.1
PC 4 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
RBI: Valdez
HBP: Bolick (Tanoue)
GIDP: Matsunaka
LOB: Lotte 5, Daiei 5
Game Time: 2:27
Attendance: 48,000
Umpires: Nagami (HP), Yamamura (1B), Higashi (2B), Yamamoto (3B)
Sasaki Reups for Two More
Years with Seattle
Kazuhiro Sasaki will be with the Seattle Mariners for two, and maybe three,
more seasons, inking a new deal this weekend reportedly worth $8 million
a year plus another $500,000 in incentives. "I like the city of Seattle and
my teammates," the Daimajin said. The third year is an option that is at
the team's discretion. Sasaki had talked in the past about retiring after
the 2003 season, but obviously that has changed.
Ichiro's Long At
Bat
Friday night against the Boston Red Sox, Ichiro had a 13 pitch at bat, the
fourth time already this season that he has made the opposition pitcher endure
a ten or more pitch duel whereas in 2001 he had done that just once. That
13 delivery faceoff was the most he has seen in one at bat since coming to
MLB. Thank you to Nikkan Sports for another nifty piece of trivia.
Today in Japanese Baseball
History
This report is for May 11th and on that day in Japanese baseball history
in 1975, the Hankyu Braves (now the Orix Blue Wave) scored a run in every
inning against the Nankai (now Daiei) Hawks.
KBO Standings and
Leaders
Team
W L
T
PCT GB
1. Samsung
Lions
20 13
0
.606 ---
2. Kia
Tigers
18 12
2
.600 0.5
3. Hanwha
Eagles
17 14
2
548 2.0
4. Hyundai
Unicorns
16 14
3
.533 2.5
5. Doosan
Bears
14 18
1
.438 5.5
6. LG
Twins
14 18
1
.438 5.5
7. SK
Wyvers
14 18
1 .
438 5.5
8. Lotte
Giants
13 19
1
.406 6.5
Hitting:
Player:
AVG:
Player
HR
01. Lee Yeong-wu
(Hanwha)
.368
01. Song Ji-man
(Hanwha)
16
02. Song Ji-man
(Hanwha)
.357
02. Lee Seung-yeop (Samsung) 14
03. Park Jae-hong
(Hyundai)
.354
03. Lee Yeong-wu (Hanwha)
10
04. Lee Ho-joon
(SK)
.348
04. Lee Soong-yong (Hyundai) 9
05. Kim Dae-ik
(Lotte)
.337
05. Ma Hae-yong
(Samsung) 9
06. Kim Jae-hyun
(LG)
.333
07. Lee Soong-yong (Hyundai)
.331
Player:
RBI
08. Chae Jong-beom
(SK)
.328
09. Lee Seung-yeop (Samsung)
.318
01. Lee Seung-yeop (Samsung) 38
10. Jeon Joon-ho
(Hyundai)
.
315
02. Song Ji-man
(Hanwha)
37
Pitching:
Player:
ERA
01. Cho Yong-joon
(Hyundai)
1.25
02. Melquicides Torres
(Hyundai)
1.80
03. Kim Min-gi
(LG)
2.13
04. Kiefer
(Kia)
2.63
05. Kim Jin-wu
(Kia)
2.70
Player
Strikeouts
01. Song Jin-wu
(Hanwha)
47
02. Kiefer
(Kia)
46
03. Arantes
(SK)
45
04. Kim Soo-kyung
(Hyundai)
45
05. McGee
(Lotte)
43
Player:
Wins
01. Choi Sang-deok
(Kia)
5
02. Song Jin-wu
(Hanwha)
5
03. Bae Yeong-soo
(Samsung)
4
04. Gary Rath
(Doosan)
4
05. Six others tied
with
4
Friday's
Games
Arias Homer Starts Collapse
of Giants in 7-2 Hanshin
Victory
Yomiuri Giants starter Masumi Kuwata couldn't get a good rhythm going and
allowed 14 baserunners in his five innings of work, seven on hits and an
equal number on walks, but permitted just two Hanshin Tigers runners to cross
the plate at Tokyo Dome Friday. And this was with having fouled a ball of
the front of his left foot during an at bat in the second inning. So he left
the ballgame after 121 deliveries with it tied up 2-2 in favor of Junya Sakai,
who hung a 1-2 slider to Hanshin first baseman George Arias with Shuta Tanaka
aboard and the former Padre rocketed it off the back wall of the second deck
in left to put the Tigers in front to stay at 4-2 on the way to what became
a 7-2 triumph for the Osaka nine.
This was the first time in 17 years that the Giants and the Tigers had played
a game with first place at stake and Hanshin's number one starter, Kei Igawa,
proved up to the responsibility,.going six innings of two run ball on three
hits, one of those being a solo homer to right in the fourth by Yomiuri utility
man Kenji Fukui, making a start at third base. Fukui seems to have Igawa's
number, since he had taken the southpaw deep in an extra inning scoreless
game earlier the schedule to give the Giants their only victory so far against
Hanshin this season in five tries. In addition to the dinger, Fukui also
had a walk and a stolen base before being inexplicably replaced by Koji Goto
in the seventh. Goto struckout.
The Giants got in front in the first with a leadoff walk from leftfielder
Takayuki Shimizu, a sac bunt, and a double to leftcenter by centerfielder
Hideki Matsui that plated Shimizu, 1-0 Yomiuri after one complete.
Hanshin leveled things in the third thanks to a leadoff double to the centerfield
wall from second baseman Makoto Imaoka, who advanced to third on a sacrifice
and hit the dish on a single to center from rightfielder Shinjiro Hiyama
to make it 1-1.
After Fukui went yard, the Tigers clawed back to knot it again in the fifth.
Third baseman Atsushi Kataoka walked to begin the inning. Arias singled to
left. One out later, leftfielder Derrick White doubled to leftcenter to get
Kataoka in. Yomiuri manager Tatsunori Hara then chose to have Kuwata
intentionally walk centerfielder Osamu Hamanaka and pinch hitter Tomochika
Tsuboi to cries of "wimp!" from Hanshin fans in the leftfield bleachers in
order to face Igawa, who whiffed to end the inning.
Then in the top of the sixth, Imaoka leadoff with a single to left. Shortstop
Kentaro Sekimoto attempted to sacrifice again, but hit the ball back sharply
at Sakai, who threw to second for the force on Imaoka. Hanshin manager Senichi
Hoshino replaced Sekimoto with Tanaka. One out later, Arias, who hadn't had
an RBI in six games and who came into this faceoff 0-11 with six strikeouts,
then went midieval on a Sakai pitch and the Hanshin faithul celebrated their
club's 4-2 advantage loudly. See pic of Arias' blast at:
http://www.sanspo.com/baseball/top/bt200205/image/0511ariasOS167510_b.jpg
Before his heroics, Arias had waited near the net behind the plate "to be
closer to my wife and kids," he said. His wife Rachel and their children
were in attendance at the game.
Yukinaga Maeda came on to pitch the seventh for Yomiuri and was mugged for
a screaming double down the leftfield line with one out by rooki catcher
Ryo Asai. Asai tagged up and went to third on a long fly to center by pinch
hitter Hiroshi Yagi and then scored when Maeda bounced on by his catcher,
Shinnosuke Abe and it was 5-2 Tigers.
Hanshin then staged a two out rally against rookie lefthander Masami Ishikawa
in the eighth with a double into the leftfield corner from Hiyama, a walk
to White, and a liner into the leftcenter gap from Hamanaka for a two RBI
standup double and now the Tigers were up by five at 7-2.
The Giants got a couple of men on the ninth, but the next three men grounded
out and that's where it ended.
With their 20th shiroboshi of the season in their 32nd game, Hanshin did
something that they hadn't accomplished since 1974, according to Sankei Sports,
Moreover, Sankei points out, Hanshin has been at the summit of the CL at
their 20th victory six times and won the pennant in four of those campaigns.
In 1985, when Hanshin claimed the sole Japan Series crown in their history,
they were 20-13-1 when they reached 20 wins. So they are a tad ahead of that
pace.
For Hanshin, White was 1-3 with an RBI and two walks and is at .281. Arias
was 2-5 with two RBIs and is at .198. Hiyama, with his 4-5 night, leapfrogged
over both Matsui and Giants rightfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi to take the
CL batting lead with a .374 mark.
For Yomiuri, Felipe Crespo struckout in a pinch hit appearance and is at
.115.
Pitching Lines:
Hanshin:
Igawa (W,
6-1) IP 6.0 PC 99 H
3 HR 1 K 6 BB 3 R 2 ER 2 ERA 2.00
Fukuhara
IP 2.0 PC 34 H 0 HR 0 K 4 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
Harada
IP 0.0 PC 4 H 1 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 3.72
A.
Itoh
IP 1.0 PC 10 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 3.72
Yomiuri:
Kuwata
IP 5.0 PC 121 H 7 HR 0 K 6 BB 7 R 2 ER 2 ERA 1.87
J. Sakai (L,
1-1)
IP 0.2 PC 13 H 2 HR 1 K 0 BB 0 R 2 ER 2 ERA 3.00
Y.
Maeda
IP 1.0 PC 30 H 2 HR 0 K 2 BB 1 R 1 ER 1 ERA 3.38
Masami Ishikawa IP 1.0
PC 30 H 2 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 2 ER 2 ERA 18.00
Almonte
IP 1.0 PC 13 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
E: Imaoka
SB: Fukui
2B: Hamanaka 2, Imaoka, White, R. Asai, Hiyama, H. Matsui
HR: Arias (11), Fukui (2)
RBI: Arias 2, Hiyama, White, Hamanaka 2, Fukui, H. Matsui
IBB: Hamanaka, Tsuboi, Imaoka
WP: Y. Maeda
LOB: Hanshin 13, Yomiuri 6
Game Time: 3:59
Attendance: 55,000
Umpires: Watamari (HP), Arizumi (1B), Tomoyori (2B), Kasahara (3B)
Kazuo Matsui Slugs First
Career Sayonara Homer to Beat Orix
2-1
Kazuo Matsui, as great a player as he has been at every level he's ever been
at, has never ever, even in little league, hit a game winning homer in the
bottom of the final inning of a game. Until now. Friday at Seibu Dome, Matsui
tattooed a 2-2 changeup from Orix Blue Wave reliever Jun Hagiwara with one
out in the home portion of the ninth into the leftfield seats for a 2-1 Lions
victory to keep his club at the top of the PL race.
Koo Dae-sung started for Orix and had another frustrating outing, allowing
just one run on eight hits while striking out eight and walking two over
seven innings and got a no decision. He has won just two games despite a
steallar 2.08 ERA.
Koji Mitsui hasn't been saddled with quite the same wan offense that Orix
has, but the Seibu southpaw was even better than Koo, also throwing seven
innings of one run ball, but on four hits, though he did walk four while
striking out three.
The Lions blew a good chance to score in the first, when centerfielder Masaji
Shimizu tripled down the rightfield line with one out. However, DH Toshiaki
Inubushi whiffed and first baseman Alex Cabrera grounded to short.
The game remained scoreless until the fifth, when Orix pulled through with
a tally. Catcher Takeshi Hidaka beat out a roller toward first for a hit
to commence the inning. Shortstop Makoto Shiozaki sacrificed him to third
and second baseman Koichi Oshima walked. One out later, Mitsui tried to spot
a fastball on the outside corner, but it drifted back over the heart of the
plate and DH Fernando Seguignol ripped it down the leftfield line for an
RBI double and it was 1-0 visitors.
That's where it stayed until the eighth when Seibu reliever Shinji Mori came
in and struckout the side and then waited to see if the Lions order would
be able to amass a counterattack. Inubushi, who played with the Wakae Giants,
the same little league team that Matsui was on (except a few years later)
in east Osaka, then leadoff the Lions half with a shot into the leftfield
seats off of a 2-2 fastball from Koo to tie it at 1-1. Cabrera doubled down
the leftfield line and Orix manager Hiromichi Ishige, figuring that Koo was
out of gas, yanked him and waved in Hagiwara,, who walked leftfielder Kazuhiro
Wada. Hagiwara extricated himself, though, by inducin a groundout and two
strikeouts.
Mori then got into hot water in the top of the ninth when third baseman Tatsuya
Shindo leadoff with a single to right. Ishige then gave first baseman Scott
Sheldon the sign for a sac bunt and Sheldon attempted to do so, but got under
the ball and lifted a little fly ball in foul territory that was snagged
by Cabrera. Rightfielder Manabu Satake then endeavored to sacrifice and Cabrera
mishandled it to allow Satake to reach. But Hidaka struckout and pinch hitter
Mitsutaka Goto popped out and that little uprising was history.
That set the stage for Matsui's homer and enabled the Lions to maintain a
hold on first place.
For Orix, Seguignol was 1-3 with an RBI and two strikeouts and is at .286.
Sheldon was 0-4 and is at .211.
For Seibu, Cabrera was 2-4 with an error and is at .261. Inubushi is eating
lefthanders alive thus far, boasting a .429 average against them.
Pitching Lines:
Orix:
Koo
IP 7.0 PC 127 H 8 HR 1 K 8 BB 2 R 1 ER 1 ERA 2.08
Hagiwara (L, 0-1) IP 1.1
PC 29 H 1 HR 1 K 2 BB 1 R 1 ER 1 ERA 4.15
Seibu:
Mitsui
IP 7.0 PC 109 H 4 HR 0 K 3 BB 4 R 1 ER 1 ERA 2.70
Mori (W,
1-2) IP 2.0
PC 33 H 1 HR 0 K 4 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.30
E: Cabrera
2B: Seguignol, Cabrera
3B: Shimizu
HR: Matsui (5), Inubushi (1)
RBI: Matsui, Inubushi, Seguignol
LOB: Orix 9, Seibu 10
Game Time: 3:03
Attendance: 14,000
Umpires: Sakaemura (HP), Tachibana (1B), Akimura (2B), Kawaguchi (3B)
Omura's Four RBIs and Yoshioka's
Three Take Fight Out of Nippon
Ham
The Kintetsu Buffaloes ra