A two run homer to left off of Chunichi reliever Kazuki Yoshimi by Seibu shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima was the deciding blow of this contest, as the Lions seized a 5-3 victory Wednesday at Nagoya Dome. Takayuki Kishi  started for the winners and went four innings of two run, three hit ball and struckout six for his second shiroboshi of the spring while Shoji Nagamine toiled for four innings of three run (two earned) ball on six hits to absorb the defeat. 

Kishi opened the match by retiring the first two men, but he then left a 2-2 88mph fastball on the inner half of the plate to Dragons rightfielder Kosuke Fukudome, who smoked it into the rightfield bleachers for a 1-0 lead. That would be the home side's last knock until the fourth. 

Seibu responded in the third when centerfielder Tomoaki Sato and second baseman Haruki Kurose singled to center and left respectively, Sato motoring to third. Nakajima flied to right and Sato tagged up and sped across to knot it at one apiece. 

They subsequently pulled in front in the fourth, as DH Jeff Liefer doubled to center and and first baseman Taketoshi Goto singled to center. Third baseman Takeya Nakamura walked to load the bases. Catcher Toru Hosokawa bounded into a 5-2-3 double play, but Sato singled to center to redeem Goto and Nakamura and make it 3-1. 

However, Chunichi third baseman Akira Nishikawa singled to right to inaugurate the bottom half and Fukudome walked. One out later, leftfielder Masahiko Morino singled to center to plate Nishikawa and slice it to 3-2. A groundout and a strikeout kept it right there. 

It remained that way until the seventh, when Sato beat out a ground ball toward third and, one out later, Nakajima went yard to hike it to 5-2. 

Dragons first baseman Norihiro Nakamura, in his first start with the club since the rules were changed to allow taxi squadders to play in exhibition games, socked a 2-1 84mph fastball from Shinya Okamoto into the leftfield stands in the home ups to put it at 5-3, but they wouldn't produce much else from there on in except for a ninth inning leadoff double and that runner may as well have been wearing cement shoes since he stayed there until it was time to go back to the hotel, Ayumu Yamamoto picking up the save. 

Chunichi manager Hiromitsu Ochiai asserted to the press that Nakamura still isn't in good enough fettle to be considered for a spot on the regular roster just yet. 

Kishi will get one more chance to prove himself as a starter next week. 

For Seibu, Liefer was 3-4 and is at .429. 

For Chunichi, DH Tyrone Woods struckout all three times he went up to the plate and is at .091. Woods is a notoriously slow starter, so don't put much stock in that. Santiago Ramirez struckout two during a perfect fifth inning in relief. 

Batting instructor Katsumi Hirosawa said that hearing Lin's story reminded him of the Korean drama series Winter Sonata, which created a sensation in Japan for God only knows what reason. I found it a bore, but there you go. 

Hamanaka spent 80 minutes taking batting practice to try to work himself out of his funk. 

Rookie catcher Takashi Shimizu could very well open the season on the top team roster and may decide to forego attending his graduation ceremony at Kinki University in order to ensure he is available to keep that claim on an Opening Day slot. Shimizu has impressed with his game handling abilities and is evidently a pretty good catch and throw guy. He still has yet to prove anything with the bat at this point, though. 

Yakult Rookie pitcher Shun Takaichi had an interesting two innings in the instructional league Wednesday. First, he came on in the sixth and struckout the side. Then in the seventh, he got into a two on, nobody out jam. The opposition put the hit and run on and the batter lined to center and the centerfielder managed to triple the runners off. Takaichi was only clocked around 83mph, but he only threw just two fastballs during his stint. 

Yomiuri Giants hall of fame third baseman and team executive Shigeo Nagashima took part in an event at a Tokyo area hotel Wednesday for fans of the team who are high ranking members of the country's financial community. It was the first time since he had his stroke that he has showed up at this particular annual wingding. Manager Tatsunori Hara was also there. 

Ace Koji Uehara was in attendance, too, but earlier in the day, he pitched batting practice after throwing a 50 pitch side session and his stuff took on more life the further he got into the workout. Pitching coach Takao Obana told reporters afterward that the righthander looked good from a throwing standpoint but that he still wants to see his legs back at 100% before he might see game action. 

One of the guys Uehara faced was shortstop Tomohiro Nioka, who is nursing a leg muscle pull of his own and while the results for Nioka weren't very good he was at least gratified that he got to sit in against live pitching. 

Fellow infielder Makoto Kosaka and outfielder Kenji Yano, who were both sidelined by back stiffnesss, now say that they are healed up and they will rejoin the top team in the next day or two. 

Tokyo Dome is getting its own low power radio station, dubbed Gfm,  to provide information and commentary to fans during its regular season home games. They haven't announced what frequency it will be on, but it also looks like fans will also be able to rent special receivers free of charge to listen in as well. Can't they just listen to the Radio Nippon broadcasts? It will be interesting to see if they do anything different than the usual over the air broadcasts. 

Lefthander Tatsuya Utsumi threw 60 pitches during his Wednesday bullpen as a tuneup for his scheduled start against Orix Friday. 

Takahiko Nomaguchi has been out with a shoulder problem, but he threw bp Wednesday. Nevertheless, one would think that he will begin the regular season in the minors with just a little over three weeks to go before they begin counting. 

Norihito Kaneto threw 106 pitches in his bullpen session and will take the hill in relief on the tenth and 11th against Hanshin. 

Hidetoshi Tsuburaya smacked a two run homer off of Seibu hurler Jason Johnson during an instructional league game Wednesday. 

Kentaro Nishimura tossed 60 pitches during his bullpen Wednesday and will make an instructional league start Thursday. 

Miscellaneous I'm going to start this section with an off topic but still important I think, matter: your U.S. government is seeking to kill off internet radio (read article  here). It is no secret that the Bush administration has long been in bed with big radio concerns (Tom Hicks, who sits on the Clear Channel board, is a long time intimate of the Bush family, as is company president Lowry  Mays, and do I need to mention Rupert Murdoch?) and with young people abandoning terrestrial radio in droves because of tiny playlists, inane, redundant formats and just general irrelevance for the internet, along comes some phony baloney board to act as the executioner. 

The odd thing is that the RIAA, which is a lobbying group for the record industry, is also for this despite the fact that internet radio gives the public a much wider selection of music to listen to than do the big conglomerates. Indeed, I can't count the number of cool bands I have found out about thanks to internet radio that would never get played on big corporate radio. But that is the record industry for you, always fearing new technology (they were against radio when that was invented, for example. No, that is not a joke) and being more shortsighted than Mr. Magoo. 

Look, terrestrial radio is dead. Anyone who hasn't been going to the internet or satellite radio is doing themselves a disservice. So please write to your Congress critter and file your objection to eliminating internet radio. Big Radio isn't serving the public well nor is it serving the artists it purportedly cares about. Try internet radio like the outfit that hosts the stations you see the graphic links to on the front of this site (I do NOT receive any compensation from them, in case you were wondering). There's something there for everyone, unlike with Big Radio. Please help.  Now back to baseball.

Red Sox reliever Hideki Okajima hung a 2-2 curve ball to Mets infielder Damion Easley after coming in with two aboard and saw it get tattooed over the leftfield wall for a three run homer. Okajima ultimately worked 1.1 innings and was charged with the one run. 

Daisuke Matsuzaka laughed off reports that he had thrown a gyroball to one of the Marlines hitters in his appearance against them the other day, saying it was his cut fastball. "That they think it's a gyroball is a good thing," he said, apparently seeing that as hitters having a thought in their heads at the plate that will only help him. By the way, pitching coach John Farell thinks it was Matsuzaka's changeup. The Boston Herald, to its discredit, really seems intent on pushing the gyroball angle and is making a colossal ass out of itself. Lotte skipper Bobby Valentine has rightly referred to whole gyroball issue as an insult to the former Lions ace. C'mon guys, time to knock it off, okay? Even the Japanese press is incredulous about all this. When THEY are laughing at you it is definitely time for a rethink, no?

Yankees leftfielder Hideki Matsui was 1-3 Wednesday against Cincinnati. 

Mariners centerfielder Ichiro Suzuki was 2-3 Wednesday against San Francisco. Catcher Kenji Johjima was 0-3. 

Dodgers closer Takashi Saito got into his first exhibition game this spring, this one against St. Louis, and twirled a scoreless inning on a hit. So Taguchi did not play for the Cards. 

Waseda University pitcher Yuki Saito threw 277 pitches in the bullpen Wednesday and said afterward that his delivery had become a bit smoother after his head coach worked with him on his arm position as he cocked it to get ready to go to the plate.