Hanshin rookie Keiji Uezono went five innings of one run, four hit ball and the bullpen followed with a combined four shutout innings on two hits to preserve a 5-1 victory against Yokohama at Yokohama Stadium Sunday. Uezono is now 2-0. 

Hayato Terahara started for Yokohama and twirled seven innings of four run, ten hit ball to decline to 6-5. 

The Bay Stars loaded the bases with two outs in the second on a single and a pair of walks, Uezono's only free passes of the contest, but Terahara was next and flew out to right. 

Second baseman Katsuhiko Saka then stepped in for the Tigers in the third and toasted a Terahara offering into the rightfield seats for his first lifetime homer and hit to make it 1-0. 

However, in the fourth, equilibrium was restored when Yokohama first baseman Yuki Yoshimura torqued an Uezono selection over the rightfield wall for a 1-1 deadlock. 

Terahara, though, permitted Hanshin to seize the upper hand again in the fifth, as catcher Toshihiro Noguchi singled to left and Saka doubled to left. Uezono flew out to right and Noguchi tagged up and busted in. Shortstop Takashi Toritani singled to left and Saka crossed for a 3-1 edge. 

In the sixth, Tigers leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto thundered one into the rightfield bleachers to buff that up to 4-1. 

Yoshimura doubled to left with two outs in the bottom stanza, but leftfielder Takanori Suzuki flew out to left and the Stars would produce only an infield knock from there on in. 

The final Hanshin tally came in the eighth when Kanemoto walked, third baseman Makoto Imaoka singled to center and, one out later, Noguchi doubled to right to steer Kanemoto home. 

Yokohama has lost five straight to the Tigers. 

For Hanshin, first baseman Andy Sheets was 1-5 and is at .234. Centerfielder Lin Wei-tzu was 1-3 and is at .312. Jeff Williams wove a scoreless eighth on a hit to shrink his ERA to 0.28. 

Chunichi starter Masahiro Yamamoto scattered two hits over the first five innings of his assignment against Yakult Sunday, but he was buffeted for a three spot in the sixth to tie it up and reliever Shinya Okamoto got shellacked in the seventh for a three run bomb by Swallows leftfielder Alex Ramirez for a 7-6 loss at Komachi Stadium in Akita, Akita Prefecture. Yamamoto, who was hoping to nab his 200th career win this season, was sent down after the game and now that goal is looking more improbable. 

Shohei Tateyama started for the Yakult and went five innings of three run, eight hit ball in a no decision, so the shiroboshi was accorded to Yuhei Takei, who assembled two perfect innings. 

Dragons centerfielder Byung-kyu Lee doubled to center to inaugurate the match and, one out later, rightfielder Kosuke Fukudome walked. The runners advanced on a wild pitch. Following another out, second baseman Masahiko Morino singled to right and Lee and Fukudome flashed across for a 2-0 lead. 

Chunichi leftfielder Kazuki Inoue doubled to left to leadoff the second and then stood around as the next three men made outs. 

They would also put two on with one out in the third, but a strikeout and a flyout deep sixed that opportunity. 

In the sixth, Dragons first baseman Tyrone Woods homered to left to widen it to 3-0. Two singles to center ensued, but they stagnated on two groundouts and a strikeout. 

Yamamoto then fell apart in the bottom portion. Catcher Masakazu Fukukawa singled to left and backup third baseman Heishu Ohara walked. Centerfielder Norichika Aoki singled to right to cash Fukukawa in while Ohara hotfooted it over to third. Second baseman Hiroyasu Tanaka flew out to right and Ohara tagged up and crossed to trim it to 3-2. Ramirez doubled down the leftfield line and Aoki put it in fourth for home to knot it at three apiece. Rightfielder Aaron Guiel singled to right, but a groundout and a lineout kept it even. 

Mitsuru Manaka pinch hit for Takai in the seventh against Okamoto and sijgled to right and moved to second on a sacrifice. Ken Suzuki, pinch hitting for Ohara, walked. Aoki singled to center and Manaka raced in. One out later, Ramirez howitzered a shot into the leftfield seats for a three run homer and a 7-3 edge. 

To their credit, the Dragons didn't quit and got back in it in the eighth. With two gone, third baseman Norihiro Nakamura singled to left off of Brian Sikorski and Hidenori Kuramoto, pinch hitting for Inoue, did the same. Catcher Motonobu Tanishige doubled to left to slingshot both Nakamura and Kuramoto home. Kazuyoshi Tatsunami pinch hit for Okamoto and doubled to left to tally Tanishige up and contract the disparity to 7-6. Masataka Endo, who was released by the Dragons after last season, replaced Sikorski and induced a flyout to terminate the revolt. 

Endo was back on for the ninth and Fukudome singled to right with one out to put the tying run on. Woods struckout, but Morino singled to center. However, Nakamura flew out to center and Endo had his first save since 1998. 

Aoki, who went 3-4 to raise his average to .375, is hitting .407 against the Central League this year and is on pace for 207 hits.

For Chunichi, Woods was 2-5 with two strikeouts and is at .288. Lee was 1-5 and is at .264. 

For Yakult, Ramirez was 2-4 and is at .336. Guiel was 1-4 and is at .249. 

The Yomiuri Giants used a one out error by third baseman Takahiro  Arai as an opening to tattoo Hiroshima closer Katsuhiro Nagakawa for five unearned runs in the ninth inning to overcome a 6-5 deficit and down the Carp 9-6. The 4-5-6 hitters in the kyojin lineup combined for seven RBIs to power the triumph. 

Hisanori Takahashi was looking for his 11th victory for the Tokyo nine, but he was roughed up for six runs on seven hits in 7.1 innings and wasn't involved in the final outcome. So reliever Yushi Aida, who got both the men he faced in the eighth, was credited with his third win. 

Takahiro Aoki started for Hiroshima and lasted only three innings of four run, five hit ball in a no decision. 

Giants third baseman Michihiro Ogasawara got his team off on the good foot in the first, as he blasted an Aoki delivery into the rightfield seats for a 1-0 lead. 

In the second, Yomiuri shortstop Tomohiro Niioka singled to center and first baseman Seung-yeop Lee hammered a first pitch fastball over the rightfield wall to make it 3-0 on his 100th homer since coming to Japan. 

They tacked on another in the third when rightfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi walked and leftfielder Yoshitomo Tani singled to left. Ogasawara singled to right to load the bases. One out later, Nioka flew out to center and Takahashi tagged up and crossed to put it at 4-0. Lee flied out to left to strand the runners. 

However, all that evaporated in the home edition. Catcher Yoshiyuki Ishihara singled to center and Takamitsu Io pinch hit for Aoki and walked. Shortstop Eishin Soyogi singled to center to pack the sacks. Second baseman Akihiro Higashide grounded into a 3-2 force. One out later, Arai unloaded on Takahashi and rocketed a shot into the centerfield stands for a grand slam to tie it up at four apiece. 

Hiroshima would then nose ahead in the fifth when rightfielder Jun Hirose doubled to leftcenter and went to third on a groundout. Ishihara singled to left to usher Hirose in and it was 5-4. That would be their last hit until the eighth. 

Masayuki Hasegawa did a whale of a job standing in for Aoki, fashioning four shutout innings on two hits to hold the line. Two more relievers then survived a two on and two out situation in the to of the eighth. The fish also obtained another run in their turn in the inning, as Arai crushed another Takahashi pitch into the leftfield bleachers to stretch it to 6-4. 

Nagakawa entered for the ninth for Hiroshima and, with one away, Arai threw pinch hitter Noriyoshi Omichi's ground ball away. He was pinch run for by Yoshiyuki Kamei, who stole second. Takahashi walked and was pinch run for by Makoto Kosaka. Tani singled to center for his 1500th career hit and Kamei skated home while Kosaka sprinted into third. Tani stole second. One out later, catcher Shinnosuke Abe singled to left to cash Kosaka and Tani in. He also advanced ot second on the relay home. Nioka doubled to the wall in right and Abe found paydirt. Lee doubled down the leftfield line and converted Nioka to hike it to 9-6. Nagakawa now has seven blown saves this season. 

Koji Uehara retired the side in order in the bottom half for his 12th save.

This game marked the halfway point in Yomiuri's schedule and when they have been on top in the standings at that juncture they have gone on to take the pennant 26 of 27 times. 

On Nagakawa, manager Marty Brown says that Nagakawa is the only guy he has with the necessary stuff to be a closer, so it looks as if Brown will stick with him. 

For Hiroshima, centerfielder Alex Ochoa was 1-4 and is at .333. 

For Yomiuri, Lee was 3-5, a triple short of the cycle, and is at .257. The 100 homers came after 435 games and Lee remarked that it seemed to take him longer to reach the century mark in Japan than in Korea. 

But getting back to Ichiro, he remarked that he didn't think of Saito as a major league closer when he joned the Dodgers last season, which hardly makes him alone in that. Many of us expected Saito to conclude 2006 as a civilian, but he just kept getting people out and he has been healthy, two things he didn't do in his last 2-3 years at Yokohama. 

In any event, Ichiro was 1-5 Sunday against Toronto in a 2-1 victory that completed a three game sweep. Catcher Kenji Johjima was 1-3 with a walk. 

It was also the last time you are likely to see Mike Hargrove managing any team since he suddenly resigned, saying basically that he just is bored with baseball right now. What is difficult for me to believe is that he was feeling this way all of a sudden. Indeed, if he just wasn't into it during this spring training he should have just hung it up then. 

The only other conclusion one can draw is that Hargrove just didn't have the bottle, as the British say, to continue in the face of criticism from the blogosphere and local writers that perhaps he wasn't the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. If that is the case, he is a pussy. Whatever the actual circumstance, he did the entire organization a disservice in the way he handled this. 

Akinori Otsuka went two-thirds of an inning on two hits and didn't allow a run against Boston in a 2-1 victory. Okajima spun a perfect ninth. 

Colorado second baseman Kazuo Matsui was 0-4 Sunday in a 12-0 rout at the hands of Houston. 

Yankees leftfielder Hideki Matsui was 1-4 in an 11-5 defeat to Oakland. 

Chicago White Sox second baseman Tadahito Iguchi was 0-4 in a 3-1 triumph over Kansas City. 

Tampa Bay third baseman Akinori Iwamura was 2-4  in a 3-2 loss to Cleveland. 

St. Louis outfielder So Taguchi was 3-6 in an 11-7 win over Cincinnati. The Reds also canned their manager, Jerry Narron. 

Oakland minor league pitcher Kazuhito Tadano tossed eight shutout innings on four hits Sunday in his last AAA start for his third win. 

Yuki Saito and the Japanese collegiate all star squad played an exhibition game against a club comprised of local university players in Columbia, South Carolina and lost 7-4. Saito came on in relief and was messed around for four runs on three hits, a walk and two wild pitches in the sixth to blow a 3-0 lead. He tossed a perfect seventh, but noted that he needs to miss a few more bats by getting hitters to chase the ball out of the zone more often. 

Osaka Toin High outfielder Sho Nakata has finally tied the Japan record for most homers in a schoolboy career, 86, when he clouted a pair in a 14-0 practice game against Hatsushiba High, a no name Osaka area program. Keep in mind, though, that the guy who set that record, Hiroyuki Oshima, is a backup outfielder with Seibu, so this stat is meaningless as a predictor of pro success. The biggest name on the career list is Kenji Johima, who hit over 70 while the other big name off the top of my head is Ken Suzuki, who had some decent years with Seibu before tailing off and being moved to Yakult. But it will be fun to see if Nakata can translate that high school power into bigtime success. 

Finally, a note to ESPN: more Ernie Harwell, please! If you didn't enjoy him sitting in during that outlet's Sunday night baseball broadcast just stop watching the sport. He, Dave Niehaus and Vin Scully are a dying breed and please treasure everytime you can hear them because one of these days they will no longer be with us and when that happens it will be an endless beige vista of faceless cyphers such as Chip Caray and Rick Rizz.