4/5/2004
4/5/2004
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Team Reports
| Hanshin | |
| Manager Akinobu Okada indicated that they aren't looking forward
to seeing Yokohama closer Kazuhiro Sasaki again, so he hopes his team can
open the offensive firehose early in their games with the Stars to make
Daimajin irrelevant. In 59 opportunities against Hanshin over the years,
the big former Mariner culled 51 saves, according to Sports Nippon.
The Hanshin ballclub will be sponsoring a rider in an eight hour
motorcycle race at Suzuka that will be held July 25th. Moreover,
For those who would like to get a gander at the machine that will
be
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game with Yomiuri.
After watching prize rookie Takashi Toritani strikeout in six of
his 12 at bats in the opening series of the regular season, Okada gurmbled
to the press thyat his coaches weren't proactive enough in
After being hit in all three games, infielder Mike Kinkade si going to start wearing an elbow guard. The rotation for the Yokohama series is expected to be Hideki Irabu
i game one, Katsuhiko Maekawa in game two and Keiichi Yabu in game three.
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| Chunichi | |
| Masafumi Hirai and Masahiro Yamamoto will start the first and third games of the team's series with Yomiuri. In 2004, they each won three games against their Tokyo rivals. Domingo Guzman, the game two starter, also posted four victories against the Giants. Guzman tuned up with a 40 pitch bullpen session and enthused that he has good rhythm right now and feels great. | Manager Hiromitsu Ochiai sent a few shots by the Yomiuri bow Monday,
saying that his pitching staff can contain the Giants imposing lineup and
that Yomiuri's mediocre relief gives them an offensive opening.
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| Yomiuri | |
| After being swept by Hanshin this past weekend, the team travelled to Nagoya in preparation for facing off with the Dragons on Tuesday and held a practice that was closed to the press. Manager Tsuneo Horiuchi had pulled a Bobby Knight on some of the Giants beat writers at Tokyo Station, angrily telling them to stop asking such stupid questions. A Yomiuri pitching coach, as he entered Chunichi's homeground, remarked to the press that he was pissed, too. Head coach Yutaka Sudo revealed that because his bullpen pretty much went up in flams during the series with the Tigers, that he is | looking for complete games out of his starters this time out. Obviously,
it isn't much fun being a kyojin right now with all the panic button pushing.
Owner Tsuneo Watanabe described his mood as "extremely irritated"
after seeing his squad get deep sixed at home. Now it wil be up to lefthanders
Kimyasu Kudoh and Masanori Hayashi and righthander Koji Uehara to right
the ship in the upcoming series.
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| Yakult | |
| Leftfielder Alex Ramirez becomes the first foreign player ever to open his oown homepage while a member of a Japanese team. The site, which is in both english and spanish, is also meant as a way to communicate how he is doint to his family back in his native Venezueala. It will feature video footage, pictures, game results and stats. I don't know what the URL is as yet, but I will pass it on when I find it out. | Pitcher Shugo Fujii, who had reconstructive elbow surgery early
last season, was scheduled to throw batting practice Friday, but felt some
discomfort, so he skipped it. Nevertheless, they hope to have him begn
making minro league appearances beginning toward the end of this month,
though he won't be brought back up to the big club until he is able to
go the distance in games.
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