The middle of the Hanshin order put this one in the bank for their side Sunday, as three and five hitters Andy Sheets and Osamu Hamanaka drove in three apiece and cleanup man Tomoaki Kanemoto registered two more to back Yuya Ando's best work of the year, a complete game five hit, eight strikeout 8-0 whitewash of Yokohama that brought the club back within six of the league leading Chunichi Dragons. It was Ando's first career shutout and Hanshin is 5-0-1 in its last half dozen. 

Rookie southpaw Naoki Mitsuhashi started for the Bay Stars and was tagged for five runs on six hits in six innings to get stained with the defeat, his first. 

There was no action in this thing at all until two outs in the third, when centerfielder Norihiro Akahoshi walked and third baseman Kentaro Sekimoto singled to left. Sheets singled to left to cash Akahoshi in. Kanemoto doubled to left and both Sekimoto and Sheets hustled all the way to the dish for a 3-0 lead. Hamanaka singled to left, but Kanemoto was thrown out at the plate on a peg from leftfielder Katsuaki Furuki. 

In the fifth, Sekimoto walked and Sheets went the opposite way with a curve ball and sailed it over the rightfield wall to hike it to 5-0. 

Ando was dealing. He allowed only one hit through six and had struckout the side in the fourth and two more in the fifth. So he wasn't challenged until the seventh, when second baseman Kazuya Fujita singled to center and rightfielder Tatsuhiko Kinjo got aboard on an infield hit. But third baseman Shuichi Murata grounded into a 6-4-3 double play and first baseman Takahiro Saeki struckout to quell the disturbance. They could have just called it right then and there, as Ando scattered two hits the remainder of the contest and one of those was disappeared on an ensuing twin killing. 

The last Tigers tallies came in the eighth when Sheets and Kanemoto singled to center and Hamanaka bigtimed one into the leftfield stands to balloon the disparity to 8-0. 

This was the 13th three hits or more showing for Sheets this season. He leads the CL in knocks with 156. 

For Yokohama, Shawn Sonnier also got into the game and walked two in his one inning, but otherwise emrged with a scoreless inning to shrink his ERA to 3.77. 

For Hanshin, Sheets was 3-5 and is at .315. 

Yakult starter Yuya Kamada issued a pair of walks to begin the bottom of the fifth and the Hiroshima Carp used them as a platform on which to build a four run rally that put them ahead to stay in what became an 8-5 victory at Hiroshima Municipal Stadium. Hiroshima starter Mike Romano scooped up his fifth win of the year with five innings of five run, three earned, ball on seven hits and 99 pitches in a rather forgettable but nevertheless profitable outing. 

Kamada went four innings of five run, three hit ball and wasn't involved in the decision. Lucky him. Reliever Kosuke Matsui was thus the one who bore the loss. 

Yakult was on Romano immediately, as first baseman Adam Riggs singled to center withone out and went to second on a groundout. Leftfielder Alex Ramirez doubled to right to hail Riggs in. Rightfielder Ryuji Miyade walked. Second baseman Hiroyasu Tanak singled to center and ushered Ramirez in for a 2-0 lead. But the fun was spoiled by catcher Masakazu Fukukawa, who grounded out. 

Romano surmounted a two on, one out dilemma in the second with a strikeout and a groundout. He was cheered for that by his teammates in the home version when leftfielder Tomonori Maeda blistered one over the rightfield wall with one out and first baseman Koichi Ogata piggybacked on that with a blast into the leftfield seats to level it at 2-2. 

Both pitchers fashioned a perfect third, but in the fourth, the Swallows nosed ahead again. Fukukawa doubled to left and went to third on a sac bunt. Kamada grounded to second baseman Takaaki Matsumoto, who couldn't find the handle on the ball, and Fukukawa loped in to make it 3-2. Centerfielder Norichika Aoki reached on an infield hit. However, Romano fanned both Riggs and third baseman Akinori Iwamura to limit the damage. 

They tacked on two more in the fifth, as Miyade singled to right with one out and, one out later, Fukukawa went yard to left and the birds seemed in control at 5-2. 

That assumption would prove inoperative. In the home ups, Ogata and catcher Yoshiyuki Ishihara walked. Matsumoto asked for time and the umpire didn't react. The pitch went to the backstop and Ogata, who may be aging but who still can carry the mail, motored around from second to score. However, the umpire then said that time had been called and sent Ogata and Ishihara back to thier original bases. Carp boss Marty Brown was out of the dugout like somebody had just dropped some napalm down his shorts and aruged that the umpire didn't signal time so the wild pitch should have stood. This went on for eight minutes and was futile. How Brown didn't get ejected here is hard to say because his team got robbed initially. But Matsumoto singled to left to chase Ogata in. Takamitsu Io was sent up to pinch hit for Romano. Yakult manager Atsuya Furuta countered by sending Matsui to the hill. The runners moved up on a groundout. Shortstop Eishin Soyogi singled to center to get Ishihara in. Centerfielder Shigeru Morikasa flew out to right and Matsumoto tagged up and crossed. Rightfielder Shigenobu Shima singled to left. Third baseman Takahiro Arai singled to left and Soyogi scampered in for a 6-5 advantage. Maeda grounded out to keep it within one. 

Carp relievers Masayuki Hasegawa and Tomohiro Umetsu combined for three perfect innings. By the time they departed, Hiroshima was also two runs richer, as Morikasa singled to left with one out in the eighth and Shima conked one over the rightfield wall to put it at 8-5. 

Katsuhiro Nagakawa mosied in from the bullpen to try to close the show down and saw Aoki reach on another infield hit with one out. Riggs singled to center and now every batter would be the tying run. But Iwamura struckout and Ramirez popped up to second and that was the ballgame. That was also the end of Yakult's five game win streak. 

For Hiroshima, Romano struckout in his only plate appearance and is at .267. 

For Yakult, Riggs was 2-5 with two strikeouts and is at .303. Ramirez was 1-5 and is at .285. 

Yomiuri starter Chiang Chien-ming shut the Chunichi Dragons out on five hits Sunday at Nagoya Dome 4-0 for his first career complete game. It also kept the Dragons in the slide they have been in of late and they are now starting to hear Hanshin's footsteps. 

Mitsuru Sato started for Chunichi and was in for just 4.1 innings and gave up three runs on seven hits for this third loss in 12 decisions. 

Yomiuri went in front in the second, as third baseman Hiroki Kokubo singled to center and catcher Shinnosuke Abe doubled to the wall in right. One out later, first baseman Takayuki Saito grounded to second and Kokubo rumbled home for a 1-0 lead. 

The Dragons had a man on third with one out in the bottom half, but Chiang struck the next two men out.

Chunichi then had two on and two out in the third and that went up in smoke on a groundout. 

After Alex Ochoa's single in the fourth, Chiang put the boot in and retired the next 16 in a row to wrap it up, as he piled up 15 ground ball outs. 

The Giants worked hard for a deuce in the fifth, as Saito walked and rightfielder Kenji Yano singled to left. The runners were sacrificed along. Second baseman Ryota Wakiya singled to center to plate Saito. Centerfielder Takahiro Suzuki singled to right for another run to make it 3-0 and knock Sato out of the game. 

Yuya  Ishii replaced Sato and tossed 3.2 hitless innings, including striking out the side in the sixth. 

However, Atsushi Nakazato was given the ball for the ninth and shortstop Tomohiro Nioka homered to left for the final margin of victory, 4-0. 

With Seung-yeop Lee out due to a knee problem, this was Kokubo's first time this season batting in the cleanup slot. . 

Chiang has been given the nickname "monkey," and they use the english word and not the Japanese equivalent, saru. I'm not quite clear on the reason why, though. 

For Yomiuri, Chiang was0-3 with a sac bunt and is at .250. 

For Chunichi, first baseman Tyrone Woods was 1-4 and is at .292. Ochoa was1-3 and is at .289. 

Hiroshima Second baseman Akihiro Higashide will be out a week with an inflamed joint in his back. 

Yokohama Ostensibly to take responsibility for this year's last place showing, manager Kazuhiko Ushijima is going to step down effective at the end of the season. There had been a lot of recent back and fourth between the ballclub and the press over the Ushijima issue, with the Bay Stars front office saying that they wanted to retain the former Chunichi closer. Now this happens. Go figure. In any event, team president Kuniaki Sasaki said that Ushijima had expressed a desire to quit at the beginning of August but worked on him to stay. Those efforts were of no avail. 

However, some of the press is insisting that what really drove Ushijima out was conflicts with the front office over player personnel matters. 

Among the rumored replacement candidates is another former closer, Kazuhiro Sasaki, which would be a horrible choice given that he has no coaching experience and how he suffered the knee injury that helped end his career (barfight that he lost badly). 

Also said to be getting consideration is former Daiei Hawks skipper and Hanshin batting instructor Koichi Tabuchi and onetime Taiyo Whales ace Masaji Hiramatsu. Another former Whale, Akio Saito, is also being looked at. Saito was the team's pitching coach under former manager Hiroshi Gondo. A decision on the successor will be, ideally, right after the season ends, said president Sasaki. 

Yomiuri Nobody passed the tryouts that the team held in Osaka this weekend. No just graduated high schoolers auditioned, which one scout said might be a first in Giants history. They have another one coming up on the 17th in Tokyo. 

Miscellaneous The Japanese high school all star team absolutely wrecked a U.S. west coast all star squad Sunday at Dedeaux Field at USC, as they registered a 16-3 victory that made their record for this trip 2-1-1. Chiben Wakayama High backstop Ryohei Hashimoto had four hits and eight RBIs, including a bases clearing double in the third. They put it away in the seventh with a ten run rally on 11 hits. Komadai Tomakomai ace Masahiro Tanaka went 2.1 shutout innings in relief, striking out four men in a row at one point. 

Hanshin special adviser Senichi Hoshino was at Saturday's game but didn't have much to say. A scout for the Cardinals liked Waseda Jitsugyo ace Yuki Saito's potential even though he was knocked out in the third in that game and gave up a 400 foot two run jack to rightcenter to one of the American players, 16 year old Long Beach Wilson High outfielder Aaron Hicks, who is said to be a candidate to go in the first round of the 2007 MLB draft. 

Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui will workout with the club's A ball affiliate in Staten Island the next couple of days and then make some rehab starts beginning on the sixth with its AA outfit in Trenton. 

Kazuo Matsui started at second Sunday against the Dodgers for Colorado and went 2-5 with three RBIs in a 12-5 victory. 

Texas closer Akinori Otsuka notched his 30th save Sunday by getting the last out of a game against Cleveland ina 5-2 victory. He thus became just the second Japanese pitcher in history to rack up that many saves in MLB. The other was Kazuhiro Sasaki. 

Chicago White Sox second baseman TadahitoIguchi went 1-4 with a walk Sunday against Kansas City in a 7-3 loss. 

Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki was 0-6 Sunday againts Tampa Bay. The Rays are the only team Ichiro doesn't have a career .300 batting average against. He did, though, steal a base. Seattle dropped a 7-6 decision. 

Milwaukee righthander Tomokazu Ohka went seven innings of three run ball on eight hits and was hung with his fourth loss, as the Florida Marlins then went and tore up the Brewers pen for a 10-3 final. 

Former Seibu manager Osamu Higashio, the guy who almost destroyed Daisuke Matsuzaka by overusing him his first couple of years in the league, has taken a job as president of the Japanese pro basketball league. It will formally be announced on the 11th. Higashio reportedly got the job due to his relationship with a league developmental official.