5/16/2004
5/16/2004
| Box Scores Here; Just Click on the Numbers on the Scoreboard |
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| Tokyo The Yomiuri Giants connected for five
homers Sunday against Yakult, two of them by third baseman Hiroki Kokubo,
and roasted the birds 14-3. Yomiuri starter Yuya Kubo went all the way
for his first pro complete game win while Swallows starter Tony Mounce's
future with the team was clouded with another bad outing after he had a
strong one in his last appearance. The former Ranger will get one more
start, but it could be his last if he blows up again.
Yomiuri jumped on Mounce like dorkiness on a Fox Sports announcer, as Mounce walked second baseman Toshihisa Nishi leading off the first and leftfielder Takayuki Shimizu belted one into the rightfield bleachers to make it 2-0. Two outs later, first baseman Kazuhiro Kiyohara walked and just for deja vu's sake, Kokubo mortared a pitch into the leftcenterfield seats and it was 4-0. In the second, the kyojin sledgehammered Mounce and reliever Yuya Kamada. With one away, Nishi walked. Shimizu singled to center. Centerfielder Tuffy Rhodes drilled a shot off the rightfield wall for a long RBI single. Kamada replaced Mounce. Rightfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi singled to left to plate Shimizu. Kiyohara got jammed slightly on a slider, but still muscled it over leftfielder Alex Ramirez' head to usher Rhodes in on the double. Kokubo cleaned and jerked it into the leftfield stands and it was 10-0. Catcher Shinnosuke Abe thundered one into the rightcenterfield bleachers to make it 11-0. Kamada was tagged for two more knocks in the inning before extricating himself out of it. Yakult finally responded in the fourth on singles to right by second baseman Katsuyuki Dobashi and third baseman Akinori Iwamura and a one out single to right by first baseman Ken Suzuki that brought Dobashi in to cut it to 11-1. But Yomuri saw that one and raised the Swallows another in the home portion off of reliever Masaru Sato, as shortstop Daisuke Motoki doubled into the rightfield corner with one gone for a double and Kubo singled to left. Nishi singled to right to cash Motoki in. Shimizu doubled into the rightfield corner to score Kubo for a 13-1 advantage. Shimizu was now only a triple short of the cycle. Yakult was pretty much in hibernation since the fourth, but they
arose in the eighth and centerfielder Atsunori Inaba doubled to leftcenter
with one out. Hajime Miki reached on an infield hit. Iwamura singled to
right and Inaba trotted in. Ramirez singled to left to convert Miki
In the bottom of the frame, rookie Makoto Osuga creamed a delivery from Yataro Sakamoto into the leftfield bleachers for his first pro homer in his second career at bat and the 14-3 final. Shimizu never got that triple, but Kiyohara now needs just ten hits
for 2000. Everybody in the starting lineup had at least one hit and an
RBI. And Yomiuri, which is hitting .350 with an average of 8.88 runs and
three homers a game against their crosstown rivals, are 7-1
Kubo has a five game winning streak against Yakult with a 1.76 ERA. Kamada was demoted to the minors after this debacle and Hanada called up in his stead. |
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| Nagoya Chunichi Dragons rightfielder Kosuke
Fukudome stopped trying to pull everything and had his best game of the
season, as he cranked a pair of homers and drove in six runs as part of
a 5-5 evening to raise his average to .290 and lead the Nagoya outfit to
an 8-1 triumph over Yokohama at Nagoya Dome. Masafumi Hirai started for
the winners and went six solid innings of one run ball on seven hits and
didn't walk anybody.
Fukudome lent his side an early edge, as he followed a two out single to right by third baseman Kazuyoshi Tatsunami by battling Bay Stars starter Ken Kadokura for seven pitches before crushing a fastball over the leftcenterfield wall to make it 2-0. Leftfielder Kazuki Inoue rifled a shot off of Kadokura's knee and Takeharu Kato was called in to supplant him. The Dragons then knocked Kato around in the third, when second baseman Masahiro Araki, who is playing despite a bad hand, singled to center and went to second on a groundout. Tatsunami walked. Fukudome rammed a pitch up the leftcenter alley for an RBI double. Inoue lofted a slider to center and Tatsunami tagged up and crossed to widen it to 4-0. In the fifth, and please stop me if this is beginning to sound like a broken record, Tatsunami singled to center and rode Fukudome's double off the centerfield fence to the plate, Fukudome going to third on the relay home. One out later, first baseman Masahiko Morino flew out to left and Fukudome tagged up and crossed to make it 5-0. Yokohama averted the shutout in the sixth on a single to left by second baseman Seiichi Uchikawa, a double to the centerfield wall by leftfielder Takanori Suzuki and a single to right on a slider by centerfielder Katsuaki Furuki to put it at 5-1 Dragons. Leftfielder Takahiro Saeki then grounded into a twin killing to extinguish the uprising. Yokohama had two on and nobody out in the seventh and frittered that away on two strikeouts and a flyout. They would then manage only two more hits the remainder of the match. In the meantime, Dragons pinch hitter Yuki Yoshimura got aboard in the ninth on an infield hit and was pinch run for by Hidenori Kuramoto, who moved to second on a groundout. Tatsunami singled to right. Fukudome went after the first pitch he saw and sliced it into the leftfield stands for a three run homer and an 8-1 lead. This was Fukudome's first three hits or more (called a "modasho" in Japanese) exhibition in 22 games. Yokohama shortstop Takuro Ishii made his first start in 11 days. Unfortunately for the Stars, first baseman Tyrone Woods left the game due to back pain. Dragons shot caller Hiromitsu Ochiai dropped centerfielder Alex Ochoa to seventh in the order more to fiddle with this lineup than anything else. Ochoa himself said it's fine with him, that he will do what he can no matter where he is slotted in the order. Suzuki started for the first time since May 3rd and responded with three hits. |
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Team Reports
| Hanshin | |
| Kei Igawa was messing around with a two seam fastball in the bullpen
Sunday after his scheduled start against Hiroshima was rained out. Previous
manager Senichi Hoshino taught him the pitch last season, but Igawa didn't
believe that he was getting enough movement on it to use it as a mainstay
of his repetoire in actual games. But Sunday, he had good life on it and
will probably use it the next time he takes the hill.
Rookie Masashi Sajikihara has posted a passel of zeroes thus far, but Hanshin pitching coaches thought he needed something to help him with lefthanders. So he is working on a sinker. The righthander |
features a 94mph max fastball and a slider that he throws out of
a three quarter arm slot.
Leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto is off to a slow start in the first half of the season. So what else is new. He then usually torches the opposition the second half. But as for his present troubles, he says that he is being too picky at the plate and needs to be more aggressive. Hirotaka Egusa may soon be given s starting shot if Naohisa Sugiyama
doesn't make the grade, said manager Akinobu Okada.
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| Yomiuri | |
| Shortstop Tomohiro Nioka will indeed return on Tuesday. That should be a godsend considering how littel productin they have gotten out of that slot from Mototosugu Kawanaka and Daisuke Motoki. | Ace Koji Uehara was able to put spikes on and throw in the bullpen Sunday and said he felt he was ready to be promoted back to the big club. He will likely start in an upcoming series with Hanshin. |
| Yakult | |
| The Swallows were reportedly comtemplating signing southpaw Arizona minor league pitcher Jonathan Cannon, but manager Tsutomu Wakamatsu didn't like his velocity and thought Cannon's | pitches were getting too much of the plate, so Cannon is off the list and they are looking at other prospects. |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki went 2-4 Sunday against Kevin Brown
and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in a 2-1 defeat to extend his
hitting streak to 15 games. One of those hits was a ground ball on which
replays showed he was nipped by an eyelash, but the first base umpire called
him safe. He needs only seven more hits for 2000 between his MLB and NPB
careers and has raised his batting average to .317. He is also working
on a five game multi-hit skein and has 11 two hits or more efforts just
in May alone, a month in which he is hitting .415. His three previous Mays,
he has hit .379, .404 and .389.
But now there may be a possible tampering controversy surrounding a remark that Alex Rodriguez made to Ichiro on Friday, if a Chunichi Sports report is correct. After Ichiro moved from second to third on a groundout, Rodriguez approached Ichiro and said, "let's play together. You can be our centerfielder." The Japanese superstar is under contract with the M's for three more years. There is no indication that somebody connected with the Yankees front office |
induced Rodriguez to make this overture. Nevertheless, teams are
pretty touchy about these sorts of things and it will be interesting to
see if GM Bill Bavasi decides to file a tampering action against the Bronx
Bombers.
Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui also played in Sunday's game and went 0-2. Japanese ambassador Ryozo Kato threw out the first pitch. Mets shortstop Kazuo Matsui's seven game hit streak ended when he went 0-6 Sunday against Houston. The Mets won it in extra innings 3-2. Meiji University pitcher Yasuhiro Ichiba surrendered a two run homer,
but he nonetheless pitched well enough to prevail 4-3 against Waseda University
at Meiji Jingu Stadium for his 23rd win as a collegian to put his squad
on the verge of a Tokyo Big Six University
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