6/10/2004
6/10/2004
| Box Scores Here; Just Click on the Numbers on the Scoreboard |
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| Yokohama Yakult Swallows third baseman Akinori
Iwamura blasted a three run homer and leftfielder Alex Ramirez chipped
in two more Thursday to support starter Jason Beverlin's six innings of
one run, five hit ball and slip into third place in the Central League
standings with a 5-3 victory over the Yokohama Bay Stars at Yokohama Stadium.
It was Beverlin's fifth shiroboshi of 2004.
Takashi Saito started for Yokohama after a month long layoff due to back trouble and was gone in the wake of four innings in which he was tagged for all five Swallows runs on nine hits. Yakult centerfielder Mitsuru Manaka doubled to right to begin things
and shortstop Shinya Miyamoto walked. Iwamura stepped in and got
Beverlin then left a fastball in shortstop Takuro Ishii's wheelhouse kicking off the bottom of the inning and Ishii socked it into the leftfield seats to make it 3-1. Beverlin walked two men in the remainder of the frame, but escaped with no further damage incurred. In the fourth, Beverlin ignited a rally when he singled to left with
one away and, one out later, Miyamoto and Iwamura both singled to right
Beverlin then had his first major jam in the home portion. Rightfielfder Tatsuhiko Kinjo reached on an infield hit. Third baseman Hitoshi Taneda singled to right. But pinch hitter Takanori Suzuki struckout, pinch hitter Shuichi Murata flied out to right and Ishii grounded out to second to foil the opportunity. Yokohama also collected two hits in the sixth, but those were sandwiched around two groundouts and a strikeout, as Beverlin kept boring his cutter in on the hands of the hitters. In the ninth, Yakult had men on second and third with nobody out and didn't get anyone home. So into the bottom of the inning it went with reliever Ryu Kawabata on the hill looking to seal it. With two outs, reserve second baseman Takashi Manei singled to left. Second baseman Seiichi Uchikawa, who was now stationed at shortstop, struckout, but the ball got past Furuta and Uchikawa made it to first to keep the inning alive. Leftfielder Katsuaki Furuki singled to center to cash Manei in. First baseman Tyrone Woods now had a chance to tie it up, but he walked to jam the basepaths. Swallows shot caller Tsutomu Wakamatsu dialed local for closer Ryota Igarashi, who walked Hitoshi Tamura to force a man in and put the winning run on. However, Kinjo flew out to left and that was the ballgame. Yokohama manager Daisuke Yamashita ran out to protest an out call
in the eighth. Tamura grounded one into the hole that Miyamoto gloved and
fired to first on. In a bang bang play, the umpire called Tamura out. Tamura
slammed his helmet to the ground while Yamashita
Beverlin has yet to lose to Yokohama in 11 starts. He is currently 7-0 against them lifetime. He was clocked at a high of 93mph. |
Team Reports
| Hanshin | |
| Lefthander Kei Igawa is still experiencing discomfort in his neck, but is working out as usual and doesn't intend to miss his next | scheduled start, which is on the 16th against Yakult.
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| Chunichi | |
| Because the Giants have bulked up some much offensively the past
season, the Dragons have changed their policy about the upcoming draft.
They had originally been looking for tools guys they could raise from the
high school level, but now they have shifted to emphasizing college and
industrial league pitching that has a shorter developmental curve. Thus,
they are concentrating even
more on luring Kyushu City College righthander Kenichi Nakata, whose fastball maxes out at 91mph, and Nihon University moundsman Takumi Nasuno. And to shore up the lefthanded end of their staff, Nihon Tsuun southpaw Susumu Kawai. It would appear that they are therefore going to drop out of the bidding of Tohoku |
High School phenom Yu Darvish.
Reliever Shigetoshi Yamakita made a minor league appearance Thursday and threw a perfect inning on seven pitches. However, he was only clocked at 84-85mph and said he needs to gas it up a little more before he is ready to rejoin the big club. Omar Linares, who is currently in the minors for the Dragons, saw
his wife off the other day as she headed back to Cuba. He hopes to be promoted
back to the top club soon.
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| Yomiuri | |
| A stat from Sports Nippon: In the 33 games that Roberto Petagine
has started at first base, the Giants are 17-16. When Kazuhiro Kiyohara
opens the contest at first, they are 13-8. What's more, when rightfielder
Yoshinobu Takahashi goes off to the olympics, Kiyohara will likely be slotted
into the cleanup slot while Petagine will, one would presume, play
right. For now, Kiyohara's back is still bothering him and he will probably
miss Friday's game.
New addition Brian Corey will be brought up to the big club on the |
15th. Either Brian Sikorsky or Matt Randel would have to be
sent down to make room. There is talk that Randel might get another rotation
shot, so Sikorsky looks to tbe odd man out.
Speaking of Randel, his 3-1 with one save record and 3.66 ERA has
lead the Giants to start talking about having him come back next season.
Randel makes $72,000 and will probably see that doubled or tripled in 2005
if he can perform well the second half of the current schedule.
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| Yakult | |
| The Swallows have filed a protest with the Central League office
over the umpiring crew deciding to call Wednesday's game. The office
had already handed down a 100,000 yen (about $900) fine and a severe reprimand to manager Tsutomu Wakamatsu for pushing and bumping the first base umpire after the dminutive former outfielder objected to a safe call on an attempted double play turn. There will apparently, and hopefully, be further penalties forthcoming. Wakamatsu also apologized to his players for not being on the bench at the end of the game. Wakamatsu also revealed that he is still fuming over what happened Wendesday and so, apparently, is catcher Atsuya Furuta. |
Dicky Gonzalez had his introductory press conference Thursday. He's
been in Japan for four days already and said he hopes to contribute to
the team by leading it in ERA. On his pitching style, he says that he likes
to work his fastball in and out on the corners. He then repaired to Meiji
Jingu Stadium and threw 55 pitches in the bullpen. Team officials expect
that his immigration paperwork will be completed by the 25th or 26th, after
which he will make a minor league appearance or two and then will join
the big club the first week of July or so.
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| Miscellaneous | |
| Los Angeles lefthander Kazuhisa Ishii went eight strong inning against
Toronto Thursday, allowing one run on six hits and walking a season low
one in what manager Jim Tracy called the former Swallows ace's best outing
of the year for his eighth victory by a 6-1 margin. He is tied for second
in the National League in wins and is on pace for 22. However, as Baseball
Tonight noted, Ishii usually falters in the second half, so we'll see.
Ishii had been feeling terrible the last couple of days and even experienced
some elbow pain, but he obviously didn't let it affect him Thursday. The
triumph ended a three game Dodgers losing streak while extending his own
string of shiroboshi to three.
In addition, Tracy announced that Hideo Nomo will start against the Yankees in an upcoming series. The faceoff with Godzilla Matsui should be a blessing for the Japanese sports press looking to fill up some column inches. It will reportedly be the first time the two teams have faced off since the 1981 World Series. Moreover, Nomo and Matsui have never faced each other before. And while we're on the subject of the Bronx Bombers, Matsui doubled in five at bats Thursday to reduce his average to .295. Last season, he hit a scalding .493 (33-67 with six homers and 22 RBIs) during the interleague parts of the schedule, but he has so far posted only a .167 mark in the first three games this year. As an aside, congratulations to Bernie Williams, who smacked his 2000th hit Thursday against Colorado. He joins Luis Gonzalez and |
Ichiro Suzuki as the other MLB players to reach that mark this
year. The boo birds are starting to roost next to Mets shortstop Kazuo Matsui in New York, as he went 0-4 with a walk, a run scored and two sac bunts against Minnesota Thursday in a 15 inning loss. The Mets have now dropped each of their last three and Matsui is only 6-38 in June (.158) with 13 strikeouts. Expos righthander Tomokazu Ohka started the second game of a doubleheader with Kansas City Thursday and took a liner off the bat of Carlos Beltran near his right wrist, resulting in a fracture that has put him out for the season. He had won his last three starts, though he had also been afflicted with no run support by his weak hitting brethren in the batting order and lost his first five. The Mariners had Thursday off after losing two of three to Houston, but Sankei Sports published an article about how outfielder Ichiro Suzuki is fifth in the all star outfield voting seems to be eliciting votes from Japanese fans to make up the difference. Ichiro, one would think, will probably be selected by the AL manager as a reserve, but Freddie Garcia is having a great year performance-wise and he could end up getting the nod despite not having very many wins thanks to non-existent run support. After being sent down to the minors Wednesday, outfielder So Taguchi went 0-1 for Memphis Thursday. |