Jason Beverlin started for the Swallows and was okay for five innings, having surrendered two runs to that point, but he was pummled in the
sixth for five more tallies and Yakult never recovered. 

It was scoreless until the third, when Beverlin lost his handle on his pitch location. With one away, second baseman Toshihisa Nishi singled to center and leftfielder Takayuki Shimizu singled to left. Centerfielder Tuffy Rhodes walked to load the bases. Rightfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi also worked a freebie to force Nishi in. First baseman Roberto Petagine walked, too, and Shimizu trotted in to make it 2-0. He then struckout Third baseman Akira Etoh and catcher Shinnosuke Abe popped p to short and Beverli escaped cheaply enough. 

In the fifth, Kudoh ran a down and in fastball down up to the plate to Yakult first baseman Ken Suzuki and he blasted it into the centerfield seats to cut it to 2-1 Yomiuri. 

Beverlin wriggled out of a bases loaded jam in the fifth when he struckout Abe. But no such luck in the sixth. Shortstop Mototsugu Kawanaka singled to center and went to second on a sacrifice. Nishi walked. Futoshi Yamabe entered from the bullpen and Shimizu singled to right to drive Kawanaka in. Rhodes singled to left to usher Nishi in. Takahashi whistled a shot up the leftcenter alley and Shimizu and Rhodes rode the double home. One out later and now with Yataro Sakamoto on the hill, Etoh crashed a shot off the leftfield wall for a long single and to push Takahashi in for a 7-1 lead. 

Suzuki, though, singled to left with two outs in the seventh and catcher Atsuya Furuta drilled one into the leftfield stands to make it 7-3 Giants. Rightfielder Billy Martin beat out a ground ball to short. Shortstop Yoshiyuki Noguchi walked. However, Kudoh then whiffed Hirobumi Watarai to finish his night and terminate the possibility of Yakult getting back into the game. 

Matt Randel was inserted from the pen for Yomiuri just a couple of days after he made an unsuccessful start and got two quick outs in the eighth before third baseman Akinori Iwamura walked and leftfielder Alex Ramirez singled to right. That brought Suzuki up. Randel, though, lured him into flying out to right and the Giants edge remainded intact.

Junichi Kawahara then closed it out in the ninth by retiring three of the four men he saw and this one was a memory. 

Kudoh used his curve ball and forkball very effectively, as he was perfect through four before Suzuki took him deep in the fifth. It was his 54th lifetime ten K's or more outing, fourth all time. 

Yomiuri has won all six games against their crosstown rivals thus far, the first time that has occurred since 1983. 

Tuffy Rhodes, perhaps mindful of the collection of CL arms being better than what he confronted in the Pacific League, had basehits to all three parts of the field and is batting .357 as a result. 

Keichi Yabu started for Hanshin and went eight very good innings of three run ball, two earned, on eight hits. But he is having trouble getting run support and, despite a 1.91 ERA, fell to just 2-3. 

Hiroshima exploited a Hanshin error in the fifth for the initial score of the match, as shortstop Andy Sheets grounded to his opposite number, Atsushi Fujimoto, who booted it. Sheets advanced to second on a ground ball and, one out later, third baseman Kenjiro Nomura singled to left and Sheets galloped in with the 1-0 lead.

Former Carp leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto, though, restored equilibrium in the home half when he belted a Davey delivery into the rightfield bleachers to make it 1-1.

But Yabu had a weak moment in the sixth and Hiroshima pulled ahead once more. Davey singled to center and centerfielder Koichi Ogata singled to left. One out later, second baseman Greg LaRocca scorched a shot down the leftfield line and Davey crossed to put it at 2-1 Carp. 
Yabu would load the bases on a subsequent two out walk to leftfielder Tomonori Maeda before first baseman Kenta Kurihara grounded out
to end the revolt.

Kanemoto tripled up the leftcenter gap with one gone in the seventh, but was stranded due to a groundout to first and a strikeout. 

Ogata then leadoff the eighth with a double to leftcenter and went to third on a groundout and then toed the dish thanks to LaRocca's wall rattling long single to left that provided Hiroshima some insurance at 3-1. 

In the ninth, Tigers second baseman Makoto Imaoka singled to center with one out and now Kanemoto was up as the tying run. But he went down on strikes. Rightfielder Shinjiro Hiyama grounded to first and that was all she wrote. 

This was Yabu's 100th career loss. He has allowed just nine earned runs in six starts, but doesn't have much to show for it. 

Nevertheless, there were two other highlights for Hanshin after the Kanemoto dinger. Rookie reliever Masashi Sajikihara extended his scoreless string to 7.1 innings over seven appearances with a perfect ninth. He has only allowed four hits and two walks. 

Another rookie, Takashi Toritani, makde his first start in 30 games and his first apperance at third, making a great diving stop of an extra basehit bid by Sheets in the eighth and got  up and gunned a strong throw to second for the force to keep it close. But at the plate, he was 0-3 and is now at .133. 
 

Photo:  What Tom Davey is Doing Here is Called a "Guts Pose" in Japanese

Photo:  Davey Comes Three Quarters to a Righthand Hitter

Daisuke Miura started for Yokohama and went six innings of two run ball on seven hits and five walks as he fought himself and coughed up a two run advantage. 

Masahiro Yamamoto started for Chunichi and he also permitted two runs, though on five hits and three walks for a no decision. 

Yokohama snatched a lead in the third, as third baseman Shuichi Murata walked and catcher Takeshi Nakamura singled to center. Two outs later, second baseman Seiichi Uchikawa singled to center to plate Murata with the 1-0 advantage. 

Stars first baseman Tyrone Woods then teed off on a 1-0 slider from Yamamoto leading off the fourth and boosted it into the leftfield seats
to make it 2-0. 

But in the fifth, second baseman Masahiro Araki got aboard on an infield hit and went to second on a sac bunt. One out later, Miura walked both shortstop Hirokazu Ibata and third baseman Kazuyoshi Tatsunami to pack the sacks. Rightfielder Kosuke Fukudome flared a first pitch cutter into right and Araki loped in while Ibata sprinted in behind him to knot it at two all. 

Miura had more difficulty in the sixth, as leftfielder Kazuki Inoue singled to right and went to second ona sac bunt and Araki reached on another infield hit. But pinch hitter Masahiko Morino struckout. First baseman Hiroyuki Watanabe walked to juice the bags. However, Ibata grounded out to ruin the rally.

The Dragons squandered another chance int he seventh against Takeharu Kato, as Tatsunami doubled off the leftfield wall and went to third on a groundout. But centerfielder Alex Ochoa struckout and Inoue flew out to left and they were dissapointed again. 

So on to the ninth and centerfielder Katsuaki Furuki walked and was pinch run for by Tanaka.  Woods seared one into the leftcenter alley for a double. With the infield up, leftfielder Takahiro Saeki grounded to short, the runners holding. Rightfielder Tatsuhiko Kinjo, hitting .339, was intentionally walked to setup the double play possibility and to get to the pitcher's spot. Suzuki was sent up to pinch hit and lifted a fly ball to left that Tanaka tagged up and blazed to the plate on to make it 3-2 Yokohama.

Kazuhiro Sasaki, his fastball clocked at just 88mph, then recorded a 12 pitch save to turn the lights out. 

Tatsunami now has 420 doubles lifetime to tie for fourth on the all time list with hall of famer Isao Harimoto. 

On the other side of the field, Hideki Matsui was in left for the New York Yankees and he went 1-4 with an RBI walk. The Yankees won it 9-5.

Talk on Seattle sports radio now revolves around who to get rid of in order to rebuild an aging club with little speed as the sense is that Seattle is already wainting 'til next year. One fan called in suggesting that Ichiro should be traded for a passel of frontline prospects since the former AL batting champ is still well thought of even though he is actually on the decline. There is also pressure on GM Bill Bavasi to get his hands on Kansas City outfielder Carlos Beltran or somebody of similar caliber to try to cure the singles-itis currently plaguing the M's. Calls for firing manager Bob Melvin, who some fans see as too passionless, are beginning to be heard even though his contract was just extended. It will be interesting to see how the Mariners often defensive front office, especially CEO 
Howard Lincoln, the biggest target of fan brickbats, will handle the building anger. 

Ichiro's reaction to his side's sinking fortunes is, according to the Japanese press, "those things happen in baseball. It happened when I

Mets shortstop Kazuo Matsui was 2-5 Friday against Houston with an RBI that lengthened his hitting streak to six games. He is now at .259. Before the game, though, Matsui met briefly with a Japanese astronaut and baseball fan who is currently training for a mission at the Houston Space Center. 

Dodgers lefty Kazuhisa Ishii started Friday against Cincinnati and couldn't find the plate with a GPS system, walking six and giving up two runs in four innings before being given the heave ho. He threw 82 pitches. 

Chicago White Sox reliever Shingo Takatsu came on with men on first and third and one out in the eighth inning of a 2-2 tie Friday and was victimized by an infield hit that drove in what turned out to be the game winner before he retired the next two men. He then allowed a hit in a scoreless ninth.\

Cardinals outfielder So Taguchi was inserted into a game Friday with 
Florida and struckout in his one at bat. St. Louis came out on top 6-3. 

To get back to Godzilla for a moment, Thursday he shot a tv commercial for Suntory to push their Magnum Dry happoshu (a kind of alcholoci beverage' I've never had it, though, so I'm not quite sure what it is) line. It will air sometime in June.