Kan Otake started for Hiroshima and was squashed for six runs in 3.2 innings for his second defeat. 

Otake walked two in the first, but escaped that problem. However, the walked third baseman Mike Kinkade with one otu in the second and he advanced on a groundout. Kubota spanked a single to center for his first pro RBI and a 1-0 lead. 

Fujimoto then kicked off the third by ripping a double down the rightfield line and, two outs later, rightfielder Shinjiro Hiyama worked Otake's fourth walk. First baseman George Arias cracked a single to right to plate Fujimoto to make that 2-0 Tigers.

That was just an appetizer. In the third, catcher Akihiro Yano crashed one off the leftfield wall for a long single. Kubota walked. Centerfielder Norihiro Akahoshi singled to center to load the bases. Fujimoto was thinking of just trying to lift the ball so that he could drive Yano in on a sac fly and was looking for something up to help him do that. Instead, he smacked it into the rightfield bleachers for the granny, the first manrui honruida of his baseball life at any level and only his fourth pro longball, to stretch Hanshin's advantage to 6-0. Two outs later, Hiyama singled to center and manager Koji Yamamoto finally took the ball from Otake and handed it to Masaki Hayashi, who induced Arias into grounding out. 

Katsuhiro Nagakawa has been demoted from closer to middle relief for Hiroshima and was inserted in the seventh. Hiyama singled to right, Arias singled to left and Kinkade singled to right to pack the sacks. Yano grounded into a 5-2-3 double play. But Kubota scorched a 92mph fastball off the rightfield wall to redeem the remaining baserunners on the double. When the opposing pitcher has three RBIs, you might as well phone it in the rest of the way. 

Carp second baseman Greg LaRocca wasn't going to, guiding a Kuobta delivery into the rightfield bleachers in the seventh to foil his shutout and make it 8-1 Hanshin. 

The Tigers did not take that well at all and went to some artillery in the ninth. Hiyama singled to center. Arias shoed what you do with a fastball left out over the plate, socking it into the leftfield seats just inside the foul pole. Kinkade served a breaking ball over the outer half of the dish and jetted it into the centerfield stands. Yano singled to right. Kubota struckout. Akahoshi grounded out. Fujimoto singled to left.
Second baseman Makoto Imaoka got a handging slider and missed it a little, but still had enough oomph left on his bat to drop it into the first row of the leftfield bleachers for a three run homer and Hanshin was just piling on at 14-1. Kubota retired three of the four men he faced in the home half and Hanshin had a little stronger hold on first place. 

The last time that the Tigers had done the cycle (a solo, a two run, a three run and a grand slam) in homers was back on May 31, 1986 against Taiyo. On that occasion, Randy Bass had a three run homer and a two run bomb while present team manager Akinobu Okada added a two run circuit clout. Two other players had the grand slam and the solo yard piece. They only did it one other time, back in the Osaka Tigers days of 1951(May 29) when hall of famer Fumio Fujimura did most of the work himself (a granny, a three run and a two run) while outfielder Masayasu Kaneda chipped in with the solo shot. 

It is also the first time in 23 years that Hanshin had grand slams in back to back games. The team record is three consecutive games, with Okada providing the last of the trio (6/19/1981 against Taiyo and 6/23-24/1981 against Hiroshima). 

Kubota was clocked at 92mph and he recieved a big assist from leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto, who otherwise carted off a golden sombrero (four strikeouts). Hiroshima leftfielder Tomonori Maeda launched a high drive in the second with shortstop Andy Sheets aboard on a single. Kanemoto went back to the wall and made a leaping over the fence grab to deny Maeda a two run dinger. Incidently, the sombrero is Kanemoto's first in four years. 

Arias liked hitting against Hiroshima last season, mashing 12 homers against their pitching staff in 2003. 
 

Photo:  Atsushi Fujimoto Has a Grand Old Time

Pete Walker started for Yokohama and survived a potentially fatal fourth inning to limit Yomiuri to three runs in 5.1 innings and keep the Stars in it. 

Yokohama shortstop Takuro Ishii picked on a second pitch fastball and sent it over the rightcenterfield fence for a quick 1-0 advantage. Second baseman Seiichi Uchikawa got a steady diet of forkballs from Uehara and began looking for it and got it, howitzering it into the leftfield seats and it was 2-0. Centerfielder Katsuaki Furuki later doubled in the inning, but he was stranded. 

The first time through the lineup, Walker blanketed the Giants on a hit and a walk, but he was staggered in the fourth. Leftfielder Takayuki Shimizu doubled into the leftfield corner to kick it off. Centerfielder Tuffy Rhodes doubled to leftcenter to welcome Shimizu home. One out later, first baseman Roberto Petagine walked. Following another out, catcher Shinnosuke Abe hooked one into the rightfield corner and Rhodes skated in on the double to knot it at two all. Shortstop Daisuke Motoki, though, struckout to let Walker off thehook.

In the meantime, Uehara had settled down after pitching exclusively out of the stretch position after the first. He began to feel more comofortable and went back to his normal no windup motion in the fifth, which earned him an excursion to wentsville from third baseman Shuchi Murata, who knocked it into the leftfield stands to lend Yokohama a 3-2 edge. 

Rhodes evened it back up when he dynamited one off the billboard at the rear of the rightcenterfield bleachers about 490 feet from home plate to make it 3-3 in the sixth. Walker then was tagged for a one out single to left by Petagine, engendering Walker's exit in favor of Takeharu Kato. Third baseman Akira Etoh singled to left. But Abe struckout and Motoki popped out and it remained tied. 

However, Furuki subsequently leadoff the seventh by hammering a fastball into the rightfield stands and Yokohama was in front 4-3.

Yomiuri went down in order in the eighth and Kazuhiro Sasaki saved it in the ninth with a 1-2-3 effort and it was over. 

Sasaki experienced a perplexing, and maybe for a pitcher frightening, moment when the speed reading on the scoreboard said one of his fastballs barely scraped 81mph. "The radar gun was broken. I'm throwing around 90," the former Mariner orated. He had also looked foward to facing fellow party animal Kazuhiro Kiyohara and the burly infielder entered the batter's box in a pinch hit role. He struckout.  That makes Kiyohara 0-7 with five whiffs against Daimajin. 

It was the first time that Yokohama has had its first two men fo a game homer since May 25, 1982, when they pulled it off against Hanshin. 

Uehara is now tied for the league lead in homers given up with eighth, the other victim being Hanshin ace Kei Igawa. He has been taken to the downs three times in a game on seven occasions during his career. 

Giants second baseman Toshihisa Nishi's 21 game hitting streak ended with an 0-4

Katsuhiro Ishido started for Yakult and tied a Central League record with three wild pitches in this game, but he battled and battled and emerged with his fourth win. Now let's pray that Ishido doesn't join the already swollen ranks of injured Yakult players. 

Dragons shortstop Hirokazu Ibata and  singled to right to commence the game and went to second on a wild pitch. Second baseman Masahiro Araki singled to right to push Ibata across and then miself went to second on a wild pitch. Third baseman Kazuyoshi Tatsunami flied out to left. Rightfielder Kosuke Fukudome was pitched around and walked. Centerfielder Alex Ochoa then marred the whole exercise when he grounded into an inning ending double play with Chunichi ahead 1-0.

The Dragons doubled that in the third when Guzman reached on an infield hit. Ibata singled to right. Araki grounded ojne up the middle, where it was scooped up by shortstop Yoshiyuki Noguchi, who stepped on second and fired to first for the double play. Tatsunami singled to right for the RBI and a 2-0 lead and went to second on a wild pitch. But Fukudome grounded to Suzuki and Ishido was still in business.

Yakult then went on the offensive in  the fourth, as leftfielder Alex Ramirez leadoff with a double to leftcenter and, one out later, catcher Atsuya Furuta singled to center to convert Ramirez. With rightfielder Atsunori Inaba about to come up, the umpire called time and everyone had to wait for the rain to abate. 17 minutes later, the action resumed, but Guzman, who had been hitting 93mph earlier, ran an 84mph pitch up to the plate and Inaba smoked it into the rightfield seats for a 3-2 Swallows advantage. Noguchi tripled to rightcenter. Ishido grounded to short. Noguchi attempted to score, but was cutdown at the plate. Centerfielder Mitsuru Manaka walked. Second baseman Katsuyuki Dobashi singled to center to load the bases. Third baseman Akinori Iwamura, with an opportunity to break it open, grounded out
and 3-2 it was.

In the sixth, Yakult had another chance at snatching more spearation between them and Chunichi when Manaka doubled to right and Guzman walked Dobashi. Akifumi Takahashi jogged in from the bullpen and walked Iwamura to juice the bags. Unfortunately, Ramirez went down on strikes and Suzuki grounded out. 

Ryota Igarashi threw a perfect seventh for Yakult, but then got into a predicament in the eighth. Hiroyuki Watanabe singled to left and was sacrificed to second. One out later, Masahiko Morino walked. Ishii was tapped to rectify this state of affairs and got Tatsunami to pop out.

Hitoki Iwase ascended the hill for the Dragons in the bottom half and, with one out, he hung a slider to Ishii, who hammered it halfway up the rightcenterfield seats for his first pro homer to make it 4-2. Ishii then did away with all three men he faced in the ninth to put it in the books.

When Ishii was drafted by Yakult, he had such control problems his first season that they thought of converting him into a position player. that was eight years ago, though, so one doesn't expect any more Ishii batting heroics anytime soon. 

St. Louis outfielder So Taguchi lined out to left in pinch hit duty Tuesday against Philadelphia. He then went to rightfield in the 6-5 Cardinals victory.