Hayashi and Carp starter John Bale had this one scoreless going into the sixth. Each man was ultimately charged with three runs and neither figured in the decision. 

Yomiuri had a chance to grab a first inning edge when second baseman Toshihisa Nishi laced a double to leftcenter, his 1000 lifetime knock, and went to third on a groundout. Bale fanned Rhodes, but then nailed rightfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi on the arm with a pitch. That brought up Kiyohara, but he grounded to Andy Sheets at short for the force to put the kabosh on that rally.

Hiroshima then had two on with two gone in the second, a chance that went down the drain when Bale came up empty at the plate. 

That was it, for the most part, for any offense by either side until the sixth, when Giants leftfielder Takayuki Shimizu beat out a ground ball toward short. Two outs later, Kiyohara, whose bat speed compares very favorably with Barry Bonds', muscled a delivery that was belt high but trailing just off the outside corner into the centerfield seats to break an 0-13 slump and lend the home nine a 2-0 advantage. It was also his first longball in 14 games.

However, Hayashi plunked Carp leftfielder Tomonori Maeda and then Kurihara torqued a forkball down the zone into the centerfield bleachers to restore equilibrium at 2-2. 

And the momentum continued from there for Hiroshima, as rightfielder Shigenobu Shima singled to left in the eighth and was pinch run for by Kazunori Okagami, who went to second when second baseman Greg LaRocca took one for the team off of his body, went to third on a sac bunt and crossed due to a single to right by Maeda that put the Carp up 3-2. 

That evaporated in mere moments, though, as Bale hung a slider to Rhodes and he unloaded a shot that Roy Hobbs in The Natural would have envied, smashing the ball off of a light standard  490 feet away above the the rear of the rightfield bleachers to become the 28th man in Japanese history to 300 roundtrippers and the first foreigner. By the way, the ball also scraped the roof on its way to its destination. 

Hiroshima put together a two on, one out opportunity in the top of the ninth, but Koichi Ogata grounded into a 6-4-3 twin killing to snuff it out.

Then we had some fun with the umpire in the bottom portion. Catcher Shinnosuke Abe singled to right. Shortstop Satoshi Kuroda squared around to sacrifice and popped the ball in the air. Carp reliever Koichi Amano gloved it on a hop and gunned it to Kurihara, who stepped on first and then got Abe, who had to hesitate to ensure that Amano didn't catch it on the fly, in a rundown, whereupon he was tagged out for what looked like a double play. But wait! The umpire ruled Kuroda safe, insisting that Kurihara missed the bag. That brought once fleet footed manager Koji Yamamoto out of the dugout and he held the game up for five minutes while he and Kurihara both aired the arbiter out. Replays show that the umpire must have been watching something other than the ballgame because Kurihara did indeed toe first base on the play. Nevertheless, the bad call stood. Fortunately for both Hiroshima and the umpire, Amano retired the next two men and it went into bonus time. 

With one out in the tenth, LaRocca walked and was then out on a ground ball to short off the bat of Sheets. Shigeru Morikasa walked. Kurihara spanked a curve ball on the inner half of the plate into center to redeem Sheets for a 4-3 lead. 

Shinji Sasaoka was assigned the closing duties in this one and induced a groundout to begin the bottom of the frame. Rhodes stepped in and was pitched around, eventually accepting ball four and trotting off to first. Takahashi and Kiyohara then went down on a groundout and a flyout respectively and it was see you later. 

Rhodes is the fourth fastest ever to the three century mark at 1106 games. Moreover, he hits homers at a faster rate as he gets older. For example, number 100 came in game 479, while number 200 was in game 824. So 400 homers before he's through is not out of the question. 

Kurihara, who was the Western League homer king last season, is 7-17 with three homers and eight RBIs against the Giants in 2004. 

Nishi is the 216th in history to 1000 safeties and is the 21st Giant to accomplish that feat. 

And theumpire? Team officials say that they will file a complaint with the Central League office Monday. 
 

Photo:  Kazuhiro Kiyohara Is Overextended, But Muscles it Out

Yuya Kamada started for Yakult and consistently left pitches in the middle of the hitting zone and was pointed to the showers after just two innings. 

Hanshin centerfielder Norihiro Akahoshi leadoff the first with a single to left and, one out later, Imaoka singled to right. Leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto walked to load the bases. One out later, Arias worked the count full and then got a slider and rammed it into the centerfield stands for his second grand slam of the campaign and a 4-0 Tigers advantage. 

Yakult chipped a little off of that disparity in the second on a two out double down the leftfield line by catcher Atsuya Furuta and a single to left by rightfielder Atsunori Inaba to make it 4-1 Hanshin.

But the four run gap was reinstated in the home portion when catcher Akihiro Yano singled to center, Shomoyanagi laid down a sac bunt on which Furuta unsuccessfully attempted to peg Yano out at second on, and a one out single to right by Fujimoto for a 5-1Tigers edge.

Yataro Sakamoto had assembled a perfect third for Yakult, but his control went south in the fourth. Yano walked and Sakamoto hit Shimoyanagi, which no doubt made steam come out of Swallows manager Tsutomu Wakamatsu's ears. One out later, Fujimoto squirted one down the rightfield line to hail Yano in on the double. Imaoka then picked up both runners with a single to center (the guy is magic with runners in scoring position, isn't he?) and it was 8-1 Hanshin.

Shimoyanagi was really looking good through six, but he had his troubles in the seventh and wouldn't last the frame. First baseman Ken Suzuki singled to center. Furuta walked. Inaba got aboard on an infield hit to pack the sacks. Shortstop Yoshiyuki Noguchi flied out to center to drive Suzuki in on the sac fly. Second baseman Katsuyuki Dobashi singled to right to push Furuta across. Tigers skipper Akinobu Okada went to the pen and selected Ramon Morel, who tempted Munenori Shida into a 5-4-3 double play, just what Okada had on his wish list, and the inning ended with Hanshin up 8-3. 

Arias then made it two multi-homer games on the season when he smoked a Toshihide Narimoto offering to dead center to make it 9-3. 

The rookie Masashi Sajikihara took it from there, weaving two scoreless innings to ice it. 

Arias is the first Tiger to connect for two slams in a season since Shinjiro Hiyama in 1997. The club record is three, held by both Koichi Tabuchi (1977) Hal Breeden (1978). In bases loaded situations this year, he is 2-5 with eight RBIs. Last season, he was 4-10 with a homer.
"I was wating for good pitch to hit, " he told the press at game's end. " There is a lot of pressure on the pitcher in that situation, so I was looking for a strike and tried to not do too much with it." He is currently hitting .308 with runners in scoring position. 

Airas, who had his son, Goerge Jr., and wife with him while he jawed with reporters, had dinner with former Tigers Greg Hansell and Lou Pote in the offseason to just catch up on what they were doing. That is when he learned that outfielder Derrick White went to the Mexican League, where he is doing well. 

Yakult has now dropped five consecutive matches for the second time this season and seem powerless from being rolled by the rest of the league. 
 

Photo: Arias Has to Reach for it, But His Weight is Back and it Was Gone

Photo:  A Dugout View of Arias' Grand Slam

Former Kintetsu moundsman Ken Kadokura made his first start since coming to Yokohama and was deemed responsible for all three Dragons tallies and the defeat. 

Ochoa, perhaps noticing that his former teammates in Anaheim are pummeling American League pitching, kept up with the Guerreros and the Glausses when he flattened a two strike fastball opening the second into the leftfield bleachers to put the Dragons on top 1-0. 

In the fourth, rigthfielder Kosuke Fukudome thwacked a triple off the centerfield fence and, one out later, was homeward bound when Inoue put the bomp into another Kadokura heater and nine ironed it into the rightfield stands to widen it to 3-0. 

Yokohama's engine kept stalling out the first eight innings, as Kawakami kept throwing water in their gas tank. But in the ninth, Yokohama leftfielder Takahiro Saeki singled to left with one away and first baseman Tyrone Woods did likewise. Katsuaki Furuki walked to clog the basepaths. Chunichi boss Hiromitsu Ochiai dialed local for Eiji Ochiai, who saw rightfielder Tatsuhiko Kinjo pickpocket an RBI single to right off of him. But third baseman Shuichi Murata, who is so cold you could call him "refrigerator," popped out and pinch hitter Hitoshi Taneda grounded out to put this one to rest. 

The elder Ochiai's wife Nobuko was at tha ballpark doing a guest spot on the local tv broadcast for Aichi TV. The Dragons are 4-0 when
she gets out to the ballpark. She also saw them into first place on this occasion. 
 

Photo:  Kazuki Inoue Puts it in the Seats

Photo:  Alex Ochoa Goes Golfing

With Matt Randel recently effective, this leaves Brian Sikorsky the odd man out due to the four player limit. They may keep Sikorsky as an insurance policy in case Corey falters or ends up injured, but he will have to be demoted to the minors for that to occur. 
 

What was ironic about Hino pulling off the feat against Waseda was that it was his first choice university, but he failed the entrance exam. "I'll never forget this as long as I live," Hino said, in halting a ten game losing streak to Waseda that dated back to 2001.

Dodgers righthander Hideo Nomo, who had an awful April, wasn't very good in his initial May outing, permitting three runs on five hits in five innings to the weak hitting Expos. He wqas saddled with his thid defeat. 

After learning of the protest filed by the Mets against him Saturday, Padres reliever Akinori Otsuka said he wasn't bothered by it. The righthander has now amassed 12 straight scoreless appearances. 
 

Mets shortstop Kazuo Matsui's slump continues, as he went 0-3 with two sac bunts and two strikeouts Sunday against San Diego to fall to .235. 

Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, who is starting to get some heat from the local press for his slow start amid the Mariners last place showing to date, was 2-4 with a steal, an RBI and a walk to salvage a 12-4 victory in dropping two of a three game series to Detroit at the Tigers homeground. One of the knocks was a triple. 

Shigetoshi Hasegawa also got into that game and tossed a scoreless inning on 14 pitches. 

St. Louis outfielder So Taguchi had two sac bunts in his only times up against the Chicago Cubs Sunday. 

Finally, with his win Saturday for the White Sox, Shingo Takatsu became the 13th Japanese pitcher to win an MLB game.