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-- j.e.g.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Shuffle and play ...
Obispo shines in season debut
The Yomiuri Giants keep rolling, despite a rotation on shuffle mode.
The Giants brought up Wirfin Obispo from the farm club and handed the Dominican the ball for his first appearance of the season on Sunday, and the right-hander responded by tossing one-run ball over seven frames for an 8-2 win over visiting Hiroshima. Oh, and he slugged a solo homer and a double, to boot.
Obispo, who emerged late last season and played a big role in the Giants’ Japan Series title run, scattered six hits, a walk and a hit batter to win his fourth straight decision dating back to 2009.
Hot-hitting Michihiro Ogasawara went deep again, his Central League-leading eighth shot, for a two-run lead in the first inning, and Obispo went deep in the fourth. Yoshinobu Takahashi added a solo blast in the seventh for his first longball of the season and first since Sept. 23, 2008.
Obispo’s shot was the first homer by a foreign Giants pitcher since Balvino Galvez took one out on Aug. 28, 1999.
DRAGONS 8, TIGERS 5
Soma Yamauchi (1-0) cruised through six-plus innings for his first pro victory as the Chunichi topped Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.
Tony Blanco crushed a three-run homer, his seventh, in the first inning and rookie Yohei Oshima had three hits to back Yamauchi, who allowed four hits and two walks while fanning three.
BAYSTARS 3, SWALLOWS 2
Rookie right-hander Shigeru Kaga (1-2) earned his first pro win with five innings of one-run ball, and Tomohisa Takeyama’s fourth-inning two-run triple gave host Yokohama a second straight win over Yakult.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 5, HAWKS 3
Fill-in Tomohisa Otani (1-0) came through with 3.1 scoreless frames after starter Hidetaka Kawagoe left with an injury, and Shoitsu Omatsu’s RBI double in the sixth inning propelled Lotte past visiting SoftBank.
LIONS 3, BUFFALOES 1
Takeya Nakamura slugged a two-run homer in the sixth inning and Kazuyuki Hoashi (3-2) held Orix to one run over 6.2 innings as Seibu won in Kobe.
EAGLES 4, FIGHTERS 3
Motohiro Shima ripped a two-run double in the sixth inning, and Masahiro Tanaka (3-2) allowed three runs, two earned, in six innings as Rakuten competed a three-game sweep of Nippon Ham at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi.
The Yomiuri Giants keep rolling, despite a rotation on shuffle mode.
The Giants brought up Wirfin Obispo from the farm club and handed the Dominican the ball for his first appearance of the season on Sunday, and the right-hander responded by tossing one-run ball over seven frames for an 8-2 win over visiting Hiroshima. Oh, and he slugged a solo homer and a double, to boot.
Obispo, who emerged late last season and played a big role in the Giants’ Japan Series title run, scattered six hits, a walk and a hit batter to win his fourth straight decision dating back to 2009.
Hot-hitting Michihiro Ogasawara went deep again, his Central League-leading eighth shot, for a two-run lead in the first inning, and Obispo went deep in the fourth. Yoshinobu Takahashi added a solo blast in the seventh for his first longball of the season and first since Sept. 23, 2008.
Obispo’s shot was the first homer by a foreign Giants pitcher since Balvino Galvez took one out on Aug. 28, 1999.
DRAGONS 8, TIGERS 5
Soma Yamauchi (1-0) cruised through six-plus innings for his first pro victory as the Chunichi topped Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.
Tony Blanco crushed a three-run homer, his seventh, in the first inning and rookie Yohei Oshima had three hits to back Yamauchi, who allowed four hits and two walks while fanning three.
BAYSTARS 3, SWALLOWS 2
Rookie right-hander Shigeru Kaga (1-2) earned his first pro win with five innings of one-run ball, and Tomohisa Takeyama’s fourth-inning two-run triple gave host Yokohama a second straight win over Yakult.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 5, HAWKS 3
Fill-in Tomohisa Otani (1-0) came through with 3.1 scoreless frames after starter Hidetaka Kawagoe left with an injury, and Shoitsu Omatsu’s RBI double in the sixth inning propelled Lotte past visiting SoftBank.
LIONS 3, BUFFALOES 1
Takeya Nakamura slugged a two-run homer in the sixth inning and Kazuyuki Hoashi (3-2) held Orix to one run over 6.2 innings as Seibu won in Kobe.
EAGLES 4, FIGHTERS 3
Motohiro Shima ripped a two-run double in the sixth inning, and Masahiro Tanaka (3-2) allowed three runs, two earned, in six innings as Rakuten competed a three-game sweep of Nippon Ham at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Aces at war…
Rakuten ace Hisashi Iwakuma had his moment in this year World Baseball Classic, helping Japan repeat. But it was Nippon Ham ace Yu Darvish who is the most-coveted future major leaguer.
Iwakuma had his day in the sun, at Darvish’s expense, shutting the Fighters out 3-0 on a two-hitter on Sunday at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi.
Iwakuma retired 15 straight over one stretch and didn’t allow a runner to reach third base against the Pacific League’s last-place team.
It was Iwakuma’s first shutout in two years, and the team’s first of the season.
“We were facing Darvish and we won yesterday and, with it being my turn, there was no way I wanted to lose today,” Iwakuma said. “I went out there with everything I had and was able to pitch my best.”
The Fighters, who sunk to 13 games below .500 for the first time since September 2005, failed to hit as Darvish suffered his 13th complete-game loss.
LIONS 6, BUFFALOES 4
Yasuyuki Kataoka’s scoring fly ball capped a five-run fourth inning that propelled Seibu to a win over Orix at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
The Buffs had to deactivate Alex Cabrera because of a ribcage injury.
HAWKS 4, MARINES 3
Yuichi Honda’s three-run triple keyed a four-run fifth that lifted SoftBank past Lotte and Chiba Marine Stadium.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
GIANTS 7, CAPR 4
Yoshitomo Tani’s dramatic grand slam in the eighth inning erased a one-run deficit and gave Yomiuri a comeback win over Hiroshima at Tokyo Dome.
Marc Kroon, who has a torn tendon in his pitching hand, worked a scoreless ninth for his third save.
TIGERS 3, DRAGONS 1
Takahiro Arai broke a 1-1 tie with a single in the sixth inning, and added another RBI hit in the eighth as Hanshin topped Chunichi at Koshien Stadium.
BAYSTARS 3, SWALLOWS 2
Terrmel Sledge’s RBI groundout in a three-run third inning was the difference as Daisuke Miura (2-0) worked six scoreless innings to help Yokohama halt a four-game skid.
Iwakuma had his day in the sun, at Darvish’s expense, shutting the Fighters out 3-0 on a two-hitter on Sunday at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi.
Iwakuma retired 15 straight over one stretch and didn’t allow a runner to reach third base against the Pacific League’s last-place team.
It was Iwakuma’s first shutout in two years, and the team’s first of the season.
“We were facing Darvish and we won yesterday and, with it being my turn, there was no way I wanted to lose today,” Iwakuma said. “I went out there with everything I had and was able to pitch my best.”
The Fighters, who sunk to 13 games below .500 for the first time since September 2005, failed to hit as Darvish suffered his 13th complete-game loss.
LIONS 6, BUFFALOES 4
Yasuyuki Kataoka’s scoring fly ball capped a five-run fourth inning that propelled Seibu to a win over Orix at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
The Buffs had to deactivate Alex Cabrera because of a ribcage injury.
HAWKS 4, MARINES 3
Yuichi Honda’s three-run triple keyed a four-run fifth that lifted SoftBank past Lotte and Chiba Marine Stadium.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
GIANTS 7, CAPR 4
Yoshitomo Tani’s dramatic grand slam in the eighth inning erased a one-run deficit and gave Yomiuri a comeback win over Hiroshima at Tokyo Dome.
Marc Kroon, who has a torn tendon in his pitching hand, worked a scoreless ninth for his third save.
TIGERS 3, DRAGONS 1
Takahiro Arai broke a 1-1 tie with a single in the sixth inning, and added another RBI hit in the eighth as Hanshin topped Chunichi at Koshien Stadium.
BAYSTARS 3, SWALLOWS 2
Terrmel Sledge’s RBI groundout in a three-run third inning was the difference as Daisuke Miura (2-0) worked six scoreless innings to help Yokohama halt a four-game skid.
Friday, April 23, 2010
All that Raz ...
Eagles’ Rasner finds his form
It’s either a Nippon Ham team in a terrible funk or Darrell Rasner has found himself at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi on Friday night.
Either way, the righty had perhaps his best performance in one-plus years in Japan, tossing his second complete game in an 11-2 victory over last year’s Pacific League winners.
Rasner (1-3) allowed two runs on six hits and two walks with a half-dozen strikeouts. He stopped a personal five-game losing streak dating back to last season, and tossed his first complete game since April 12 of last year.
It was his first win in about a year.
Daisuke Kusano was 2-for-2 with a homer and four RBIs out the No. 7 spot to lead the offense, which pounded out 15 hits.
The Fighters, meanwhile, are in the PL cellar at 7-19.
BUFFALOES 6, LIONS 0
Chihiro Kaneko (2-3) fired a six-hitter, fanning 12 and walking one, and Daisuke Maeda put the game out of reach with a grand slam in the eighth as Orix blanked Seibu at Kyocera Dome.
Kaneko posted his second shutout of the season, and Maeda’s slam was the eighth allowed by loser Hideaki Wakui (3-2), last year’s Sawamura Award winner as the top hurler in Japan.
HAWKS 5, MARINES 3
Nobuhiro Matsuda’s two-run double in the sixth inning turned out to be the difference as SoftBank topped host Lotte.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
SWALLOWS 4, BAYSTARS 0
Only 6,993 saw it on a cold, drizzly night at Yokohama Stadium, but Yakult rookie left-hander Masato Nakazawa tossed his first shutout, firing a four-hitter to beat hapless Yokohama.
Nakazawa, who walked two and fanned five, became the first Swallows rookie hurler to toss a shutout since Sept. 25, 1999.
TIGERS 7, DRAGONS 1
Casey Fossum (1-0) was strong in his second start in Japan, this time getting the win by holding visiting Chunichi to three hits and four walks over five innings.
Takahiro Arai had three hits, including a bases-clearing double in a decisive five-run fifth inning.
GIANTS 10, CARP 4
Alex Ramirez ruined Eric Stults’ Japan debut with a homer and two RBIs as Yomiuri cruised past Hiroshima at Tokyo Dome.
It’s either a Nippon Ham team in a terrible funk or Darrell Rasner has found himself at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi on Friday night.
Either way, the righty had perhaps his best performance in one-plus years in Japan, tossing his second complete game in an 11-2 victory over last year’s Pacific League winners.
Rasner (1-3) allowed two runs on six hits and two walks with a half-dozen strikeouts. He stopped a personal five-game losing streak dating back to last season, and tossed his first complete game since April 12 of last year.
It was his first win in about a year.
Daisuke Kusano was 2-for-2 with a homer and four RBIs out the No. 7 spot to lead the offense, which pounded out 15 hits.
The Fighters, meanwhile, are in the PL cellar at 7-19.
BUFFALOES 6, LIONS 0
Chihiro Kaneko (2-3) fired a six-hitter, fanning 12 and walking one, and Daisuke Maeda put the game out of reach with a grand slam in the eighth as Orix blanked Seibu at Kyocera Dome.
Kaneko posted his second shutout of the season, and Maeda’s slam was the eighth allowed by loser Hideaki Wakui (3-2), last year’s Sawamura Award winner as the top hurler in Japan.
HAWKS 5, MARINES 3
Nobuhiro Matsuda’s two-run double in the sixth inning turned out to be the difference as SoftBank topped host Lotte.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
SWALLOWS 4, BAYSTARS 0
Only 6,993 saw it on a cold, drizzly night at Yokohama Stadium, but Yakult rookie left-hander Masato Nakazawa tossed his first shutout, firing a four-hitter to beat hapless Yokohama.
Nakazawa, who walked two and fanned five, became the first Swallows rookie hurler to toss a shutout since Sept. 25, 1999.
TIGERS 7, DRAGONS 1
Casey Fossum (1-0) was strong in his second start in Japan, this time getting the win by holding visiting Chunichi to three hits and four walks over five innings.
Takahiro Arai had three hits, including a bases-clearing double in a decisive five-run fifth inning.
GIANTS 10, CARP 4
Alex Ramirez ruined Eric Stults’ Japan debut with a homer and two RBIs as Yomiuri cruised past Hiroshima at Tokyo Dome.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Expect the expected …
Dragons’ stars fire up
Coming off breakout seasons, Tony Blanco and Kazuki Yoshimi have to meet high expectations this year.
The pair stepped up on Thursday at Nagoya Dome, Blanco going 2-for-3 with solo blast and Yoshimi working seven strong innings, as the Chunichi Dragons downed 3-1 the Yakult Swallows.
Yoshimi, who tied for the Central League lead in wins last season with 16, allowed Hisashi Ihara’s fourth-inning solo shot, but scattered seven hits and two walks, while fanning a pair.
Blanco, last year’s CL home run leader, doubled in a run and scored in the fourth inning and added another insurance run in the eighth with a bases-empty homer, his sixth, to help the Dragons set up a sweep when the teams meet again tonight.
The other two CL games were rained out.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
LIONS 11, HAWKS 6
Hisashi Takayama hit a bases-clearing triple in the first inning and Toru Hosokawa added a three-run double in the fourth inning as Seibu bombed Tsuyoshi Wada (3-2) at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
Dee Brown broke a 6-6 tie in the seventh with an RBI single, and Fukuoka native Ryoma Nogami (1-0) got the win with 1.2 innings of relief.
FIGHTERS 11, BUFFALOES 1
Eiichi Koyano broke out for a career-high, six-RBI night, finishing a triple shy of the cycle to lead Nippon Ham past Orix at Kyocera Dome.
Atsunori Inaba had two hits, including a two-run homer, to lead a 13-hit attack that stopped a three-game skid.
Rakuten and Lotte were rained out.
Coming off breakout seasons, Tony Blanco and Kazuki Yoshimi have to meet high expectations this year.
The pair stepped up on Thursday at Nagoya Dome, Blanco going 2-for-3 with solo blast and Yoshimi working seven strong innings, as the Chunichi Dragons downed 3-1 the Yakult Swallows.
Yoshimi, who tied for the Central League lead in wins last season with 16, allowed Hisashi Ihara’s fourth-inning solo shot, but scattered seven hits and two walks, while fanning a pair.
Blanco, last year’s CL home run leader, doubled in a run and scored in the fourth inning and added another insurance run in the eighth with a bases-empty homer, his sixth, to help the Dragons set up a sweep when the teams meet again tonight.
The other two CL games were rained out.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
LIONS 11, HAWKS 6
Hisashi Takayama hit a bases-clearing triple in the first inning and Toru Hosokawa added a three-run double in the fourth inning as Seibu bombed Tsuyoshi Wada (3-2) at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
Dee Brown broke a 6-6 tie in the seventh with an RBI single, and Fukuoka native Ryoma Nogami (1-0) got the win with 1.2 innings of relief.
FIGHTERS 11, BUFFALOES 1
Eiichi Koyano broke out for a career-high, six-RBI night, finishing a triple shy of the cycle to lead Nippon Ham past Orix at Kyocera Dome.
Atsunori Inaba had two hits, including a two-run homer, to lead a 13-hit attack that stopped a three-game skid.
Rakuten and Lotte were rained out.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Night of a lifetime …
Suzuki’s rare show of power lifts Buffaloes
Unexpected is the one way to put Fumihiro Suzuki’s six-RBI game. Unheard of might better describe it.
The part-timer had a career night with his first four-hit game -- going 4-for-4 with a three-run homer and three doubles -- and a half-dozen RBIs to power the Orix Buffaloes past the struggling Nippon Ham Fighters 8-4 at Kyocera Dome on Wednesday.
Suzuki hadn’t hit a longball in since March 30, 2003, and had 36 RBIs in 12-plus seasons as a pro.
He had about three season’s worth of production against the Pacific League’s last-place Fighters, who have lost seven of eight.
“I thought they wouldn’t be able to run it down,” Suzuki said of the moment he connected on his homer, which gave the Buffaloes a 6-4 lead. “All four hits were lucky,” said the catcher, who turns 35 next month. “I haven’t been able to put up any numbers on offense, but since camp this year I’ve been doing well.
“I’m glad I had good results today, but this is a little too much,” he said about having four extra-base hits.
The win gave Orix a three-game winning streak.
MARINES 6, EAGLES 0
Kazuya Fukuura had three hits and an RBI, and Shingo Ono (3-0) worked five scoreless innings before four Lotte followed to complete a five-hit shutout of Rakuten.
HAWKS 7, LIONS 1
Yuichi Honda’s bases-clearing triple in the eighth keyed a rally that broke open a tight game as SoftBank topped Seibu in the rain.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
GIANTS 4, BAYSTARS 2
Michihiro Ogasawara went 4-for-4 with a solo blast and an RBI single as Yomiuri beat Yokohama a second straight night.
Ogasawara upped his average to .372.
CARP 2, TIGERS 1
Jun Hirose’s RBI single tied the score in the seventh, and Tetsuya Kokubo’s solo shot in the top of the ninth was the difference as Hiroshima edged Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.
SWALLOWS 2, DRAGONS 2, 12 innings
Chunichi’s Kazuhiro Wada’s two-run homer in the seventh inning matched Yakult’s Jamie D’Antona, who slugged a two-run shot in the second, as the teams played to a tie at Nagoya Dome.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The ups and downs …
BayStars back in reserved spot
The Yokohama BayStars got great pitching, played good defense and got a gift run from the front-running Yomiuri Giants at Kyocera Dome on Tuesday. None it helped them win.
Lee Seung Yeop drew a bases-loaded walk in the eighth inning to break a 1-1 tie as Yomiuri won to push Yokohama into last place in the Central League.
The BayStars, who have finished in the CL cellar the past two seasons, got a great performance from Stephen Randolph, who was lifted in the seventh inning for a pinch-hitter. The lefty tossed six innings, allowing a run on four hits and four walks with five punchouts for a no-decision.
Yomiuri’s Shugo Fujii, an offseason free agent pickup, went seven innings, allowing a run on two hits and five walks, while fanning two. He had no decision also.
DRAGONS 3, SWALLOWS 2
After suffering a weekend of come-from-ahead losses in a sweep at Hiroshima, Chunichi hung on to top Yakult at Nagoya Dome behind Kei Nomoto’s solo homer and strong pitching.
Nomoto blasted his second longball, and Kenta Asakura (1-0) won his season debut -- after being slowed by an injury -- by allowing two runs, none earned, over six-plus strong innings. Three Chunichi relievers fired a scoreless inning apiece.
TIGERS 5, CARP 0
Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi (2-1) tossed six scoreless innings, and Takahiro Arai’s RBI single in the fourth opened the scoring and Keisuke Kano followed with a three-run homer as Hanshin downed Hiroshima at Koshien Stadium.
Hanshin ironman Tomoaki Kanemoto, whose consecutive full-game streak ended over the weekend, stretched his games-played string to 1,639 with his first pinch-hit appearance at Koshien. The 42-year-old pulled himself from the lineup Sunday in Yokohama because of a sore shoulder. That ended a streak of 1,492 consecutive full games played.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
BUFFALOES 4, FIGHTERS 3
Shogo Akada’s bases-loaded single off Brian Wolfe (0-3) gave Orix its sixth come-from-behind win, a walk-off against visiting Nippon Ham.
Hirotoshi Kitagaawa’s RBI double evened the score before Akada came up with the fourth walk-off hit in his 11-plus seasons.
LIONS 8, HAWKS 2
Takayuki Kishi (4-1) fired 6.2 strong innings, and Hisashi Takayama had two hits and two RBIs as visiting Seibu topped SoftBank.
EAGLES 8, MARINES 2
Norihiro Nakamura hit s two-run blast, and Takeshi Yamasaki drove in a pair of runs with two hits as Rakuten won at Tokyo Dome to hand Lotte consecutive losses for the first this season.
The Yokohama BayStars got great pitching, played good defense and got a gift run from the front-running Yomiuri Giants at Kyocera Dome on Tuesday. None it helped them win.
Lee Seung Yeop drew a bases-loaded walk in the eighth inning to break a 1-1 tie as Yomiuri won to push Yokohama into last place in the Central League.
The BayStars, who have finished in the CL cellar the past two seasons, got a great performance from Stephen Randolph, who was lifted in the seventh inning for a pinch-hitter. The lefty tossed six innings, allowing a run on four hits and four walks with five punchouts for a no-decision.
Yomiuri’s Shugo Fujii, an offseason free agent pickup, went seven innings, allowing a run on two hits and five walks, while fanning two. He had no decision also.
DRAGONS 3, SWALLOWS 2
After suffering a weekend of come-from-ahead losses in a sweep at Hiroshima, Chunichi hung on to top Yakult at Nagoya Dome behind Kei Nomoto’s solo homer and strong pitching.
Nomoto blasted his second longball, and Kenta Asakura (1-0) won his season debut -- after being slowed by an injury -- by allowing two runs, none earned, over six-plus strong innings. Three Chunichi relievers fired a scoreless inning apiece.
TIGERS 5, CARP 0
Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi (2-1) tossed six scoreless innings, and Takahiro Arai’s RBI single in the fourth opened the scoring and Keisuke Kano followed with a three-run homer as Hanshin downed Hiroshima at Koshien Stadium.
Hanshin ironman Tomoaki Kanemoto, whose consecutive full-game streak ended over the weekend, stretched his games-played string to 1,639 with his first pinch-hit appearance at Koshien. The 42-year-old pulled himself from the lineup Sunday in Yokohama because of a sore shoulder. That ended a streak of 1,492 consecutive full games played.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
BUFFALOES 4, FIGHTERS 3
Shogo Akada’s bases-loaded single off Brian Wolfe (0-3) gave Orix its sixth come-from-behind win, a walk-off against visiting Nippon Ham.
Hirotoshi Kitagaawa’s RBI double evened the score before Akada came up with the fourth walk-off hit in his 11-plus seasons.
LIONS 8, HAWKS 2
Takayuki Kishi (4-1) fired 6.2 strong innings, and Hisashi Takayama had two hits and two RBIs as visiting Seibu topped SoftBank.
EAGLES 8, MARINES 2
Norihiro Nakamura hit s two-run blast, and Takeshi Yamasaki drove in a pair of runs with two hits as Rakuten won at Tokyo Dome to hand Lotte consecutive losses for the first this season.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Big Brother makes historic decision …
Kanemoto ends ironman streak
The Hanshin Tigers’ Tomoaki Kanemoto, the man they call Big Brother, took responsibility in a big way on Sunday by ending his ironman streak of playing every inning of every game since July 21, 1999.
Kanemoto, hampered since camp by a sore right shoulder, removed himself from the lineup before visiting Hanshin took on the Yokohama BayStars, halting the outfielder’s streak at 1,492 consecutive full games played.
The Tigers won 8-4 as Craig Brazell went 3-for-4 with a homer and four RBIs, and Kanemoto made an appearance as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning, grounding out to second.
That at-bat stretched his consecutive games played streak to 1,638.
“I told [the skipper] one way for us to win is for me to be taken out of the lineup,” the 42-year-old Kanemoto told reporters after the game. “If I keep playing I’m just going to drag the team down, especially the pitchers.
“The kind of throws I’ve been making….”
Kanemoto is batting .164 with three homers and 12 RBIs in 19 Central League games. He had been trying to get past the shoulder pain, but will rest for the time being.
“I’ve been trying to do all I could by taping it up and going out there, but [even with the support of the tape] it was useless. The manager and head coach asked me to give it a go, and I appreciated that gesture.”
SWALLOWS 3, GIANTS 1
Kyohei Muranaka (2-2) beat Yomiuri for the second time this season, fanning a career-best 12 and carrying a no-hitter into the seventh while holding the CL leaders to three hits over eight innings at Matsuyama.
CARP 4, DRAGONS 2
Masato Akamatsu’s RBI double in the seventh broke a 2-2 tie and helped Hiroshima come from behind a third straight game in a sweep over Chunichi at the Zoom.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
HAWKS 1, EAGLES 0
Nobuhiro Matsuda’s two-out RBI single was the only run off Masahiro Tanaka (2-2) and gave SoftBank a walk-off win over Rakuten at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
BUFFALOES 3, MARINES 2
Hiroshi Kisanuki (2-2) shut down first-place Lotte, allowing a pair of runs on six hits and five walks with 10 punchouts over eight innings, and Greg LaRocca homered and drove in two runs as Orix won at Chiba Marine Stadium.
LIONS 3, FIGHERS 0
Kazuyuki Hoashi (2-2) blanked Nippon Ham on five hits over eight innings as Seibu took the rubber game of their three-game set at Seibu Dome.
The Hanshin Tigers’ Tomoaki Kanemoto, the man they call Big Brother, took responsibility in a big way on Sunday by ending his ironman streak of playing every inning of every game since July 21, 1999.
Kanemoto, hampered since camp by a sore right shoulder, removed himself from the lineup before visiting Hanshin took on the Yokohama BayStars, halting the outfielder’s streak at 1,492 consecutive full games played.
The Tigers won 8-4 as Craig Brazell went 3-for-4 with a homer and four RBIs, and Kanemoto made an appearance as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning, grounding out to second.
That at-bat stretched his consecutive games played streak to 1,638.
“I told [the skipper] one way for us to win is for me to be taken out of the lineup,” the 42-year-old Kanemoto told reporters after the game. “If I keep playing I’m just going to drag the team down, especially the pitchers.
“The kind of throws I’ve been making….”
Kanemoto is batting .164 with three homers and 12 RBIs in 19 Central League games. He had been trying to get past the shoulder pain, but will rest for the time being.
“I’ve been trying to do all I could by taping it up and going out there, but [even with the support of the tape] it was useless. The manager and head coach asked me to give it a go, and I appreciated that gesture.”
SWALLOWS 3, GIANTS 1
Kyohei Muranaka (2-2) beat Yomiuri for the second time this season, fanning a career-best 12 and carrying a no-hitter into the seventh while holding the CL leaders to three hits over eight innings at Matsuyama.
CARP 4, DRAGONS 2
Masato Akamatsu’s RBI double in the seventh broke a 2-2 tie and helped Hiroshima come from behind a third straight game in a sweep over Chunichi at the Zoom.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
HAWKS 1, EAGLES 0
Nobuhiro Matsuda’s two-out RBI single was the only run off Masahiro Tanaka (2-2) and gave SoftBank a walk-off win over Rakuten at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
BUFFALOES 3, MARINES 2
Hiroshi Kisanuki (2-2) shut down first-place Lotte, allowing a pair of runs on six hits and five walks with 10 punchouts over eight innings, and Greg LaRocca homered and drove in two runs as Orix won at Chiba Marine Stadium.
LIONS 3, FIGHERS 0
Kazuyuki Hoashi (2-2) blanked Nippon Ham on five hits over eight innings as Seibu took the rubber game of their three-game set at Seibu Dome.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Who is this Darvish? …
Nippon Ham saves Darvish’s bacon
JBD said it before and the story’s the same: Who the guy using Yu Darvish’s uniform?
The one-time Sawamura Award winner got knocked around early, but hung around enough to tie a strikeout mark by two distinguished pitchers, and his teammates bailed him out with a grand slam as Nippon Ham downed Seibu 8-5 Saturday at Seibu Dome.
Darvish (3-1) tied former Kintetsu Buffaloes pitcher and major leaguer Hideo Nomo, and SoftBank’s Toshiya Sugiuchi in becoming the third hurler to record double digits in five consecutive games by fanning 10 over seven innings to earn the win.
Atsunori Inaba bashed a fifth-inning grand slam to give the Fighters a one-run lead and getting Darvish in front after the big righty allowed five runs early. He ended up surrendering six hits and five walks on 148 pitches.
Inaba broke out in the win, which snapped a four-game skid, belting a drive for his 183rd career homer, but just his third with the bases filled.
EAGLES 8, HAWKS 3
Hisashi Iwakuma (2-2) tossed his first complete game of the season, and Yosuke Takasu had two hits and four RBIs as Rakuten cruised past SoftBank at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
MARINES 9, BUFFALOES 0
Yoshihisa Naruse (4-1) fired a six-hit shutout as first-place Lotte routed Orix at Chiba Marine Stadium.
The lefty fanned six and walked one, and Saburo Omura went 3-for-4 with a homer and four RBIs for the Marines.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
BAYSTARS 7, TIGERS 3
Terrmel Sledge slammed a pair of solo blasts, two of four Yokohama longballs, and Naoyuki Shimizu (2-1) went seven strong innings in a victory over visiting Hanshin.
GIANTS 6, SWALLOWS 1
Yoshiyuki Kamei’s tiebreaking single in the seventh sparked a four-run outburst in support of Shun Tono (3-1) as Yomiuri downed Yakult at Matsuyama’s Bottchan Stadium.
CARP 4, DRAGONS 3
Jun Hirose’s single in the bottom of the ninth gave Hiroshima its third sayonara win this season, and second in as many days against Chunichi at the Zoom.
JBD said it before and the story’s the same: Who the guy using Yu Darvish’s uniform?
The one-time Sawamura Award winner got knocked around early, but hung around enough to tie a strikeout mark by two distinguished pitchers, and his teammates bailed him out with a grand slam as Nippon Ham downed Seibu 8-5 Saturday at Seibu Dome.
Darvish (3-1) tied former Kintetsu Buffaloes pitcher and major leaguer Hideo Nomo, and SoftBank’s Toshiya Sugiuchi in becoming the third hurler to record double digits in five consecutive games by fanning 10 over seven innings to earn the win.
Atsunori Inaba bashed a fifth-inning grand slam to give the Fighters a one-run lead and getting Darvish in front after the big righty allowed five runs early. He ended up surrendering six hits and five walks on 148 pitches.
Inaba broke out in the win, which snapped a four-game skid, belting a drive for his 183rd career homer, but just his third with the bases filled.
EAGLES 8, HAWKS 3
Hisashi Iwakuma (2-2) tossed his first complete game of the season, and Yosuke Takasu had two hits and four RBIs as Rakuten cruised past SoftBank at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
MARINES 9, BUFFALOES 0
Yoshihisa Naruse (4-1) fired a six-hit shutout as first-place Lotte routed Orix at Chiba Marine Stadium.
The lefty fanned six and walked one, and Saburo Omura went 3-for-4 with a homer and four RBIs for the Marines.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
BAYSTARS 7, TIGERS 3
Terrmel Sledge slammed a pair of solo blasts, two of four Yokohama longballs, and Naoyuki Shimizu (2-1) went seven strong innings in a victory over visiting Hanshin.
GIANTS 6, SWALLOWS 1
Yoshiyuki Kamei’s tiebreaking single in the seventh sparked a four-run outburst in support of Shun Tono (3-1) as Yomiuri downed Yakult at Matsuyama’s Bottchan Stadium.
CARP 4, DRAGONS 3
Jun Hirose’s single in the bottom of the ninth gave Hiroshima its third sayonara win this season, and second in as many days against Chunichi at the Zoom.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Blowouts, rainouts and knock-down, drag out ...
Maeda’s 1st walk-off hit beats Chunichi
Two games were rained out, two others were blowouts, but pinch-hitter Tomonori Maeda helped Hiroshima win a knock-down, drag-out with the first sayonara single in his 20-year career in a 4-3 win over the Chunichi Dragons at the Zoom on Friday.
Maeda had a walk-off homer but had never had a walk-off hit. He bounced a one-out, bases-loaded single up the middle in the ninth inning off Chunichi set-up man Takuya Asao (1-1), who allowed his first run of the season.
Maeda’s last walk-off homer came in 1994, but this was his first single with runners in scoring position to win a game.
“It was my turn to have my one at-bat, and I just wanted to come through,” Maeda said. “I hadn’t faced a lot of hard-throwing pitchers like that this year, so I just threw the bat out there.”
Maeda didn’t get much playing time under former skipper Marty Brown, but he is getting more opportunities with first-year manager Kenjiro Nomura.
“Every day since camp I sit on the bench and try to spend my time wisely so I don’t have any regrets,” Maeda said. “So I’m happy to have the opportunity to get into the game and I don’t worry about the results, I just prepare to go out there and compete.”
Ken Takahashi (2-0), who worked around an error to toss a scoreless top of the ninth, got the win on his 40th birthday.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
LIONS 7, FIGHTERS 3
A young pitcher, a losing streak and the start of a road trip added up to another loss for last-place Nippon Ham as it dropped to 10 games under .500 for the first time in five years.
The visiting Fighters sent fourth-year hurler Romash Dass (0-1) -- the ninth starting pitcher for Nippon Ham already this season --to mound and he got knocked out of his second pro start after just 2.1 innings.
He suffered his first loss as Takumi Kuriyama drove in three runs and Dee Brown knocked in two.
HAWKS 9, EAGLES 1
Katsuki Yamazaki went 3-for-4, including his first homer since May 20, 2006, and four RBIs, and Tosihya Sugiuchi (4-1) allowed a run on six hits and three walks while fanning nine over eight innings as host SoftBank cruised past Rakuten.
Two games were rained out, two others were blowouts, but pinch-hitter Tomonori Maeda helped Hiroshima win a knock-down, drag-out with the first sayonara single in his 20-year career in a 4-3 win over the Chunichi Dragons at the Zoom on Friday.
Maeda had a walk-off homer but had never had a walk-off hit. He bounced a one-out, bases-loaded single up the middle in the ninth inning off Chunichi set-up man Takuya Asao (1-1), who allowed his first run of the season.
Maeda’s last walk-off homer came in 1994, but this was his first single with runners in scoring position to win a game.
“It was my turn to have my one at-bat, and I just wanted to come through,” Maeda said. “I hadn’t faced a lot of hard-throwing pitchers like that this year, so I just threw the bat out there.”
Maeda didn’t get much playing time under former skipper Marty Brown, but he is getting more opportunities with first-year manager Kenjiro Nomura.
“Every day since camp I sit on the bench and try to spend my time wisely so I don’t have any regrets,” Maeda said. “So I’m happy to have the opportunity to get into the game and I don’t worry about the results, I just prepare to go out there and compete.”
Ken Takahashi (2-0), who worked around an error to toss a scoreless top of the ninth, got the win on his 40th birthday.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
LIONS 7, FIGHTERS 3
A young pitcher, a losing streak and the start of a road trip added up to another loss for last-place Nippon Ham as it dropped to 10 games under .500 for the first time in five years.
The visiting Fighters sent fourth-year hurler Romash Dass (0-1) -- the ninth starting pitcher for Nippon Ham already this season --to mound and he got knocked out of his second pro start after just 2.1 innings.
He suffered his first loss as Takumi Kuriyama drove in three runs and Dee Brown knocked in two.
HAWKS 9, EAGLES 1
Katsuki Yamazaki went 3-for-4, including his first homer since May 20, 2006, and four RBIs, and Tosihya Sugiuchi (4-1) allowed a run on six hits and three walks while fanning nine over eight innings as host SoftBank cruised past Rakuten.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Not much fight in Fighters ...
Lotte burns Nippon Ham
This is how badly things are going for the defending Pacific League champion Nippon Ham Fighters: In a three-game series at home, they got swept -- and it wasn’t that close.
Tadahito Iguchi doubled and tripled and had an RBI, and Saburo Omura had three hits and an RBI as the first-place Lotte Marines had double digits in hits (14) for the sixth straight game and moved 12 games above .500 with a 6-3 win at Sapporo Dome.
“The atmosphere on the bench is the best I’ve ever experienced in my 15 years as a pro. I don’t feel like we’re going to lose,” said Omura, whose team has won four straight.
The Fighters are nine games under .500 for the first time in five seasons.
LIONS 7, EAGLES 3
Fumiya Nishiguchi (1-1) lowered his ERA to 7.01 by allowing a run over six innings as Seibu topped Rakuten.
No. 8 batter Hisashi Takayama had a two-run double and No. 9 hitter Tatsuyuki Uemoto went 3-for-4 with two RBIs to back the 37-year-old Nishiguchi, who won at Seibu Dome for the first time since last April 9.
HAWKS 5, BUFFALOES 1
Kazuki Kondo (1-2) fired wildly past third for a throwing error in the ninth inning that allowed the go-ahead run to score as SoftBank rallied for four ninth-inning runs to defeat Orix at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Early in the day, the Hawks picked up veteran slugger Roberto Petagine, a 38-year-old former Yakutl Swallows and Yomiuri Giants infielder who has played in South Korea the past two seasons.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
GIANTS 5, TIGERS 1
Hayato Sakamoto's grand slam in the seventh inning turned a one-deficit into a three-run lead, and Alex Ramirez later homered to back Tetsuya Utsumi (4-0), who outlasted Casey Fossum as the Giants rallied against Hanshin to avoid a three-game sweep at Tokyo Dome.
Fossum worked six scoreless innings, but the bullpen couldn’t save the one-run lead.
DRAGONS 7, BAYSTARS 4
Kazuki Yoshimi (2-1) held Yokohama to two runs over 8.1 innings before taking a liner off his right knee and departing, but Chunichi held on at Nagoya Dome.
SWALLOWS 2, CARP 1
Jamie D’Antona’s go-ahead RBI single in the ninth was the difference as Yakult came back to down Hiroshima at the Zoom.
This is how badly things are going for the defending Pacific League champion Nippon Ham Fighters: In a three-game series at home, they got swept -- and it wasn’t that close.
Tadahito Iguchi doubled and tripled and had an RBI, and Saburo Omura had three hits and an RBI as the first-place Lotte Marines had double digits in hits (14) for the sixth straight game and moved 12 games above .500 with a 6-3 win at Sapporo Dome.
“The atmosphere on the bench is the best I’ve ever experienced in my 15 years as a pro. I don’t feel like we’re going to lose,” said Omura, whose team has won four straight.
The Fighters are nine games under .500 for the first time in five seasons.
LIONS 7, EAGLES 3
Fumiya Nishiguchi (1-1) lowered his ERA to 7.01 by allowing a run over six innings as Seibu topped Rakuten.
No. 8 batter Hisashi Takayama had a two-run double and No. 9 hitter Tatsuyuki Uemoto went 3-for-4 with two RBIs to back the 37-year-old Nishiguchi, who won at Seibu Dome for the first time since last April 9.
HAWKS 5, BUFFALOES 1
Kazuki Kondo (1-2) fired wildly past third for a throwing error in the ninth inning that allowed the go-ahead run to score as SoftBank rallied for four ninth-inning runs to defeat Orix at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Early in the day, the Hawks picked up veteran slugger Roberto Petagine, a 38-year-old former Yakutl Swallows and Yomiuri Giants infielder who has played in South Korea the past two seasons.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
GIANTS 5, TIGERS 1
Hayato Sakamoto's grand slam in the seventh inning turned a one-deficit into a three-run lead, and Alex Ramirez later homered to back Tetsuya Utsumi (4-0), who outlasted Casey Fossum as the Giants rallied against Hanshin to avoid a three-game sweep at Tokyo Dome.
Fossum worked six scoreless innings, but the bullpen couldn’t save the one-run lead.
DRAGONS 7, BAYSTARS 4
Kazuki Yoshimi (2-1) held Yokohama to two runs over 8.1 innings before taking a liner off his right knee and departing, but Chunichi held on at Nagoya Dome.
SWALLOWS 2, CARP 1
Jamie D’Antona’s go-ahead RBI single in the ninth was the difference as Yakult came back to down Hiroshima at the Zoom.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Bad transition ...
Hanshin gets to Yamaguchi, beats Giants
The Yomiuri Giants are playing Joba Chamberlain with Tetsuya Yamaguchi, and Hanshin’s Craig Brazell took advantage of the left-hander as the Tigers scrapped past the Central League leaders 3-2 on Wednesday at Tokyo Dome.
Yamaguchi (1-1), who was taken from the pen this spring and thrust into the rotation, made his first appearance out of the bullpen this season and got just one out.
After he loaded the bases, Brazell reached at a breaking ball and pulled a floating base hit into right field to score two in the eighth inning to break a 1-1 tie and give the Tigers the lead.
Yamaguchi, who was 1-0 with a 5.73 ERA in his two starts, faced five batters and allowed three hits and plunked Kenji Jojima.
Just like the New York Yankees hard-throwing righty Chamberlain, the Giants are suddenly second-guessing themselves on how to use Yamaguchi, who has 60 holds since 2007.
It was the fourth straight win for the Tigers, who got a quality start from offseason pickup Yasutomo Kubo (2-1), who limited the Giants to a run on five hits and two walks over seven innings. Kyuji Fujikawa worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his fifth save.
CARP 6, SWALLOWS 2
Pinch-hitter Justin Huber’s solo blast got Hiroshima even and an on Yasushi Ihara’s error as the Carp beat Yakult for a second straight win at the Zoom.
BAYSTARS 9, DRAGONS 4
Terrmel Sledge slugged a pair of homers and drove in four runs as Yokohama battered Chunichi at Nagoya Dome.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
BUFFALOES 10, HAWKS 8
A slugfest came down to an error. So Taguchi singled to lead off the eighth inning and Brian Falkenborg (1-1) threw a bounce pass to first base on Shogo Akada’s bunt for an error that allowed the go-ahead run to score from first as Orix beat SoftBank at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Greg LaRocca, despite a broken finger, homered as did Takeshi Hidaka, Keiji Obiki and Takahiro Okada, his third in as many games.
MARINES 6, FIGHTERS 1
Fourth-year righty Yuta Omine (2-0) fired a 155-pitch complete game -- his second straight -- and Lotte won to go nine games over .500 for the first time in three seasons.
Omine gave up just three hits while walking six and fanning four.
LIONS 6, EAGLES 5
Dee Brown’s two-run single in the fourth inning put Seibu ahead, and a trio of relievers kept Rakuten scoreless the final three innings as the Lions won at Seibu Dome.
The Yomiuri Giants are playing Joba Chamberlain with Tetsuya Yamaguchi, and Hanshin’s Craig Brazell took advantage of the left-hander as the Tigers scrapped past the Central League leaders 3-2 on Wednesday at Tokyo Dome.
Yamaguchi (1-1), who was taken from the pen this spring and thrust into the rotation, made his first appearance out of the bullpen this season and got just one out.
After he loaded the bases, Brazell reached at a breaking ball and pulled a floating base hit into right field to score two in the eighth inning to break a 1-1 tie and give the Tigers the lead.
Yamaguchi, who was 1-0 with a 5.73 ERA in his two starts, faced five batters and allowed three hits and plunked Kenji Jojima.
Just like the New York Yankees hard-throwing righty Chamberlain, the Giants are suddenly second-guessing themselves on how to use Yamaguchi, who has 60 holds since 2007.
It was the fourth straight win for the Tigers, who got a quality start from offseason pickup Yasutomo Kubo (2-1), who limited the Giants to a run on five hits and two walks over seven innings. Kyuji Fujikawa worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his fifth save.
CARP 6, SWALLOWS 2
Pinch-hitter Justin Huber’s solo blast got Hiroshima even and an on Yasushi Ihara’s error as the Carp beat Yakult for a second straight win at the Zoom.
BAYSTARS 9, DRAGONS 4
Terrmel Sledge slugged a pair of homers and drove in four runs as Yokohama battered Chunichi at Nagoya Dome.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
BUFFALOES 10, HAWKS 8
A slugfest came down to an error. So Taguchi singled to lead off the eighth inning and Brian Falkenborg (1-1) threw a bounce pass to first base on Shogo Akada’s bunt for an error that allowed the go-ahead run to score from first as Orix beat SoftBank at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Greg LaRocca, despite a broken finger, homered as did Takeshi Hidaka, Keiji Obiki and Takahiro Okada, his third in as many games.
MARINES 6, FIGHTERS 1
Fourth-year righty Yuta Omine (2-0) fired a 155-pitch complete game -- his second straight -- and Lotte won to go nine games over .500 for the first time in three seasons.
Omine gave up just three hits while walking six and fanning four.
LIONS 6, EAGLES 5
Dee Brown’s two-run single in the fourth inning put Seibu ahead, and a trio of relievers kept Rakuten scoreless the final three innings as the Lions won at Seibu Dome.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Zooming in on a win …
Carp finally win at home
The second year of Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium started with an embarrassing handful of losses for Hiroshima, but Yoshiyuki Ishihara helped the Carp end the run of doom at the Zoom, belting a walk-off solo blast in the 10th inning for a 3-2 win over the Yakult Swallows on Tuesday.
“I don’t remember a think about [the homer],” Ishihara said. “I just went up there and wanted to take a good swing. That’s the only thing I thought about as I went to the plate.”
The Carp were 0-5 at the Zoom, and Ken Takahashi, who spent last season with the New York Mets, earned his first win here since Aug. 6, 2008. The Carp are still in the Central League cellar at 5-10.
New skipper, new ballpark, but the Carp seem to be just as bad as in the last decade. Four relievers blanked the Swallows over five innings, another positive for the Carp, with Takahashi picking up the win with 1.1 innings of work in Hiroshima’s first walk-off victory since June 18.
TIGERS 9, GIANTS 7
Teams that beat Yomiuri are going to have to do it the same way Hanshin did it at Tokyo Dome: outpunch the sluggers. The Tigers had five longballs, Kodai Sakurai breaking a tie with a three-run shot with one out in the eighth, and Matt Murton adding a solo blast with two outs as Hanshin came from six runs back to beat Yomiuri at the Big Egg.
Hanshin had three longballs for five runs in the sixth inning in its first five-homer game since Aug. 8, 2004, also against the Giants.
DRAGONS 8, BAYSTARS 7, 11 innings
Motonobu Tanishige’s clutch RBI double lifted Chunichi past Yokohama in a walk-off win at Nagoya Dome.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 8, FIGHTERS 7, 10 innings
Pinch-hitter Kazuya Fukuura took Brian Wolfe (0-2) over the fence in right in the ninth inning for a two-run shot in the 10th inning that lifted Lotte past Nippon Ham at Sapporo Dome.
Tadahito Iguchi had three hits, including a two-run double, as the first-place Marines (13-5) dropped the Fighters to 5-12.
LIONS 5, EAGLES 3
Toru Hosokawa’s solo blast in the sixth inning got Seibu even, and Takumi Kuriyama’s two-run double in the eighth inning gave the Lions the win over Rakuten at Seibu Dome.
HAWKS 8, BUFFALOES 6
Jose Ortiz had three hits and drove in a pair as SoftBank took down Orix at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
The second year of Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium started with an embarrassing handful of losses for Hiroshima, but Yoshiyuki Ishihara helped the Carp end the run of doom at the Zoom, belting a walk-off solo blast in the 10th inning for a 3-2 win over the Yakult Swallows on Tuesday.
“I don’t remember a think about [the homer],” Ishihara said. “I just went up there and wanted to take a good swing. That’s the only thing I thought about as I went to the plate.”
The Carp were 0-5 at the Zoom, and Ken Takahashi, who spent last season with the New York Mets, earned his first win here since Aug. 6, 2008. The Carp are still in the Central League cellar at 5-10.
New skipper, new ballpark, but the Carp seem to be just as bad as in the last decade. Four relievers blanked the Swallows over five innings, another positive for the Carp, with Takahashi picking up the win with 1.1 innings of work in Hiroshima’s first walk-off victory since June 18.
TIGERS 9, GIANTS 7
Teams that beat Yomiuri are going to have to do it the same way Hanshin did it at Tokyo Dome: outpunch the sluggers. The Tigers had five longballs, Kodai Sakurai breaking a tie with a three-run shot with one out in the eighth, and Matt Murton adding a solo blast with two outs as Hanshin came from six runs back to beat Yomiuri at the Big Egg.
Hanshin had three longballs for five runs in the sixth inning in its first five-homer game since Aug. 8, 2004, also against the Giants.
DRAGONS 8, BAYSTARS 7, 11 innings
Motonobu Tanishige’s clutch RBI double lifted Chunichi past Yokohama in a walk-off win at Nagoya Dome.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 8, FIGHTERS 7, 10 innings
Pinch-hitter Kazuya Fukuura took Brian Wolfe (0-2) over the fence in right in the ninth inning for a two-run shot in the 10th inning that lifted Lotte past Nippon Ham at Sapporo Dome.
Tadahito Iguchi had three hits, including a two-run double, as the first-place Marines (13-5) dropped the Fighters to 5-12.
LIONS 5, EAGLES 3
Toru Hosokawa’s solo blast in the sixth inning got Seibu even, and Takumi Kuriyama’s two-run double in the eighth inning gave the Lions the win over Rakuten at Seibu Dome.
HAWKS 8, BUFFALOES 6
Jose Ortiz had three hits and drove in a pair as SoftBank took down Orix at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Giant steps …
Yomiuri moves into 1st place
Michihiro Ogasawara was a one-man gang, and he might have just helped Yomiuri flick away the last pest as the Giants yawn and stretch and stomp toward a fourth straight Central League title.
Certainly titles aren’t won in April, but frontrunners are formed, and Ogasawara punished pennant-seeking Chunichi in the finale of a three-game series with a pair of two-run doubles in a 7-1 win over the Dragons on Sunday at Tokyo Dome.
Shun Tono (2-1) scattered seven hits and a walk, while punching out nine to earn a win that put the Giants alone in first place, a game ahead of Chunichi.
Ogasawara tore up the Dragons in the three-game series, going 7-for-11 with two homers and RBIs.
BAYSTARS 6, CARP 3
Shuichi Murata’s first hit in 22 trips to the plate was an RBI single in the first inning, and Seiichi Uchikawa homered and drove in three as Yokohama downed visiting Hiroshima for its first series victory this season.
Hiroshima’s Tomonori Maeda hit his first homer in two years with a pinch-hit shot off closer Shun Yamaguchi in the ninth.
TIGERS 7, SWALLOWS 3
Tomoaki Kanemoto hit a two-run homer, the 445th of his career to surpass former Yomiuri great Shigeo Nagashima, to lead Hanshin past Yakult at Koshien Stadium.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 11, LIONS 0
Shingo Ono (2-0) allowed three hits and seven walks, and Tadahito Iguchi had three hits and two RBIs as Lotte blanked Seibu at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Toshiaki Imae cracked a two-run blast to cap a seven-run eighth inning that put the game away.
FIGHTERS 4, HAWKS 1
Kensuke Tanaka had an RBI triple and a two-run homer, and five relievers preserved the lead over four innings for Masaru Takeda (1-1) as Nippon Ham won its series against SoftBank at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
The victory gave Nippon Ham its first series win of the season.
EAGLES 4, BUFFALOES 1
Masahiro Tanaka (2-1) scattered six hits and a walk with seven strikeouts, and Takeshi Yamasaki’s RBI single in the sixth inning broke a 1-1 tie as Rakuten topped Orix for its second straight series win.
Michihiro Ogasawara was a one-man gang, and he might have just helped Yomiuri flick away the last pest as the Giants yawn and stretch and stomp toward a fourth straight Central League title.
Certainly titles aren’t won in April, but frontrunners are formed, and Ogasawara punished pennant-seeking Chunichi in the finale of a three-game series with a pair of two-run doubles in a 7-1 win over the Dragons on Sunday at Tokyo Dome.
Shun Tono (2-1) scattered seven hits and a walk, while punching out nine to earn a win that put the Giants alone in first place, a game ahead of Chunichi.
Ogasawara tore up the Dragons in the three-game series, going 7-for-11 with two homers and RBIs.
BAYSTARS 6, CARP 3
Shuichi Murata’s first hit in 22 trips to the plate was an RBI single in the first inning, and Seiichi Uchikawa homered and drove in three as Yokohama downed visiting Hiroshima for its first series victory this season.
Hiroshima’s Tomonori Maeda hit his first homer in two years with a pinch-hit shot off closer Shun Yamaguchi in the ninth.
TIGERS 7, SWALLOWS 3
Tomoaki Kanemoto hit a two-run homer, the 445th of his career to surpass former Yomiuri great Shigeo Nagashima, to lead Hanshin past Yakult at Koshien Stadium.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 11, LIONS 0
Shingo Ono (2-0) allowed three hits and seven walks, and Tadahito Iguchi had three hits and two RBIs as Lotte blanked Seibu at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Toshiaki Imae cracked a two-run blast to cap a seven-run eighth inning that put the game away.
FIGHTERS 4, HAWKS 1
Kensuke Tanaka had an RBI triple and a two-run homer, and five relievers preserved the lead over four innings for Masaru Takeda (1-1) as Nippon Ham won its series against SoftBank at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
The victory gave Nippon Ham its first series win of the season.
EAGLES 4, BUFFALOES 1
Masahiro Tanaka (2-1) scattered six hits and a walk with seven strikeouts, and Takeshi Yamasaki’s RBI single in the sixth inning broke a 1-1 tie as Rakuten topped Orix for its second straight series win.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Yes, Yu can ...
Darvish gives Nippon Ham taste of victory
The Nippon Ham Fighters have gone from Pacific League champions to a team that wins about once a week.
Yu Darvish became the first pitcher to notch double digits in strikeouts in the first four games of the season, fanning 12 while scattering four hits and no walks as Nippon Ham beat up on SoftBank 12-1 at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
Kensuke Tanaka had three hits and two RBIs, and one of Yoshio Itoi’s three hits was a homer to back Darvish (2-1).
LIONS 8, MARINES 5
Dee Brown had a three-run double and Takumi Kuriyama had two hits and drove in a pair as Seibu took down Lotte at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Lotte’s Tadahito Iguchi notched his 1,500th combined career hit between Japan and the big leagues in a losing cause.
EAGLES 6, BUFFALOES 1
Hisashi Iwakuma (1-2) finally looked like himself again, going seven innings and limiting visiting Orix to a run on five hits and two walks while fanning two to earn his first win off the season.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
GIANTS 11, DRAGONS 3
Tetsuya Yamaguchi (1-1) went 7.2 innings to earn his first victory as a starter in Yomiuri’s drubbing of the Dragons at Tokyo Dome.
Yamaguchi, a set-up man turned starter, allowed five hits and three walks with three strikeouts. Michihiro Ogasawara homered for the second time in as many days, and drove in three as the Giants moved into a tie at the top with Chunichi.
CARP 7, BAYSTARS 3
Jeff Fiorentino had three hits and two RBIs, and Kenta Kurihara drove in two with a single as Hiroshima downed host Yokohama.
TIGERS 5, SWALLOWS 1
Kenji Jojima blasted a first-inning grand slam to back Keiji Uezono (1-0), who blanked Yakult over 6.1 innings to win at Koshien Stadium.
The Nippon Ham Fighters have gone from Pacific League champions to a team that wins about once a week.
Yu Darvish became the first pitcher to notch double digits in strikeouts in the first four games of the season, fanning 12 while scattering four hits and no walks as Nippon Ham beat up on SoftBank 12-1 at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
Kensuke Tanaka had three hits and two RBIs, and one of Yoshio Itoi’s three hits was a homer to back Darvish (2-1).
LIONS 8, MARINES 5
Dee Brown had a three-run double and Takumi Kuriyama had two hits and drove in a pair as Seibu took down Lotte at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Lotte’s Tadahito Iguchi notched his 1,500th combined career hit between Japan and the big leagues in a losing cause.
EAGLES 6, BUFFALOES 1
Hisashi Iwakuma (1-2) finally looked like himself again, going seven innings and limiting visiting Orix to a run on five hits and two walks while fanning two to earn his first win off the season.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
GIANTS 11, DRAGONS 3
Tetsuya Yamaguchi (1-1) went 7.2 innings to earn his first victory as a starter in Yomiuri’s drubbing of the Dragons at Tokyo Dome.
Yamaguchi, a set-up man turned starter, allowed five hits and three walks with three strikeouts. Michihiro Ogasawara homered for the second time in as many days, and drove in three as the Giants moved into a tie at the top with Chunichi.
CARP 7, BAYSTARS 3
Jeff Fiorentino had three hits and two RBIs, and Kenta Kurihara drove in two with a single as Hiroshima downed host Yokohama.
TIGERS 5, SWALLOWS 1
Kenji Jojima blasted a first-inning grand slam to back Keiji Uezono (1-0), who blanked Yakult over 6.1 innings to win at Koshien Stadium.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Such a Drag …
Many of my friends know I lived in Nagoya for 11 years … but I don’t play favorites
Many might recall the Chunichi Dragons’ 2007 run to a Japan Series title. Skipper Hiromitsu Ochiai sent the Yomiuri Giants scrambling when he pulled a switcheroo with his starting pitchers in the Central League Climax Series.
The move caught the Giants off balance and they never recovered. Ochiai was expected to send southpaw Chen Wei-yin to the mound on Friday, but his surprise starter was righty Kazuki Yoshimi.
The Giants, expecting Chen, had their vs.-lefty lineup and the Dragons walked away with a 7-4 win at Tokyo Dome.
Yoshimi (1-1) was sharp for four innings, holding the Giants down. But Yomiuri broke loose for four runs in the fifth. Luckily for the Dragons, cleanup hitter Tony Blanco came up with two clutch singles on a three-hit, three-RBI night to pace the offense.
Giants rookie Hisayoshi Chono, made a pair of strong throws to the plate, but missed the cut-off man both times, allowing runners to take extra bases, and Dicky Gonzalez (1-2), who surrendered five runs on nine hits and two walks in 4.1 innings, was saddled with the loss.
SWALLOWS 8, TIGERS 3
Aaron Guiel hit his CL-leading sixth homer, and Atsushi Kinugawa hit his first in two years as Yakult pounded Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.
Each drove in three runs to back Tony Barnette (2-0), who allowed three runs over three innings to win his second start.
BAYSTARS 5, CARP 0
Daisuke Miura, whose poor spring and dicey shoulder had him on the farm at the start of the season, worked six scoreless innings, scattering four hits and a walk, and two relievers finished off Hiroshima in host Yokohama’s first shutout of the season.
Terrmel Sledge’s popfly double in the first was enough for Miura, who fanned seven in his season debut.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 8, LIONS 3
Takumi Kobe replaced Kazuya Fukuura -- after the DH fouled a ball off his knee -- and blasted a three-run homer in a six-run first inning against Sawamura Award winner Hideaki Wakui (2-1) as Lotte paddled Seibu at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Fukuura was deactivated after the game.
HAWKS 6, FIGHTERS 0
Munenori Kawasaki had three hits, including a homer, and two RBIs, and Toshiya Sugiuchi (3-1) scattered 10 hits with no walks to notch his first shutout since June 6 as SoftBank blanked Nippon Ham.
Last year’s PL champions fell to 3-11.
BUFFALOES 8, EAGLES 3
Shogo Akada homered twice and drove in four, and Alex Cabrera also went deep as Orix beat up Rakuten at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi.
Many might recall the Chunichi Dragons’ 2007 run to a Japan Series title. Skipper Hiromitsu Ochiai sent the Yomiuri Giants scrambling when he pulled a switcheroo with his starting pitchers in the Central League Climax Series.
The move caught the Giants off balance and they never recovered. Ochiai was expected to send southpaw Chen Wei-yin to the mound on Friday, but his surprise starter was righty Kazuki Yoshimi.
The Giants, expecting Chen, had their vs.-lefty lineup and the Dragons walked away with a 7-4 win at Tokyo Dome.
Yoshimi (1-1) was sharp for four innings, holding the Giants down. But Yomiuri broke loose for four runs in the fifth. Luckily for the Dragons, cleanup hitter Tony Blanco came up with two clutch singles on a three-hit, three-RBI night to pace the offense.
Giants rookie Hisayoshi Chono, made a pair of strong throws to the plate, but missed the cut-off man both times, allowing runners to take extra bases, and Dicky Gonzalez (1-2), who surrendered five runs on nine hits and two walks in 4.1 innings, was saddled with the loss.
SWALLOWS 8, TIGERS 3
Aaron Guiel hit his CL-leading sixth homer, and Atsushi Kinugawa hit his first in two years as Yakult pounded Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.
Each drove in three runs to back Tony Barnette (2-0), who allowed three runs over three innings to win his second start.
BAYSTARS 5, CARP 0
Daisuke Miura, whose poor spring and dicey shoulder had him on the farm at the start of the season, worked six scoreless innings, scattering four hits and a walk, and two relievers finished off Hiroshima in host Yokohama’s first shutout of the season.
Terrmel Sledge’s popfly double in the first was enough for Miura, who fanned seven in his season debut.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 8, LIONS 3
Takumi Kobe replaced Kazuya Fukuura -- after the DH fouled a ball off his knee -- and blasted a three-run homer in a six-run first inning against Sawamura Award winner Hideaki Wakui (2-1) as Lotte paddled Seibu at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Fukuura was deactivated after the game.
HAWKS 6, FIGHTERS 0
Munenori Kawasaki had three hits, including a homer, and two RBIs, and Toshiya Sugiuchi (3-1) scattered 10 hits with no walks to notch his first shutout since June 6 as SoftBank blanked Nippon Ham.
Last year’s PL champions fell to 3-11.
BUFFALOES 8, EAGLES 3
Shogo Akada homered twice and drove in four, and Alex Cabrera also went deep as Orix beat up Rakuten at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Finally, I cover a game …
The redeeming qualities of the game
TOKOROZAWA Saitama -- One of the beauties of sports, particularly baseball, is the way it allows players to make up for their mistakes in the natural flow of the game.
Kazuki Kondo and Mitsutaka Goto were both able to put their mistakes behind them, helping the visiting Orix Buffaloes snap a five-game skid in a 5-4 10-inning win over the Seibu Lions on Thursday. Goto’s 10-inning RBI single got Orix the lead and Jon Leicester shut it down in the ninth with three punchouts.
Kondo surrendered five hits, walked one and hit one to put the Buffaloes in a 3-0 hole after three innings. But then put four zeroes up before departing with a one-run lead after six frames and got a no-decision.
Goto had a chance to turn an inning-ending double play in the seventh, but instead dropped the ball and failed to get an out. The tying run scored on the play to make it 4-4, but he made up for it by rolling a single through the hole between second and first with a runner on third in the 10th inning, and Orix got a much-needed win.
“We played some baseball for the first time in a long while,” said first-year skipper Akinobu Okada.
The Buffaloes got homers from Alex Cabrera (in his old stomping ground) and Greg LaRocca, and an RBI single from another former Lion, Shogo Akada, to win for the first time in April.
FIGHTERS 8, EAGLES 4
Kensuke Tanaka was one of four Nippon Ham starters with two hits and one RBI, and Yoshio Itoi had two RBIs as the defending PL champion Fighters downed Rakuten at Sapporo Dome to improve to 3-10 and stop a three-game skid.
Rakuten’s 41-year-old slugger Takeshi Yamasaki clubbed his second homer and became just the 46th player to have 3,000 total bases.
HAWKS 9, MARINES 1
Eighth-year lefty Tsuyoshi Wada (2-1) fanned a career-high 15 with no walks, and Jose Ortiz hit his 100th homer in Japan and added a double to drive in two as SoftBank drubbed Lotte at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
Wada was one strikeout short of the club record.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
GIANTS 8, TIGERS 5
Hot-hitting rookie Hisayoshi Chono ripped his second homer, a three-run shot, and Alex Ramirez also homered as Yomiuri topped Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.
Still mourning the loss of first-year coach Takuya Kimura, who died early Wednesday morning, the Giants won their fourth straight and moved into a share of first in the CL.
CARP 4, SWALLOWS 0
Kenta Maeda (2-1) blanked Yakult over eight innings, allowing four hits with no walks, and Eishin Soyogi’s sac fly in the fifth inning as Hiroshima whitewashed the Swallows at Jingu Stadium.
BAYSTARS 2, DRAGONS 1
Hayato Terahara (1-1) held visiting Chunichi to a run over seven innings and doubled home a run in the fourth inning that proved to be the difference as Yokohama won to stop a two-game losing streak and snap the Dragons’ six-game winning streak.
TOKOROZAWA Saitama -- One of the beauties of sports, particularly baseball, is the way it allows players to make up for their mistakes in the natural flow of the game.
Kazuki Kondo and Mitsutaka Goto were both able to put their mistakes behind them, helping the visiting Orix Buffaloes snap a five-game skid in a 5-4 10-inning win over the Seibu Lions on Thursday. Goto’s 10-inning RBI single got Orix the lead and Jon Leicester shut it down in the ninth with three punchouts.
Kondo surrendered five hits, walked one and hit one to put the Buffaloes in a 3-0 hole after three innings. But then put four zeroes up before departing with a one-run lead after six frames and got a no-decision.
Goto had a chance to turn an inning-ending double play in the seventh, but instead dropped the ball and failed to get an out. The tying run scored on the play to make it 4-4, but he made up for it by rolling a single through the hole between second and first with a runner on third in the 10th inning, and Orix got a much-needed win.
“We played some baseball for the first time in a long while,” said first-year skipper Akinobu Okada.
The Buffaloes got homers from Alex Cabrera (in his old stomping ground) and Greg LaRocca, and an RBI single from another former Lion, Shogo Akada, to win for the first time in April.
FIGHTERS 8, EAGLES 4
Kensuke Tanaka was one of four Nippon Ham starters with two hits and one RBI, and Yoshio Itoi had two RBIs as the defending PL champion Fighters downed Rakuten at Sapporo Dome to improve to 3-10 and stop a three-game skid.
Rakuten’s 41-year-old slugger Takeshi Yamasaki clubbed his second homer and became just the 46th player to have 3,000 total bases.
HAWKS 9, MARINES 1
Eighth-year lefty Tsuyoshi Wada (2-1) fanned a career-high 15 with no walks, and Jose Ortiz hit his 100th homer in Japan and added a double to drive in two as SoftBank drubbed Lotte at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
Wada was one strikeout short of the club record.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
GIANTS 8, TIGERS 5
Hot-hitting rookie Hisayoshi Chono ripped his second homer, a three-run shot, and Alex Ramirez also homered as Yomiuri topped Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.
Still mourning the loss of first-year coach Takuya Kimura, who died early Wednesday morning, the Giants won their fourth straight and moved into a share of first in the CL.
CARP 4, SWALLOWS 0
Kenta Maeda (2-1) blanked Yakult over eight innings, allowing four hits with no walks, and Eishin Soyogi’s sac fly in the fifth inning as Hiroshima whitewashed the Swallows at Jingu Stadium.
BAYSTARS 2, DRAGONS 1
Hayato Terahara (1-1) held visiting Chunichi to a run over seven innings and doubled home a run in the fourth inning that proved to be the difference as Yokohama won to stop a two-game losing streak and snap the Dragons’ six-game winning streak.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
A time of sorrow ...
Tears fall, Giants rise
The Yomiuri Giants took the field at Koshien Stadium with heavy hearts on Wednesday, but Michihiro Ogasawara paid tribute to a fallen comrade the best way he knew how: with his bat.
Baserunning and infield coach Takuya Kimura was pronounced dead at 3:22 a.m. at a Hiroshima hospital early Wednesday and Ogasawara had four hits, including a two-run homer and two RBIs as the Giants beat Hanshin 3-0 for their fifth straight victory.
Kimura, a 19-year veteran who retired after the Giants won the Japan Series last year, collapsed before Friday’s Central League game near home plate at Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium.
The 37-year-old suffered a brain hemorrhage and never regained consciousness. Reports said the Miyazaki Prefecture native complained of a headache the day before he collapsed.
“There were still a lot of things that I had to learn from him,” said Yoshinobu Takahashi, who is being converted from outfielder to first baseman.
After holding a moment of silence before playing the Tigers, Kentaro Nishimura fired seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits and no walks while fanning two for his first win as starter since Aug. 2, 2006.
DRAGONS 2, BAYSTARS 0
Takashi Ogasawara (1-1) threw seven scoreless innings to outduel Stephen Randolph (0-3), who allowed just one run in his seven innings as Chunichi won its sixth straight, blanking host Yokohama.
Motonobu Tanishige slugged his second homer in as many days against his old team, and Hitoki Iwase put a pair of runners on before closing it out in the ninth for his fourth save.
SWALLOWS 7, CARP 1
Jamie D’Antona had four hits, including a grand slam, and drove in six runs, and Shohei Tateyama (2-0) allowed just an unearned run in eight innings as Yakult pounded Hiroshima at Jingu.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
EAGLES 6, FIGHTERS 3
Takeshi Yamasaki cracked his first homer, and Ryo Hijirisawa had two hits and an RBI as Rakuten sent struggling Nippon Ham to another loss, this one at Sapporo Dome.
The defending PL champs sunk to a franchise-worse fifth consecutive series loss since the start of the season.
LIONS 9, BUFFALOES 2
Hiroyuki Nakajima homered and drove in five runs to overcome former teammate Alex Cabrera’s four-hit night as Seibu downed visiting Orix, which has lost five straight.
MARINES 5, HAWKS 0
Fourth-year right-hander Yuta Omine (1-0) tossed a four-hitter for his second career shutout, fanning 10 and walking two as Lotte blanked SoftBank at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
The Yomiuri Giants took the field at Koshien Stadium with heavy hearts on Wednesday, but Michihiro Ogasawara paid tribute to a fallen comrade the best way he knew how: with his bat.
Baserunning and infield coach Takuya Kimura was pronounced dead at 3:22 a.m. at a Hiroshima hospital early Wednesday and Ogasawara had four hits, including a two-run homer and two RBIs as the Giants beat Hanshin 3-0 for their fifth straight victory.
Kimura, a 19-year veteran who retired after the Giants won the Japan Series last year, collapsed before Friday’s Central League game near home plate at Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium.
The 37-year-old suffered a brain hemorrhage and never regained consciousness. Reports said the Miyazaki Prefecture native complained of a headache the day before he collapsed.
“There were still a lot of things that I had to learn from him,” said Yoshinobu Takahashi, who is being converted from outfielder to first baseman.
After holding a moment of silence before playing the Tigers, Kentaro Nishimura fired seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits and no walks while fanning two for his first win as starter since Aug. 2, 2006.
DRAGONS 2, BAYSTARS 0
Takashi Ogasawara (1-1) threw seven scoreless innings to outduel Stephen Randolph (0-3), who allowed just one run in his seven innings as Chunichi won its sixth straight, blanking host Yokohama.
Motonobu Tanishige slugged his second homer in as many days against his old team, and Hitoki Iwase put a pair of runners on before closing it out in the ninth for his fourth save.
SWALLOWS 7, CARP 1
Jamie D’Antona had four hits, including a grand slam, and drove in six runs, and Shohei Tateyama (2-0) allowed just an unearned run in eight innings as Yakult pounded Hiroshima at Jingu.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
EAGLES 6, FIGHTERS 3
Takeshi Yamasaki cracked his first homer, and Ryo Hijirisawa had two hits and an RBI as Rakuten sent struggling Nippon Ham to another loss, this one at Sapporo Dome.
The defending PL champs sunk to a franchise-worse fifth consecutive series loss since the start of the season.
LIONS 9, BUFFALOES 2
Hiroyuki Nakajima homered and drove in five runs to overcome former teammate Alex Cabrera’s four-hit night as Seibu downed visiting Orix, which has lost five straight.
MARINES 5, HAWKS 0
Fourth-year right-hander Yuta Omine (1-0) tossed a four-hitter for his second career shutout, fanning 10 and walking two as Lotte blanked SoftBank at Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Long time coming ...
Seems like old times
The last time Daisuke Yamai won a game for the Chunichi Dragons, he threw eight perfect innings in the Game 5 clincher of their 2007 Japan Series title run. He hadn’t won a game since.
The righty had his arm and bat working on Tuesday, tossing five-plus strong innings and driving in a pair as the Dragons held off the Yokohama BayStars 5-3 at Yokohama Stadium.
Yamai (1-1) allowed three runs on five hits and three walks, while striking out two, and left after walking the leadoff man in the sixth.
“My pitching has been pretty mediocre and I haven’t been able to get results, but I believed this day would come and I just kept working hard,” Yamai said in the on-field postgame interview.
Yamai got knocked around for five runs in 3.2 innings at Jingu in his first start, but bounced back against the BayStars.
“I was awful the last time out and I knew I couldn’t pitch like that again. I really let the fans down, so I wanted to do what I could to get us a victory.”
Yamai sent a dribbler through the infield to score a run with one out in the second inning, and drove a clutch single through the box in the fourth to give Chunichi a 3-1 lead.
“I just swung the bat and it somehow hit the ball. That was a bonus,” Yamai said.
Yamai hadn’t won a regular-season game since Sept. 30, 2007.
TIGERS 5, GIANTS 4
Tomoaki Kanemoto, playing in pain with a bad shoulder, drove a high slider out for a two-run homer in the seventh inning that broke a 3-3 tie, and Hanshin held on to down Yomiuri at Koshien Stadium.
Takahiro Arai also homered for Hanshin to back Atsushi Nomi (2-0), who worked seven innings, allowing four runs --two earned -- to pick up the win.
Kanemoto’s longball was the 444th of his career, tying him with Yomiuri great Shigeo Nagashima.
CARP 3, SWALLOWS 2
Eishin Soyogi singled, stole second and came home to score --on a close play at the plate --on Soichiro Amaya’s single to break a 2-2 tie in the top of eighth inning as Hiroshima got past Yakult at Jingu to halt a seven-game skid.
Aaron Guiel had just tied the score with his CL-best fifth homer in the seventh inning.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
LIONS 3, BUFFALOES 2
The fall of the Buffaloes continued as Takayuki Kishi (2-1) carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning and finished with a one-hitter as Seibu blanked Orix, which dropped its fourth straight.
Kishi fanned seven with no walks. It was the fourth-year righty’s first one-hitter and the sixth career shutout.
HAWKS 4, MARINES 2
Yuichi Honda’s RBI single in the fifth inning proved to be the difference as host SoftBank snapped Lotte’s four-game winning streak on skipper Koji Akiyama’s 48th birthday.
D.J. Houlton (1-2) allowed two runs over 6.2 innings to earn the win. Munenori Kawasaki and Nobuhiro Matsuda each had three hits for the Hawks.
The Marines the same day sent lefty Yusuke Kawasaki to Hanshin for cash.
EAGLES 3, FIGHTERS 1
Satoshi Nagai (1-2) held Nippon Ham to one run over eight innings, and Ryo Hijirisawa had two hits and an RBI as Rakuten sent the defending PL champions to their third loss in four games.
The last time Daisuke Yamai won a game for the Chunichi Dragons, he threw eight perfect innings in the Game 5 clincher of their 2007 Japan Series title run. He hadn’t won a game since.
The righty had his arm and bat working on Tuesday, tossing five-plus strong innings and driving in a pair as the Dragons held off the Yokohama BayStars 5-3 at Yokohama Stadium.
Yamai (1-1) allowed three runs on five hits and three walks, while striking out two, and left after walking the leadoff man in the sixth.
“My pitching has been pretty mediocre and I haven’t been able to get results, but I believed this day would come and I just kept working hard,” Yamai said in the on-field postgame interview.
Yamai got knocked around for five runs in 3.2 innings at Jingu in his first start, but bounced back against the BayStars.
“I was awful the last time out and I knew I couldn’t pitch like that again. I really let the fans down, so I wanted to do what I could to get us a victory.”
Yamai sent a dribbler through the infield to score a run with one out in the second inning, and drove a clutch single through the box in the fourth to give Chunichi a 3-1 lead.
“I just swung the bat and it somehow hit the ball. That was a bonus,” Yamai said.
Yamai hadn’t won a regular-season game since Sept. 30, 2007.
TIGERS 5, GIANTS 4
Tomoaki Kanemoto, playing in pain with a bad shoulder, drove a high slider out for a two-run homer in the seventh inning that broke a 3-3 tie, and Hanshin held on to down Yomiuri at Koshien Stadium.
Takahiro Arai also homered for Hanshin to back Atsushi Nomi (2-0), who worked seven innings, allowing four runs --two earned -- to pick up the win.
Kanemoto’s longball was the 444th of his career, tying him with Yomiuri great Shigeo Nagashima.
CARP 3, SWALLOWS 2
Eishin Soyogi singled, stole second and came home to score --on a close play at the plate --on Soichiro Amaya’s single to break a 2-2 tie in the top of eighth inning as Hiroshima got past Yakult at Jingu to halt a seven-game skid.
Aaron Guiel had just tied the score with his CL-best fifth homer in the seventh inning.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
LIONS 3, BUFFALOES 2
The fall of the Buffaloes continued as Takayuki Kishi (2-1) carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning and finished with a one-hitter as Seibu blanked Orix, which dropped its fourth straight.
Kishi fanned seven with no walks. It was the fourth-year righty’s first one-hitter and the sixth career shutout.
HAWKS 4, MARINES 2
Yuichi Honda’s RBI single in the fifth inning proved to be the difference as host SoftBank snapped Lotte’s four-game winning streak on skipper Koji Akiyama’s 48th birthday.
D.J. Houlton (1-2) allowed two runs over 6.2 innings to earn the win. Munenori Kawasaki and Nobuhiro Matsuda each had three hits for the Hawks.
The Marines the same day sent lefty Yusuke Kawasaki to Hanshin for cash.
EAGLES 3, FIGHTERS 1
Satoshi Nagai (1-2) held Nippon Ham to one run over eight innings, and Ryo Hijirisawa had two hits and an RBI as Rakuten sent the defending PL champions to their third loss in four games.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Big league dreams …
No games, but news
It looks like Nippon Pro Baseball will again pass on holding the Asia Series, which featured Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan, and roll up their sleeves to get ready for a possible International Series against the Major League World Series winner.
When that international series might come about is still in doubt, but a committee meeting Monday in Tokyo led to NPB deciding to play a series against the Korean champion, just as last year, on Nov. 13 and 14.
The committee will meet again in May and discuss how to proceed.
OFF-DAY NOTES
DID YOU SEE THAT?!!
SoftBank is having a hard time swallowing an umpiring Thursday decision. The club sent a letter and video footage of Hisashi Takayama advancing from second base to third on a flyout to right field after he led off the frame with a double.
SoftBank said the footage from Seibu Dome shows Takayama failed to tag up before going to third.
The Hawks won the game 11-5.
TEEN SPIRIT
Chunichi’s second-year righty Junki Ito became the first teen hurler to win a start for the Dragons since Shinji Imanaka did it 21 years ago. Imanaka, a lefty, was the 1993 Sawamura Award winner.
It looks like Nippon Pro Baseball will again pass on holding the Asia Series, which featured Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan, and roll up their sleeves to get ready for a possible International Series against the Major League World Series winner.
When that international series might come about is still in doubt, but a committee meeting Monday in Tokyo led to NPB deciding to play a series against the Korean champion, just as last year, on Nov. 13 and 14.
The committee will meet again in May and discuss how to proceed.
OFF-DAY NOTES
DID YOU SEE THAT?!!
SoftBank is having a hard time swallowing an umpiring Thursday decision. The club sent a letter and video footage of Hisashi Takayama advancing from second base to third on a flyout to right field after he led off the frame with a double.
SoftBank said the footage from Seibu Dome shows Takayama failed to tag up before going to third.
The Hawks won the game 11-5.
TEEN SPIRIT
Chunichi’s second-year righty Junki Ito became the first teen hurler to win a start for the Dragons since Shinji Imanaka did it 21 years ago. Imanaka, a lefty, was the 1993 Sawamura Award winner.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Late-inning roller coaster ...
BayStars come up big late
Well it figures. A slugfest one day, scrounging for runs the next.
Neither team could get a timely hit, and the BayStars were no-hit through five innings before Shuichi Murata doubled home a run and Terrmel Sledge singled him home in the sixth for a 2-1 victory at Jingu Stadium on Sunday.
Yokohama skipper Takao Obana, a former pitcher, went back to his closer a day after a blown save and probably can’t wait to get off that roller coaster.
Shun Yamaguchi wriggled out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the ninth with a popup and a flyout to record his second save. He had given up a two-run walk-off homer the previous day, a 13-12 loss.
But Obana handed him the ball and the hard-throwing righty helped the BayStars stop a three-game skid. If not for Hiroshima’s awful 1-7 start, Yokohama would be in last place in the Central League
GIANTS 10, CARP 3
Edgar Gonzalez hit an RBI double in the fourth inning after Michihiro Ogasawara tied the score with a two-run shot, and rookie Hisayoshi Chono slugged his first longball as Yomiuri beat up on lowly Hiroshima at the Zoom.
The Carp have lost five straight at home this season.
DRAGONS 6, TIGERS 1
Junki Ito (1-0) worked out of first-inning trouble to hold Hanshin to a run on four hits and four walks over eight innings, and Tony Blanco’s tiebreaking single in the eighth sparked a five-run rally as Chunichi won its fourth straight.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 10, BUFFALOES 4
Saburo Omura had two hits and three RBIs, and Tadahito Iguchi went 4-for-5, including his career 1,000th hit in Japan, as red-hot Lotte swept Orix at Kyocera Dome and won its fourth straight.
LIONS 4, FIGHTERS 0
Kazuyuki Hoashi (1-1) scattered seven hits and a walk with eight punchouts in recording his career ninth shoutout as Seibu blanked Nippon Ham at Sapporo Dome. Dee Brown homered twice to power the offense.
HAWKS 3, EAGLES 2
Nobuhiko Matsuzaka’s RBI single in the sixth turned out to be the difference as SoftBank edged Rakuten at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi.
Well it figures. A slugfest one day, scrounging for runs the next.
Neither team could get a timely hit, and the BayStars were no-hit through five innings before Shuichi Murata doubled home a run and Terrmel Sledge singled him home in the sixth for a 2-1 victory at Jingu Stadium on Sunday.
Yokohama skipper Takao Obana, a former pitcher, went back to his closer a day after a blown save and probably can’t wait to get off that roller coaster.
Shun Yamaguchi wriggled out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the ninth with a popup and a flyout to record his second save. He had given up a two-run walk-off homer the previous day, a 13-12 loss.
But Obana handed him the ball and the hard-throwing righty helped the BayStars stop a three-game skid. If not for Hiroshima’s awful 1-7 start, Yokohama would be in last place in the Central League
GIANTS 10, CARP 3
Edgar Gonzalez hit an RBI double in the fourth inning after Michihiro Ogasawara tied the score with a two-run shot, and rookie Hisayoshi Chono slugged his first longball as Yomiuri beat up on lowly Hiroshima at the Zoom.
The Carp have lost five straight at home this season.
DRAGONS 6, TIGERS 1
Junki Ito (1-0) worked out of first-inning trouble to hold Hanshin to a run on four hits and four walks over eight innings, and Tony Blanco’s tiebreaking single in the eighth sparked a five-run rally as Chunichi won its fourth straight.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 10, BUFFALOES 4
Saburo Omura had two hits and three RBIs, and Tadahito Iguchi went 4-for-5, including his career 1,000th hit in Japan, as red-hot Lotte swept Orix at Kyocera Dome and won its fourth straight.
LIONS 4, FIGHTERS 0
Kazuyuki Hoashi (1-1) scattered seven hits and a walk with eight punchouts in recording his career ninth shoutout as Seibu blanked Nippon Ham at Sapporo Dome. Dee Brown homered twice to power the offense.
HAWKS 3, EAGLES 2
Nobuhiko Matsuzaka’s RBI single in the sixth turned out to be the difference as SoftBank edged Rakuten at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Giants rise amid the fallen …
Coach, closer down but Giants win 3rd straight
The Yomiuri Giants put aside thoughts of their ill coach and edged the Hiroshima Carp 6-5 at the Zoom on Saturday.
Base running and infield coach Takuya Kimura, who fell ill Friday with a brain hemorrhage and remained unconscious in a Hiroshima hospital while the Giants took on the Carp. He was listed in serious condition.
Rookie Hisayoshi Chono scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch by Mike Schultz (0-1) in the ninth inning, and Hayato Sakamoto, who had three hits, scored on Michihiro Ogasawara’s groundout to give the Giants a 6-4 lead.
Righty stopper Marc Kroon threw one pitch before having to leave with an injury to the thumb on his pitching hand, but offseason pickup Masahide Kobayashi got the final three outs to post his first Central League save as the Giants rallied to beat the Carp.
It was Kobayashi’s first save in Japan since he closed a game for the Chiba Lotte Marines in Oct. 5, 2007.
Set-up man-turned-starter Tetsuya Yamaguchi had a rough debut for the Giants. He allowed four runs on six hits in 3.1 innings before being lifted.
Hiroshima is winless at the Zoom this season in four games. The Giants have won three straight.
DRAGONS 3, TIGERS 2
Chen Wei-yin kept the score close and hot-starting Kazuhiro Wada gave the Dragons a victory with a walk-off sacrifice fly as Chunichi won its third straight.
Takuya Asao (1-0) earned the victory with two scoreless innings after Chen held Hanshin to two runs on three hits and a walk with five Ks over seven frames.
SWALLOWS 13, BAYSTARS 12
Norichika Aoki homered twice and drove in four, and pinch-hitter Ryohei Kawamoto hit a walk-off two-run homer in the ninth as Yakult outslugged Yokohama at Jingu Stadium.
The BayStars, who outhit the Swallows 22-16, couldn’t get the final three outs as closer Shun Yamaguchi (0-2), who came on in the eighth, gave up two longballs in 1.2 innings to lose it.
The Birds are in sole possession of first place in the CL for the firt time in four years.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 10, BUFFALOES 4
Kim Tae Kim was a triple shy of the cycle, going 4-for-4 with two RBIs, and Lotte sent 13 men to the plate in a seven-run fourth inning that lifted it past Orix at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
The victory gave the Marines the series win, their fourth to open the season to match the 1969 club. The Marines moved into sole possession of first place for the first time since July 5, 2007.
FIGHTERS 2, LIONS 1
Yu Darvish (1-1) fired eight strong innings and Kensuke Tanaka’s solo blast in the third inning was the difference as Nippon Ham stopped its five-game skid with a win over Seibu at Sapporo Dome.
HAWKS 10, EAGLES 4
Jose Ortiz knocked home the go-ahead run in the seventh and Hiroki Kokubo followed with a two-run shot as SoftBank came back to beat Rakuten at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi. Marty Brown extended his Japan pro baseball record with his ninth ejection.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Foreign currency …
Barnette, Ramirez highlight strong night for imports
It’s hard to do what Yakult’s Tony Barnette did on Friday, but the righty fired seven shutout innings in his Japan debut and beat the Yokohama BayStars 1-0 in Central League action at Jingu Stadium.
Barnette allowed three hits and walked three, but fanned 11 before departing. The Swallows scored the game’s only run on Ryoji Aikawa’s RBI single in the second inning. Takehiko Oshimoto worked a perfect eighth, and Lim Chang Yang walked one in the ninth before closing it out.
“Barnette had great control and the other guys did a good job of taking the baton and finishing it off for us,” said Yakult manager Shigeru Takada.
GIANTS 5, CARP 4
Coming off his first batting title last season, Alex Ramirez is flexing his muscles. The cleanup batter popped a pair of longballs and drove in four as Yomiuri sent Hiroshima to its fifth straight loss.
Ramirez got the Giants even with a three-run shot in the fifth inning and cracked a tiebreaking solo blast in the seventh to lift the Giants past the struggling Carp. Dicky Gonzalez (1-1) gave up four runs in the second inning, but gutted through seven innings to get the victory. Marc Kroon put the tying run on in the ninth, but Shinnosuke Abe threw out Akihiro Higashide trying to steal to end the game.
DRAGONS 5, TIGERS 4
Ace Kazuki Yoshimi got knocked around for a second straight game -- giving up five runs in the third inning --but the Dragons rallied for five runs in the fourth inning, Masahiko Morino’s double capping the rally, to edge Hanshin at Nagoya Dome
Five Chunichi relievers combined to two-hit the Tigers after Yoshimi exited in the fourth, with Hitoki Iwase getting the final two outs for his second save.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 5, BUFFALOES 3
Kim Tae Kyun homered and drove in two as the Lotte moved even with Orix atop the PL standings with a win at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Tadahito Iguchi, Shoitsu Omatsu and Kazuya Fukuura each had RBI hits in a three-run first inning to stake Yoshihisa Naruse (2-1) to a lead. Naruse allowed three runs on seven hits and a walk while fanning nine over 8.2 innings to earn the win.
LIONS 6, FIGHTERS 4
G.G. Sato went deep for the fourth straight game -- the longest home run streak of the 31-year-old’s career -- as Seibu sent Nippon Ham to its fifth consecutive loss, it’s worst skid since 2007.
The winning runs came across on Shinji Takahashi’s two-run throwing error in the eighth inning. Seibu’s Brian Sikorski recorded his fourth save.
EAGLES 8, HAWKS 5
Norihiro Nakamura had a bases-clearing double in the first inning and a two-run homer in the third to power Rakuten past SoftBank at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi.
KIMURA COLLAPSES
Yomiuri coach Takuya Kimura, who retired from the Giants after their Japan Series win last year, collapsed before Friday’s game because of a brain hemorrhage and remained unconscious in a Hiroshima hospital, the team said.
Emergency technicians administered CPR and shock treatment at the stadium before transporting the 37-year-old to a local hospital.
It’s hard to do what Yakult’s Tony Barnette did on Friday, but the righty fired seven shutout innings in his Japan debut and beat the Yokohama BayStars 1-0 in Central League action at Jingu Stadium.
Barnette allowed three hits and walked three, but fanned 11 before departing. The Swallows scored the game’s only run on Ryoji Aikawa’s RBI single in the second inning. Takehiko Oshimoto worked a perfect eighth, and Lim Chang Yang walked one in the ninth before closing it out.
“Barnette had great control and the other guys did a good job of taking the baton and finishing it off for us,” said Yakult manager Shigeru Takada.
GIANTS 5, CARP 4
Coming off his first batting title last season, Alex Ramirez is flexing his muscles. The cleanup batter popped a pair of longballs and drove in four as Yomiuri sent Hiroshima to its fifth straight loss.
Ramirez got the Giants even with a three-run shot in the fifth inning and cracked a tiebreaking solo blast in the seventh to lift the Giants past the struggling Carp. Dicky Gonzalez (1-1) gave up four runs in the second inning, but gutted through seven innings to get the victory. Marc Kroon put the tying run on in the ninth, but Shinnosuke Abe threw out Akihiro Higashide trying to steal to end the game.
DRAGONS 5, TIGERS 4
Ace Kazuki Yoshimi got knocked around for a second straight game -- giving up five runs in the third inning --but the Dragons rallied for five runs in the fourth inning, Masahiko Morino’s double capping the rally, to edge Hanshin at Nagoya Dome
Five Chunichi relievers combined to two-hit the Tigers after Yoshimi exited in the fourth, with Hitoki Iwase getting the final two outs for his second save.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
MARINES 5, BUFFALOES 3
Kim Tae Kyun homered and drove in two as the Lotte moved even with Orix atop the PL standings with a win at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Tadahito Iguchi, Shoitsu Omatsu and Kazuya Fukuura each had RBI hits in a three-run first inning to stake Yoshihisa Naruse (2-1) to a lead. Naruse allowed three runs on seven hits and a walk while fanning nine over 8.2 innings to earn the win.
LIONS 6, FIGHTERS 4
G.G. Sato went deep for the fourth straight game -- the longest home run streak of the 31-year-old’s career -- as Seibu sent Nippon Ham to its fifth consecutive loss, it’s worst skid since 2007.
The winning runs came across on Shinji Takahashi’s two-run throwing error in the eighth inning. Seibu’s Brian Sikorski recorded his fourth save.
EAGLES 8, HAWKS 5
Norihiro Nakamura had a bases-clearing double in the first inning and a two-run homer in the third to power Rakuten past SoftBank at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi.
KIMURA COLLAPSES
Yomiuri coach Takuya Kimura, who retired from the Giants after their Japan Series win last year, collapsed before Friday’s game because of a brain hemorrhage and remained unconscious in a Hiroshima hospital, the team said.
Emergency technicians administered CPR and shock treatment at the stadium before transporting the 37-year-old to a local hospital.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
The right start ...
Marine adventure
One good inning at the plate and four scoreless innings of relief were enough to give the Lotte Marines a 3-2 win over the Rakuten Eagles on Thursday at Chiba Marine Stadium.
The victory gave the Marines the series win, the first time they’ve opened the season by winning their first three series in 41 years.
Saburo Omura’s RBI single plated Lotte’s first run in the fourth inning and Kuzuya Fukuura’s scoring fly tied it at 2-2. Tomoya Satozaki’s two-out RBI single off former Yankee Darrell Rasner (0-1) gave the Marines the lead, and four relievers combined to shut the Eagles out over four innings to close it out.
Starter-turned-stopper Hiroyuki Kobayashi walked one and hit one in the ninth, but fanned two to nail it down.
Despite their best start in decades, the Marines are second in the Pacific League behind the hot-starting Orix Buffaloes, who were idle.
HAWKS 11, LIONS 5
Jose Ortiz went 4-for-5 with a homer and four RBIs as Fukuoka SoftBank blasted Seibu at Seibu Dome.
Ortiz socked a two-run blast in the third, and added a two-run single in the seventh as the Hawks stopped a three-game skid.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
GIANTS 12, BAYSTARS 2
Alex Ramirez had a grand slam and five RBIs, and Tetsuya Utsumi (2-0) held Yokohama to two runs over eight innings as the Giants topped the BayStars at Yokohama Stadium.
Ramirez took Stephen Randolph (0-2) out in the second inning to stake the Giants to a 7-1 lead and they cruised the rest of the way. Fourth-year Yomiuri shortstop Hayato Sakamoto was a home run shy of the cycle, going 5-for-5 for his first five-hit game.
DRAGONS 5, SWALLOWS 2
Six relievers protected a slim lead for Edward Valdez (1-0) over four innings and Tony Blanco slugged a homer to lead four players with two hits as Chunichi got past Yakult at Jingu Stadium.
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