Uehara's spring was stunted by a bad hamstring, but he showed good life on all of his selections here. However, that didn't stop the Giants' Osaka rivals from racking up its sixth Opening Day triumph against Yomiuri in its history against four losses and a tie. Yomiuri owner Tsuneo Watanabe was so disgusted, in fact, by that big scoring bonanza in the eighth that he split early. 

The Tigers grabbed an initial lead, as centerfielder Norihiro Akahoshi doubled to rightcenter with one away in the 
first and Uehara plunked third baseman Mike Kinkade. Leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto walked to load the bases. 
Rightfielder Shinjiro Hiyama lofted a fly ball to Tuffy Rhodes in center and the speedy Akahoshi tagged up and 
hustled across the plate to make it 1-0. 

Uehara regrouped in the second to strike out the side and was rewarded when Igawa walked first baseman Kazuhiro Kiyohara to open the bottom of the frame and, one out later, Daisuke Motoki clobbered one into the centerfield bleachers to put the Giants in front 2-1. 

But Hanshin would even it in the fourth when first baseman George Arias went with the delivery and lifted it into
the rightfield stands for a 2-2 tie. 

Yomiuri second baseman Toshihisa Nishi countered with a one out bomb to left in the sixth and it was 3-2 Giants.

After wasting a men on first and third, one out chance in the seventh, Hanshin then laid waste to Yukinaga Maeda
and two other Giants relievers the next time up. With one down, Arias cracked a one out single to left. Rookie shortstop Takashi Toritani smacked his first hit as a pro, also a single to left. Catcher Akihiro Yano raked a double
off the rightfield wall and Arias was across to make it three all. Koichi Misawa was summoned from the bullpen and promptly struck pinch hitter Osamu Hamanaka to jam the basepaths. Misawa then threw a slider on the  outer half 
of the plate to Imaoka, who was sawed off. But the ball parachuted into center and had enough spin on it that it bounced over Rhodes' head and off his glove, allowing both Toritani and Yano to scamper homeward and Imaoka and Hamanaka to move up another 90 feet to put men on second and third. Takashi Kashiwada was called in by manager Tsuneo Horiuchi and walked Akahoshi. Reserve third baseman Kentaro Sekimoto then had his bat splintered, but the ball carried into left to convert Hamanaka. One out later, Hiyama singled to center to redeem Imaoka and it was 8-3 Tigers.

Yuya Ando and Jeff Williams held the opposition to two walks and no hits over the final two innings, Motoki 
grounding into a game ending 4-6-3 twin killing, and that was your ballgame. 

On a statistical note, Hanshin scored 99 runs in the eighth in 2003, so this explosion at that time is nothing new for 
the club. 

Williams turned the game ball over to new field boss Akinobu Okada for the former infielder's trophy case. Okada's wife and their 18 year  son, who will soon be entering Osaka University to study engineering, took this one in from the stands. "I want to thank the players," Okada told the press. "I knew that if we were patient, that this sort of outcome would finally result."

For Horiuchi, he continued an interesting string of first game losses by freshly minted Giants shot callers, as 
Tetsuharu Kawakami, Shigeo Nagashima and Tatsunori Hara were also losers the first time out while Sadaharu 
Oh's directorial debut ended in an 8-8 tie. Breaking up that skein was Motoshi Fujita's victorious effort during his
Yomiuri baptism before he handed the reigns to Nagashima for the latter's comeback as manager. The five run 
margin of defeat was the worst ever for a new Giants manager in his first game. Horiuchi, who is endeavoring to 
collect new quarters from all 50 U.S. states (a Sankei Sports writer said the U.S. has 52), tucked one from Missouri
in his pocket before the game in the hope it would bring him good luck, but it was not to be.

Speaking of Kawakami, he got into his old 1930's uniform and threw out the ceremonial first pitch. 

Perhaps the one person whose presence in the stands resonated most with Japanese baseball fans, though, was
the wife of the late Yomiuri ace Eiji Sawamura, Yu Sakai, who journeyed all the way from Yawatahama, Ehime Prefecture, which is on the island of Shikoku,  with oldest daughter Mio. The two revealed that they prefer watching rugby to baseball. Sadder, however, was Yu-san's disclosure that a pair of old uniform tops that Eiji wore had to be
sacrificed to clothe her children during the war, when even the most basic necessities were in short supply. In fact, things were so severe that in 1944, many players were forced to go without numbers on their uniforms to save on
fabric. 

Hanshin	IP	BF	PC	H	HR	K	BB	R	ER	ERA
Igawa (W, 1-0)	7.0	27	114	5	2	9	2	3	3	3.86
Ando	1.0	4	19	0	0	1	1	0	0	0.00
Williams	1.0	3	14	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.00

E: Rhodes
SB: Akahoshi
2B: Akahoshi, A. Yano 2, Imaoka 2
HR: Motoki (1), Arias (1), Nishi (1)
SF: Hiyama
K. Imaoka, Sekimoto 2, Hiyama 2, Arias, A. Yano, Nishi, T. Shimizu, Kokubo 2, Y. Takahashi, Kiyohara, S. Abe 2, Uehara, T. Ide
BB: Kanemoto 2, Nishi, Kiyohara, Akahoshi, Kokubo, A. Yano, Rhodes
HBP: Kinkade (Uehara), Hamanaka (Misawa)
GIDP: Fujimoto (4-3-6-3), Motoki (4-6-3)
LOB: Hanshin 0, Yomiuri 4

Season Series: Hanshin 1, Yomiuri 0

Game Time: 3:20
Attendance: 55,000
Unpires: Ino (HP), Mori (1B), Uemoto (2B), Kittaka (3B)

Kawasaki opened the game by walking Takuya Kimura, but erased him by inducing a 1-6-3 double play ball. 
LaRocca flew out to right to end the inning. Following a 1-2-3 frame by Kuroda, Kawasaki ascended the hill once
more and got clocked. Shortstop Andy Sheets singled to left and leftfielder Tomonori Maeda singled to right. 
Kawasaki nailed first baseman Kenta Kurihara with a pitch to load the bases. Third baseman Kenjiro Nomura 
singled to right for a run. Catcher Yoshiyuki Ishihara seared one down the leftfield line and two more kicked the 
plate on the double. Kuroda chipped in with an RBI single to center. Kimura walked for the second time in the match. 
and Shigenobu Shima flew out to center, which gave Ishihara a chance to tag up and beat it for the dish to make it 
5-0. Ochiai finally waved Masataka Endo in from the pen and he lured the men he saw into a popout and a flyout, but
now the home side had a big hill to climb against a guy with some really filthy stuff in his arsenal. 

Unfortunately, he must not have had the kind of nastiness he possessed in the second half of the last season with him
Friday. In the bottom portion, Chunichi retaliated with a single to left by rightfielder Kosuke Fukudome, a shot down 
the rightfield line for two bases and a sac fly to center from first baseman Omar Linares that put the Dragons on the 
board. Following a groundout to the rightside, catcher Motonobu Tanishige singled to right and it was 5-2 Carp.

It stayed that way until the fifth, when Kazuki Inoue doubled into the leftfield corner and, two outs later, sailed to 
the promised land on shortstop Hirokazu Ibata's single to center to shrink the deficit to 5-3 Hiroshima.

Hiroshima had a threat going when they managed to get men on second and third and two outs in the sixth, but 
Kimura grounded out to frustrate it.

If two out knocks are the ultimate in situational hitting, then Chunichi were on the beam this night, as third baseman
Kazuyoshi Tatsunami leadoff with a single to center and, two outs later, blazed home on Linares' ping off the 
rightfield wall, Linares heading to third on the relay home. Inoue hit a little ground ball that LaRocca admitted
himself that he wasn't aggressive enough in charging and Linares was in with the equalizer on the infield hit to 
knot it at 5-5. 

In the seventh, the Dragons seized the upper hand, as Ibata walked and second baseman Masahiro Araki squared 
around to bunt and then pulled the bat back and flared one near the rightfield line. Ibata never stopped running 
and as LaRocca took the relay, he juggled it and Ibata was at third without a play while Araki sped into second. 
Tatsunami flew to right on a 2-0 hanging forkball and Ibata tagged up and toed the dish. Fukudome then mashed a 
forkball right on the screws and sent a hooking liner up the leftcenter gap to cash Araki in while he cruised into 
third. Centerfielder Alex Ochoa whistled a single to left for a huge insurance tally and an 8-5 Chunichi advantage. 

Chunichi reliever Shinya Okamoto, with his wife Naoko and three monmth old daughter in the seats,  fashioned a 
scoreless eighth after striking out the last two men in the seventh and he gave way  way to closer Hitoki Iwase in 
the ninth. Ishihara singled to center and pinch hitter Kojiri Machida singled to right. Two outs later, LaRocca 
singled to center for his first hit and RBI in Japan. Now Sheets was up with an opportunity to tie it up, but grounded
out to first to turn out the lights. 

It is the first time in Central League history that a team has come from five or more back to win it on Opening Day. 

For Ochiai, it was his first career win as a manager. As to why he put Kawasaki out there, he revealed that he
wanted to push his pitcher as well as wake his team up. It was Kawasaki's first Opening Day start in ten years and
he was clocked at 88mph, but he wasn't locating well and thus showered early. 

Chunichi	IP	BF	PC	H	HR	K	BB	R	ER	ERA
Kawasaki	1.1	11	37	5	0	0	2	5	5	33.75
Endo	0.2	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00
Kawagishi	2.0	6	20	0	0	1	0	0	0	0.00
Kito	1.0	4	21	0	0	1	1	0	0	0.00
Hisamoto	1.0	6	18	2	0	0	1	0	0	0.00
Okamoto  (W, 1-0)	2.0	5	23	0	0	2	0	0	0	0.00
Iwase (S, 1)	1.0	6	21	3	0	0	0	1	1	9.00

E: LaRocca
SB: Araki
2B: Ishihara, Ochoa, K. Inoue, Linares
Fukudome
Sac: Kuroda
SF: Shima, Linares, Tatsunami
BB: T. Kimura 2, Sheets, Shima, Ibata
HBP: Kurihara (K. Kawasaki)
GIDP: Shima (1-6-3)
LOB: Hiroshima 7, Chunichi 4

Season Series: Hiroshima 0, Chunichi 1

Game Time: 3:02
Attendance: 37,000
Umpires: Tani (HP), Sasaki (1B), Nishimoto (2B), Watada (3B)

Beverlin was a bit rough out of the gate, walking the game's leadoff man and surrendering a single to Hitoshi Tamura, but that was sandwiched around a double play ball and  first baseman Tyrone Woods flew out to
terminate any thoughts of a concerted assault. With the exception of the fifth, Beverlin then had a rendition of the Dixie Dregs' Cruise Control runnihng through his head as he eased on into the eighth inning, after which reliever Ryota Igarashi sauteed and barbecued the Yokohama lineup with 96mph napalm for his first save since 2000. 

When Beverlin came to the plate in the third, though, it must have been Long Stick Goes Boom riocheting around his noggin, as he leaned into a 91mph fastball that was up in the zone and swatted it into the rightcenterfield bleachers to become the first pitcher to ever have connected for the team's first homer of the schedule. Plus he is the first Swallows pitcher to have unloaded a big fly on Opening Day since Masaichi Kaneda in 1962.

Anyway, up 1-0, Yakult shortstop Shinya followed two hitters later with a deep fly ball to right on a fastball that got into the wind and carried into the umbrella oendan to double that to 2-0. 

Yokohama would embark on its most major offensive excursion in the fifth, when Tatsuhiko Kinjo doubled to the wall in rightcenter and second baseman Seiichi Uchikawa got aboard on an infield hit. A ground ball off the bat of 
catcher Ryoji Aikawa enabled the Stars to avoid being shutout, though little more, as they would go to sleep after that. 

In the sixth, Yakult third baseman Akinori Iwamura crushed a hanging forkball and lasered it 440 feet to the rear of the rightfield stands for the final margin, 3-1.

Beverlin backed off of his fastball somewhat in order to gain greater strike throwing consistency, his best express delivery being clocked at 92mph. And the dinger? It was his first since his senior year of high school. Incidently, Jason is going to be a father again soon, as his wife Heather is about to give birth in a matter of days. He might also want to hunt around for copies of Saturday's Sports Nippon, which called his heroics in the game a "one man show."
 

2B: Kinjo
HR: Beverlin (1), S. Miyamoto (1), Iwamura (1)
BB: T. Ishii 2, Iwamura 2
IBB: Iwamura (Kawamura)
HBP: K.A. Furuki (Beverlin)
GIDP: T.N. Suzuki (4-6-3), Ramirez (6-4-3), Uchikawa (6-4-3), H. Tamura (6-4-3), Saeki (3-6-3)
LOB: Yokohama 3, Yakult 4

Season Series: Yokohama 0, Yakult 1

Game Time: 2:26
Attendance: 32,000
Umpires: Tomoyose (HP), Kasahara (1B), Manabe (2B), Suginaga (3B)