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Central League first baseman Andy Sheets homered and scored three runs Sunday at Miyazaki Sun Marine Stadium, but it would be his Hanshin teammate Atsushi Fujimoto who would walkoff with the MVP, as he cracked a two run single in the eighth inning in his lone at bat in the match to clear the way for a 7-4 CL victory over the rival Pacific League. The PL, though, still has a 73-65-8 edge in all star play. Tetsuya Utsumi, making his first ever all star appearance, started for the CL and pretty much left his breaking stuff in the locker room, instead deciding to go with almost all fastballs and just two changeups during his two shutout innings in which he surrendered only one hit. But the decision would ultimately go to Hiroshima righthander Katsuhiro Nagakawa, who twirled a scoreless seventh on a hit. Kazumi Saito started for the PL and had a rough time, giving up a run on four hits in his two innings of service, though he didn't figure in the outcome, either. The Central forces jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second, as DH Tomoaki Kanemoto singled to center and, two outs later, leftfielder Alex Ochoa singled to left. Catcher Shinnosuke Abe singled to right and Kanemoto motored to the plate. The Pacific contingent responded in the third when rightfielder Naoyuki Omura doubled to leftcenter and trotted the rest of the way home when Hiroki Kuroda left a cookie for leftfielder Hichori Morimoto to crunch into the leftfield stands to take a 2-1 advantage. They would put two more men on with one out in the frame, but first baseman Michihiro Ogasawara's ground ball was gobbled up by Sheets, who turned it into a 3-6-3 double play. Sheets then came up in the fourth and singled to center. Ochoa belted a delivery from Hideaki Wakui over the leftfield wall and the CL was back on top 3-2. Abe hit a ball into leftcenter and centerfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo flagged it down with a diving stab. The PL retaliated by employing the running game in the fifth, but they also ran themselves out of a possible bigger inning, too. Morimoto legged out a bleeder with one down and second baseman Tsuyoshi Nishioka singled to right, Morimoto turning and burning for third. Nishioka took off for second and Abe pegged the ball to second. Morimoto lit out for the plate and scored without a play and Nishioka was also safe. However, Nishioka then attempted to steal third and was tagged out. That was big because shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima doubled to rightcenter. First baseman Alex Cabrera sent a ground ball up the middle and Nakajima set the controls for the heart of home plate to obtain a 4-3 edge. Yoshitomo Tani was sent up to pinch hit for Ogasawara and grounded out to hinder any further home invasions. But Sheets went yard off of Tomoya Yagi in the top of the sixth to even it at four all. The PL would run themselves into another out in the bottom half, as third baseman Jose Fernandez smoked a shot off the rightfield fence. Omura, who has a vey good arm, though not a cannon, played it expertly and got it back to second in a heartbeat, where Fernandez was a dead man. The PL would produce two more singles in the inning, so the baserunning gaffe cost them a possible run. Nakajima tripled to the wall in center in the seventh with one out and the PL appeared poised to seize the upper hand. But Nagakawa fanned the next two hitters and that triple would prove to be the final knock for them. So it would be the CL who would climb back into the driver's seat in the eighth, as Sheets singled to left off of Softbank closer Takahiro Mahara and Ochoa doubled down the leftfield line. Fujimoto, who had entered earlier as a defensive replacement, smacked a single to left and both runners galloped to the promised land for a 6-4 lead. They tacked on another in the ninth on a one out single to left by backup shortstop Takashi Toritani, a pinch hit double to left by Akinori Iwamura and a sacrfice fly to right by reserve first baseman Seung-yeop Lee for the 7-4 final. But not before there was another chapter of the Kyuji Fujikawa and Mark Kroon show. Fujikawa entered in the eighth and had to face nemisis Kazuhiro Kiyohara in the inning with two outs, blowing him away on a 94mph heater to end the inning. Kroon came out flamethrowerhanded and hit 100mph on the radar gun, a new all star record, as he struckout two of the four men he saw, Nakajima, attempting to become only the second man in all star annals to hit for the cycle (he needed a homer), being the last out of the match. The CL has taken each of the last four all star tilts. Like Norichika Aoki Friday, Fujimoto had also been a former Fresh All Star Game MVP, so now he too becomes one of just a few to get both the minor and top level all star MVP awards during their career. Fujikawa was clocked at a high of 95mph. Shinjo had another electric belt buckle and it read, yume ha miru mono de ha nakute, tsukam mono and then, koko made yakyu dekita no mo fan no okage. They mean, "dreams aren't smething you see, they are ones you go out and grab" and "my being able to play baseball up to this point in my life is thanks to the fans." On one of his shoes, he had another message thanking fans for voting for him. Morimoto became only the third man to steal home in an all star game, the other two being Nankai's Koji Minoda in 1978 and Shinjo in 2004. All three instances were in game twos. Kroon is the first man to notch two saves in an all star series since 1987, but the first ever to do it in a two game series (they often used to play three games per all star series). With Seibu Lions Cabrera and Nakajima each connecting for three hits, they are the fifth pair of men from the same club to do that in a single all star contest ever. In addition, a total of four players between the two sides had at least three hits, the first time that has happened in 39 years. Ochoa finished the series 4-5. He has been slumping the last month, so maybe that will give him a boost. Box Score
SB: N. Aoki, H. Morimoto, Nishioka
Game Time: 3:00
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