Walk-off wondering why...

Sledge drops the hammer

The one question everyone wants to ask Yomiuri manager Tatsunori Hara is, “What was that guy doing on the mound?”
The second question would be: “Why walk the right-handed batter to have your young hurler, a righty, face a left-handed hitter?” It cost you the game in an 8-5 loss.
Yokohama’s Terrmel Sledge forced those questions by making the Giants pay, slugging a ninth-inning, walk-off, three-run shot off rookie right-hander Kyohei Tsuchimoto on Wednesday at Yokohama Stadium.
Sledge had struck out three times in four at-bats, and Hara gambled --not only with Tsuchimoto (0-1) on the mound, but with the righty-lefty matchup -- and lost it all.
Sledge, who signed with the BayStars in the offseason after playing for the Nippon Ham Fighters for two years, hit a dramatic grand slam in the second-stage of the Pacific League Climax Series last season.
The outfielder, who became the first foreign BayStar to hit a walk-off since Tyrone Woods did it in 2004, hit his first longball with Yokohama.
Jose Castillo’s solo shot, his second in as many days, got Yokohama even at 5-5 in the eighth inning and the ’Stars got skipper -- and former Giants pitching coach -- Takao Obana earned his first win over the Giants.
“The relievers did a great job of getting us to the end of the game like they did,” said Obana, whose five relievers didn’t allow an earned run in 7.2 innings.

SWALLOWS 9, DRAGONS 5
Jamie D’Antona, who batted .362 against Chunichi last season, picked up where he left off by belting a pair of homers and driving in five as Yakult pounded Dragons starter Takashi Ogasawara and cruised at Jingu.
Hiroyasu Tanaka and Kazuki Fukuchi each had two hits for the Swallows, who have won four straight.

TIGERS 6, CARP 4
Tomoaki Kanemoto’s go-ahead two-run homer and an RBI double as Hanshin won its first two series for the first time in two years with a win at the Zoom.


PACIFIC LEAGUE

BUFFALOES 3, FIGHTERS 2
Akinobu Okada’s 400th managerial win came with help from a 22-year-old also named Okada.
Takahiro Okada (T.O.) ripped a three-run shot in the top of the ninth, and Jon Leicester allowed two runs but earned his second save, holding Nippon Ham to one run in the bottom of the ninth.

EAGLES 13, MARINES 4
It was bad last year, and it’s bad this year. This time, Rakuten ate up Lotte’s bullpen, scoring nine runs off four relievers in a rout at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Eagles starter Koji Aoyama left after two pitches with a bad ribcage muscle, but Yosuke Takasu had two doubles, a homer and a single, and two of Teppei Tsuchiya’s four hits were doubles in Rakuten’s biggest scoring game at Chiba in club history.

LIONS 9, HAWKS 5
G.G. Sato homered for the second straight game and Hiroyuki Nakajima’s bases-clearing double highlighted a five-run fourth as Seibu routed Fukuoka SoftBank at Seibu Dome.