Chunichi starter Daisuke Yamai dominated the Hiroshima Carp on three hits over the course of eight shutout innings and two errors lead to two free runs in a 3-0 Dragons victory at Hiroshima Municipal Stadium that kept them in the pennant chase. Kan Otake started for the fish and had a very honorable outing, eight innings, three runs (one earned) on six hits while striking out five and walking two, but Yamai's slider, with which he got 19 of his 24 outs, was more than they could handle. 

Chunichi second baseman Masahiro Araki singled to left in the first and stole second. A groundout moved him over to third and leftfielder Masahiko Morino singled to center to drive Araki in. One out later, third baseman Norihiro Nakamura and centerfielder Byung-kyu Lee both walked to load the bases. Rightfielder Takehiro Donoue grounded to first baseman Kenta Kurihara, who booted it, and Morino crossed for a 2-0 lead. Catcher Motonobu Tanishige flied out to strand the runners. 

Hiroshima second baseman Akihiro Higashide singled to begin the bottom of the inning, but Yamai elicited four straight groundouts and struck a man out before walking rightfielder Shigenobu Shima in the second. But Yamai kept the ground balls coming, and the Carp transgressed the outfield, including the knocks, only seven times during his stint. 

Otake sued the whole panoply of out possibilities, but in the fifth, Morino singled to right with two outs and first baseman Tyrone Woods hit a fly ball to centerfielder Alex Ochoa, who geeked it and Morino circled the bases to up it to 3-0. 

Hitoki Iwase went out for the ninth looking for his 43rd save and Ochoa doubled to the wall in left, but three groundouts later, it was over. Iwase is within one of league leader Kyuji Fujikawa.

For Chunichi, Woods was 2-4 and is at .273. Lee was 0-3 with a walk and is at .291. 

For Hiroshima, Ochoa was 1-4 and is at .309. 

A doctor has reportedly recommended that outfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto have offseason knee surgery. He injured ir in July but has been playing through it and that has resulted in him now having trouble with his Achilles tendon. 

Yomiuri The Giants held an intrasquad game Sunday to try to stay sharp. First baseman Seung-yeop Lee drove in the only run of the contest with an RBI single. 

One of the two sides was comprised of the team's regulars so that they could get a shot at facing some lefthanded pitching in preparation for facing projected Swallows starter Masanori Ishikawa and Yokohama's Kimiyasu Kudoh. 

But reserve outfielder Takahiro Suzuki sat the day's practice and game out with a cold. 

For those of you who are dyed in the wool Giants fans, they are having a quiz contest surrounding their history. The prizes aren't much, but if you're interested anyway, go  here.

Miscellaneous Tampa Bay second baseman Akinori Iwamura made his debut at that position and went 1-4 with a walk in am 8-5 victory over Toronto. 

Seattle centerfielder Ichiro Suzuki was 1-3 with a walk in a 4-2 win over Texas. He finishes his season at .351, the second highest average in all of MLB to AL bbating champion Magglio Ordonez. 

Cardinals outfielder So Taguchi was 0-1 in a 6-5 triumph over Pittsburgh. 

Colorado edged Arizona 4-3 Sunday to go to a one game playoff Monday with San Diego. Second baseman Kazuo Matsui was 0-4 to end up his year at .287.