The Hanshin Tigers packed the logjam at the top of the Central League standings further Sunday when rightfielder Kodai Sakurai singled to center with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth against Yakult for a 3-2 victory at Koshien Stadium. The Tigers have won four straight and moved up another game on second place Chunichi. 

Ryo Kawashima started for the Swallows and went six innings of one run, five hit ball while striking out seven and walking two in a no decision. 

Yuya Ando started for Hanshin and went five innings of two run, three hit ball and also walked three, so he wasn't around to earn a decision. Instead, closer Kyuji Fujikawa picked up his fourth win with a scoreless ninth on a hit. 

Yakult centerfielder Norichika Aoki walked in the top of the first and, one out later, leftfielder Alex Ramirez homered to right for an instant 2-0 lead. 

In the second, second baseman Hiroyasu Tanaka grounded to third baseman Andy Sheets, who booted it for another error and shortstop Shinya Miyamoto singled to left. One out later, They were advanced on a sacrifice. Aoki, who is hitting better than .320 with runners in scoring position, was intentionally walked to load the bases and get to third baseman Yasushi Iihara, who is actually doing about as well as Aoki in ARISP department, but he grounded to second to kill the rally off. 

Ando would allow only one more hit through five, but Kawashima was dominating, retiring 12 in a row after centerfielder Norihiro Akahoshi's first inning single. But he walked first baseman Ikuro Katsuragi walked with one out in the fifth and, one out later, second baseman Kentaro Sekimoto singled to left. Shinjiro Hiyama pinch hit for Ando, though, and flied out to right. 

However, in the sixth, Akahoshi singled to right with one out and, one out later, leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto singled to center. Sakurai walked to pack the sacks. Katsuragi singled to right to cash Akahoshi in to make it 2-1. It stopped there, as catcher Akihiro Yano lined out to second. 

The Swallows countered in the eighth against Jeff Williams when Aoki singled to left and went to second on a sacrifice. Leftfielder Alex Ramirez singled to right. But a comebacker and a groundout to second stymied that uprising. 

The Tigers would then tie the game up in their turn, as Kanemoto walked against Yuhei Takai, who exited in favor of Shohei Tateyama. Sakurai singled to center and Katsuragi singled to right to knock Kanemoto in to put it at two all. One out later, Sekimoto got aboard on an infield hit to fill the bags. Osamu Hamanaka pinch hit for Williams and struckout, though, to leave them loitering. 

Fujikawa was summoned from the bullpen and Tanaka doubled to right. One out later, Tanaka was sacrificed to third. But backup catcher Ryohei Kawamoto flied out to center to paralyze the runner. 

Tateyama went back out for the bottom of the inning and Akahoshi grounded to Iihara, who muffed it. Sheets singled to left. The runners moved up on a wild pitch. Kanemoto was intentionally walked to det up a force at every base. Sakurai then banged one back through the middle and that was the ballgame. Yakult has dropped their last five. 

Sakurai continues to be quite the midseason addition for Hanshin, as he is batting .314 with an OPS over .900 and an ARISP of better than .380. If he had started with the club out of spring training we would be talking about him as an MVP candiddate. 

For Yakult, Ramirez was 4-4 and is at .353. At this point, he is 13 points up on Aoki and could be in the process of putting the final touches on his first batting title. Rightfielder Aaron Guiel was 0-4 and is at .248. 

For Hanshin, Sheets was 1-5 with two strikeouts and is at .247. 

Hiroshima leftfielder Tomonori Maeda went 3-4 and drove in five runs to do most of the damage to the Chunichi Dragons, who suffered a 6-2 setback at the hands of the fish at Hiroshima Municipal Stadium. Kan Otake started for the Carp and went 5.2 innings of two unearned run ball on two hits and struckout eight while walking four to improve to 7-8. 

Kenichi Nakata started for the Dragons and went six innings of six run, six hit ball while striking out eight and walking six in his seventh loss. Amazingely, only one of those bases on balls showed up on the scoreboard. 

Hiroshima second baseman Akihiro Higashide singled to left with one out in the bottom of the first and, following another out, third baseman Takahiro Arai walked. Maeda singled to center to usher Higashide in for a 1-0 lead. First baseman Kenta Kurihara grounded out to stall the attack. 

But in the third, Higashide singled to center with one out and centerfielder Alex Ochoa singled to right. One out later, Maeda got a cookie and crunched it into the rightfield bleachers for his 287th lifetime jack and a 4-0 edge. 

Otake was dominant for four innings, permitting only two baserunners, one wiped off the map on a double play. However, in the fifth, centerfielder Byung-kyu Lee singled to right and rightfielder Hidenori Kuramoto's ground ball was thrown away by shortstop Eishin Soyogi, the runners advancing to third and second respectively. Catcher Motonobu Tanishige grounded to second and Lee crossed. Otake unleashed a wild pitch and Kuramoto scurried in to draw within 4-2. 

Nakata struckout the side in the bottom portion and then walked two in the fifth, but those were sandwiched around a double play ball and a groundout. 

He walked another pair in the sixth with one out, but a flyout and a strikeout cleared that up. 

Otake struck the first two men out in the sixth and then walked the ensuing three batters. So he was sent to the showers and Kenta Satake struck Lee out to quell the disturbance. Three relievers succeeded Satake with a perfect inning per man to wrap it up. 

In the seventh, Soyogi took Nakata into the great wide open in right. Higashide walked. Nakata was exchanged for Yoshihiro Suzuki. A groundout got Higashide over to second. One out later, Maeda singled to center to redeem Higashide to raise it to 6-2. 

Chunichi has lost their most recent half dozen matches that have been played in outdoor ballparks. 

For Hiroshima, Ochoa was 2-4 with a walk and is at .347. 

For Chunichi, first baseman Tyrone Woods was 0-2 with two walks and is at .277. Lee was Lee was 1-4 with two strikeouts and is at .255. 

A solo pinch hit homer in the seventh in the seventh and a two run triple in the tenth by Kenji Yano spurred the Yomiuri Giants to a ten inning 7-4 victory over Yokohama at Yokohama Stadium. Kentaro Nishimura was pressed into the starting role because scheduled starter Norihito Kaneto was put on the shelf with back pain and went three innings of one unearned run, three hit ball even though he had pitched the two previous games, too. Consequently, the win was accorded to closer Koji Uehara, his third, after 1.1 perfect innings. 

Yoshihiro Doi started for the Bay Stars and had to come out after the first because, like Kaneto, he hurt his back. 

A one out walk, an HBP and a two out walk loaded the bases for the Giants in the first, but catcher Shinnosuke Abe grounded out to first to cashier the big chance. 

Yokohama second baseman Toshihisa Nishi then singled to center to begin the bottom of the first and went to second on a sacrifice. A passed ball allowed him to get to third and centerfielder Tatsuhiko Kinjo grounded to first to tally Nishi up and make it 1-0. 

Yomiuri got a man to third with two outs in the third, but a groundout neutralized it. 

The Stars put two on with one out in the home edition, but a popup and a groundout deep sixed it. 

However, in the fourth, Yokohama first baseman Yuki Yoshimura walked against Shintaro Yoshitake and went to third on a single to right by leftfielder Takahiro Saeki. Rightfielder Seiichi Uchikawa grounded to second and Yoshimura busted home to enlarge it to 2-0. Catcher Kazunari Tsuruoka walked. The runners advanced on a sacrifice. Nishi, though, struckout. 

The Stars lead would disappear in the fifth, as leftfielder Yoshitomo Tani singled to right off of Yukiya Yokoyama and, one out later, rightfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi got an 88mph fastball on the outer half of the plate and socked it to the opposite field and over the leftfield wall to equalize it at 2-2. 

Yokohama was able to object to that in the sixth, as Saeki singled to right and Uchikawa crushed a Yuya Kubo delivery into the leftfield stands to go up 4-2. They would generate only two singles the rest of the way. 

That was shortlived. Yano pinch hit for Kubo in the seventh and clubbed a Takumi Nasuno selection into the leftcenterfield bleachers. Bsckup shortstop Shigeyuki Furuki reached on an error by Nasuno and was sacrificed to second. Second baseman Takuya Kimura singled to center and Furuki crossed to level it at 4-4. Takahashi singled to center. But Matt White took the ball from Nasuno and registered a strikeout and a groundout to keep it even. 

Kimura then doubled to rightcenter with two outs in the ninth, but that would prove futile since Takahashi struckout. 

Two one out walks had the Stars threatening in the bottom portion, but a groundout and a popup stavved that off. 

Yomiuri would tilt things their way in the top of the tenth against closer Mark Kroon, as third baseman Michihiro Ogasawara singled to left and, one out later, Abe singled to left. Centerfielder Damon Hollins rammed a hanging forkball into left to spring Ogasawara in. Takahiro Suzuki pinch ran for Hollins. Yano, whose wife and son were in attendance, went gapping up the rightcenter alley with a 98mph fastball and Abe and Suzuki scampered in to pull ahead 7-4. Uehara assembled a 1-2-3 bottom segment and that was all she wrote. 

Kroon said that while he was disappointed with the loss, he also realizes that nobody is perfect and so these things are going to happen. Thus, the negative outcome hasn't affected his confidence. His ERA was 2.14 after this with a WHIP just over 1.00, so he's having a whale of a year. 

The Giants have clinched the season series with Yokohama. The Bay Stars, though, went over one million in attendance, nine games ahead of their 2006 pace. 

Takahashi now has three 30 homer seasons and has smacked four dingers in his last three game swith eight RBIs. 

Yano has four pinch hit homers this season, tying a team record. 

For Yokohama, White would go 1.1 flawless innings to reduce his ERA to 6.16. Joselo Diaz tossed a scoreless inning on a hit and is at 4.18. 

For Yomiuri, Hollins was 2-5 and is at .265. First baseman Seung-yeop Lee was 0-4 with a walk and two strikeouts and is at .270. 

Yokohama Kimiyasu Kudoh was taken off the roster in order to rest him. He is apparently fatigued at least partially due to the steamy Japanese summer and so they decided to be cautious. Doesn't really help their starting pitching situation, though, at a time when they are struggling to get back to third place. 

Yomiuri Leftfielder Yoshitomo Tani was fined 50,000 yen (about $400) for bumping the umpire Saturday and getting ejected. He was also given the usual reprimand. 

Shortstop Tomohiro Nioka sat Sunday's game out with a thigh bruise. Hayato Sakamoto, who is just out of high school, was brought up and put in the starting lineup. Sakamoto was batting .264 in the Eastern League with five homers and 24 RBIs. Nioka is day to day. 

Miscellaneous NPB contributed 30 million yen (about $250,000) to help victims of the recent Niigata earthquake, most of it culled from a recent internet auction of player souvenirs from this year's all star series. 

In his first season in the major leagues, Boston reliever Hideki Okajima set a new personal best for appearances with his 59th, breaking his onetime most of 58 in 2001. He went an inning against Baltimore and didn't allow any runs on a hit while striking out two to aid the Red Sox in a 3-2 win. . 

Daisuke Matsuzaka passed some advice on to Waseda University righthander Yuki Saito through the press Sunday, saying that Saito is perhaps overdoing it with the two seamer and should concentrate on commanding his four seamer as a strikeout pitch while using the two seamer occasionally as a way to induce hitters to get themselves out. The only problem with what Matsuzaka said was that Saito only tops out at 92mph, which is a pretty average heater in the pros. So he does need something with more movement on it. So I personally think that Saito is better off polishing the two seamer. Sorry Daisuke. 

Philadelphia second baseman Tadahito Iguchi started for the first time in four games Sunday, going 2-5 in a 7-6 loss to Florida. 

Yankees leftfielder Hideki Matsui was 1-4 in an 8-2 defeat to Tampa Bay Sunday. Rays third baseman Akinori Iwamura homered and singled in five times up. 

Cardinals outfielder So Taguchi was 0-1 as a pinch hitter in an 11-0 loss to Pittsburgh. 

The Masumi Kuwata magical not so mystery tour continued Sunday, as he was in L.A. to visit the guy who performed Tommy John surgery on him back in the mid-1990's, Dr. Frank Jobe. Jobe is really 82? So he was in his 70's when he did the procedure on Kuwata. Man alive. 

Saturday, Sendai Ikuei High ace Yoshinori Sato struckout seven during his four innings in a 9-3 win over a.. high school all star squad comprised of students from MLB's urban youth academy in L.A.. He was clocked at 96mph. He began the game by striking out the side before giving up a two run triple in the second. He ultimately surrendered three hits during his sting and walked two. 

The Japanese contingent then got routed Sunday 14-5. Sato went two innings and permitted two runs on two hits while striking out three and walking one. Yusuke Nomura of Koryo High School started and twirled four shutout innings as Japan got off to a 5-0 lead. However, Joso Gakuen Kikukawa ace Kenjiro Tanaka was roughed up for six runs on five hits and three walks to blow the advantage. Sato struckout the side in the seventh, but the third of those whiffs reached base and consecutive triples resulted in the two runs crossing. 

A scout from the Reds said he would like to get his hands on Sato due to the life on his fastball. 

Former Japan leaguer George Hinshaw managed that U.S. squad and noted Sato's velocity and good control in concluding that the youngster would one day pitch in the big leagues. 

A scout for San Francisco commented that, "he has a good fastball and good movement on his breaking pitches. His fastball is major league quality." 

Boy, here's something I'm sad to report: a ninth grader at PL Gakuen Junior High, Yuhi Kumagai, was hit in the chest Saturday by a thrown ball during infield drills with PL's high school nine and then collpased and died at age 15. The high school has ceased all activity for the time being and may withdraw from an upcoming tournament out of respect. Moreoever, all the club activities at the junior and high schools will be suspended indefinitely. Apparently, some students were creeped out by the accident and said they didn't feel like going to school. Monday's classes will also not be held and they will hold a joint assembly instead. My condolences to Kumagai-kun's family.