In a thrilling see saw faceoff between Japanese pro baseball's most prominent ballclubs, the Hanshin Tigers completed a three game sweep of the Yomiuri Giants with a ten inning 9-8 verdict at Tokyo Dome Sunday. Hanshin starter Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi was dispatched to the showers early after surrendering three runs on three hits and four walks in three innings, so reliever Tomoyuki Kubota was accorded the win after fashioning a scoreless ninth, his seventh.

Hisanori Takahashi started for the Yomiuri and went four innings of five run, ten hit ball in a no decision. 

Tigers shortstop Takashi Toritani kicked off the confrontation with a double to leftcenter and rightfielder Osamu Hamanaka singled to right. Third baseman Andy Sheets singled to center to cash Toritani in for a 1-0 lead. But a groundout, a strikeout and a popup kept them from realizing more out of the opportunity. 

The Giants pushed back in a big way in their turn, as rightfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi walked and went to second on a wild pitch. Leftfielder Kenji Yano doubled into the leftfield corner and Takahashi toed the dish. Third baseman Michihiro Ogasawara singled to center to plate Yano. First baseman Seung-yeop Lee singled to right and Ogasawara landed at third. Shortstop Tomohiro Nioka walked to load the bases. Catcher Shinnosuke Abe flied out to center and Ogasawara tagged up and scored to make it 3-1. A shallow flyout and a groundout shut the uprising down. 

In the second, Hanshin second baseman Kentaro Sekimoto singled to left with one out and was sacrificed to second. Toritani beat out a ground ball toward short, but Sekimoto attempted to sneak into home and was gunned down there for the final out. 

However, in the third, Hamanaka went yard to leftcenter to trim it to 3-2. 

Then they equalized it in the fourth, as Sekimoto walked with two gone and Keisuke Kano, pinch hitting for Shimoyanagi, whistled a shot down the rightfield line that went as a run scoring triple that put it at 3-3. Toritani hit one right on the screws, but at Nioka, to strand Kano. 

The Tigers subsequently seized the upperhand in the fifth when Hamanaka outran a ground ball for an infield hit and Sheets doubled down the leftfield line. Leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto doubled to the wall in left for two RBIs to pull in front at 5-3. One out later, Takahashi was given the boot in favor of Satoshi Fukuda, who, following another out, plunked catcher Akihiro Yano. But Sekimoto grounded to first and that was that. 

The Giants would compensate for that in their ups, as Darwin Cubillan nailed Kenji Yano with a delivery and Ogasawara walked. One out later, Nioka doubled against the leftfield fence and hailed Yano in. Abe grounded to second and Ogasawara checked in to level it at five all. Centerfielder Damon Hollins grounded to short, though, to leave the other runners loitering. 

Kentaro Nishimura, who has been worked like a pack mule recently, entered for Yomiuri in the top of the seventh and a bench clearing brawl nearly broke out. Sheets commenced the frame with a groundout to third, but he stepped on Lee's left foot as he went by. Giants shot caller Tatsunaori Hara leapt out of the dugout and got in Sheet's face, asking him in english why he did it. Both dugouts emptied and Hara and Hanshin headman Akinobu Okada got into it and had to be pushed away from each other. Sheets said afterward that Hara came out just as he was about to apologize to Lee. Eventually, things simmered down and play resumed. One out later, backup first baseman Ikuro Katsuragi walked. Reserve centerfielder Norihiro Akahoshi doubled into the rightfield corner. Akihiro Yano doubled to leftcenter and both Katsuragi and Akahoshi journeyed home to nose ahead 7-5. Sekimoto reached on an infield hit. Atsushi Fujimoto walked to pack the sacks. But Toritani flew out to left to blow a huge shot at breaking it open. 

Unfortunately, Hirotaka Egusa was picked from the bullpen to throw the bottom of the inning and he walked Lee with one out. Nioka socked one over the rightfield wall and it was another deadlock at 7-7. For those wondering why Kubota, Jeff Williams and closer Kyuji Fujikawa are seeing so much action, it is mainly due to the failure of Egusa to provide another consistent bullpen arm to make up for thw fact that the club's starters don't go very deep into games (1.65 WHIP). Yeah, his ERA looks good, but he has been bailed out time and again and that was in evidence here. 

They would also put two on with two outs in the eighth, but Lee popped up to short to foil it. 

Both sides went hitless in the ninth and so it moved into the tenth, where Koji Uehara, in his fourth appearance in six matches, ascended the hill and Sekimoto singled to center and was sacrificed to second. Toritani went gapping to rightcenter for an RBI triple. Scrubeenie rightfielder Toru Fujiwara got a heater up in the zone and wacked it into right to point Toritani home to make it 9-7. 

Fujikawa, however, would give Tigers fans a heart attack in the bottom portion in his tenth appearance in as many games. Pinch hitter Takayuki Shimizu singled to center. Following a pair of strikeouts, but during them he also uncorked a wild pitch that put Shimizu on second. Ogasawara singled to left to usher Shimizu in. Lee walked to put the go ahead run on. But Nioka struckout and it was game setto. 

Concerning the incident with Sheets, Lee stated that he thought about retaliating, but he didn't because of the presence of children in the stands. Right. It was probably because he didn't want to risk another injury in a fight. He also said that "you just can't do [what Sheets] did. It could have caused a serious injury." A Giants officials grumbled to reporters that he believes that Sheets did it intentionally. 

This was the first ever that Yomiuri has been swept at home by the Hanshin in the wake of three one run decisions. It dropped the Giants into third in the standings 1.5 games behind the Tigers. 

Takahashi surpassed 1000 career innings in this one. 

The Tigers have won ten straight for the first time in 25 years and Fujikawa's ten outings in ten games tied a Central League record that was last matched by the Taiyo Whales Fumio Kubo in 1983. Fujikawa was clocked at 93mph and says that his lower body is fatigued. 

Hanshin has locked up the season series with their hated Tokyo rival. 

For Yomiuri, Lee was 1-4 with two walks and is at .278. Hollins was 1-4 and is at .267. 

For Hanshin, Sheets was 2-6 with two strikeouts and is at .249. Just to beat on Egusa a little further, Cubillan's ERA is higher, but his WHIP is 1.27 and his OBA is .251 compared to Egusa's .268. Moreoever, Egusa has double the number of walks in nearly as many innings as Cubillan. Ryo Watanabe has thus been a godsend, but he wasn't brought up until the season was well underway after Williams, Kubota and Fujikawa had already burned up a lot of innings. 

The Chunichi Draons got off the launching pad Sunday with four runs against Yakult and thus pulled off a three game sweep of the Swallows at Nagoya Dome, the final here being 4-1 to stay within 1.5 games of first place Hanshin. Kenichi Nakata went seven innings of one unearned run ball on four hits while striking out ten and walking one for his 12th win. 

Seth Greisinger started for the birds and went four innings of four run, seven hit ball to regress to 14-6. 

Shortstop Hirokazu Ibata fired the first shot of that first inning fusillade for the Nagoya crew when he doubled off the leftfield wall and and second baseman Masahiro Araki singled to right. Third baseman Norihiro Nakamura singled to center to tally Ibata up. First baseman Tyrone Woods crashed a shot off the rightcenterfield fence to spring Araki in. Leftfielder Masahiko Morino singled to left and Nakamura tooled home. Centerfielder Byung-kyu Lee singled to center and converted Woods for a 4-0 lead. The next two men struckout and Nakata grounded out. The Dragons bats then took the rest of the night off, manufacturing only three more singles before quitting time. 

Yakult put two on with two outs in the second, but a strikeout bogged that down. 

Nakata would retire the succeeding six in a row until Ibata misplayed shortstop Shinya Miyamoto ground ball and, one out later, catcher Ryohei Kawamoto's ground ball was mishandled for another error. Mitsuru Manaka pinch hit for Greisinger and walked to load the bases. Centerfielder Norichika Aoki flied out to right and Miyamoto tagged up and crossed to shave it to 4-1. Second baseman Hiroyasu Tanaka grounded to short fot the third out and the Swallows would do little from there on in. mustering only a two out single in the sixth and a two out double in the eighth. 

Hitoki Iwase took the hill for the ninth for Chunichi and worked a 1-2-3 inning for his 150th career save. 

Nakata now leads the CL in strikeouts with 150, three more than Yomiuri southpaw Tetsuya Utsumi. 

Yakult is a season worst 22 games under .500. 

For Chunichi, Woods was 1-3 and is at .279. Lee was 1-3 and is at .262. 

For Yakult, leftfielder Alex Ramirez took a golden sombrerao home with four whiffs in four times up. Rightfielder Aaron Guiel was 1-4 with three strikeouts and is at .249. Greisinger was 0-1 and is at .085. Brian Sikorski also got into the game and twirled two scoreless innings on a hit, a walk and three strikeouts to lower his ERA to 3.60. 

The Yokohama Bay Stars barely averted being swept at Hiroshima Municipal Stadium by the Carp, as second baseman Toshihisa Nishi doubled to leftcenter in the top of the tenth to drive catcher Ryoji Aikawa in with the winning run in a 4-3 final. Kan Otake went seven innings of three run, five hit ball in a no decision.

Toiling for the Stars was Hayato Terahara, who went six innings of two run, seven hit ball while striking out eight and walking one in a no decision. That win, consequently, was vultured by closer Mark Kroon, who was tagged for the tying run in the ninth. 

Yokohama third baseman Shuichi Murata got his side off on the good foot in the second, as he belted an Otake offering into the rightfield seats for a 1-0 lead. 

They built that up further in the second when Terahara reached on an infield hit with one away and, one out later, shortstop Kazuya Fujita singled to center. Centerfielder Tatsuhiko Kinjo doubled to right and both Terahara and Fujita put it in fourth for the plate to make it 3-0. They would produce only one more hit through nine. 

But in the fourth, Hiroshima third baseman Takahiro Arai creamed one into the centerfield bleachers to pare it to 3-1. 

Carp catcher Yoshiyuki Ishihara then doubled to center with one gone in the fifth and, following another out, shortstop Eishin Soyogi tripled to right and Ishihara motored in to get within 3-2. Second baseman Akihiro Higashide, though, grounded out to paralyze Soyogi. 

They would threaten again in the sixth, as centerfielder Alex Ochoa doubled to right and went to third on a groundout. But a lineout to third and, after a walk, a grounder to short canceled the show. 

They would put two more on in the eighth with two outs, but pinch hitter Shigenobu Shima flew out to center and interrupted the festivities. 

Kroon passed through the bullpen gate for the ninth and struck the first two men out, but Soyogi singled to left and Higashide walked. Ochoa singled to right and floated Soyogi home to knot it at three. Arai flied out and it went into extra innings. 

Katsuhiro Nagakawa assumed the mound duties for the Carp and retired the first batter he took on, but Higashide booted Aikawa's ground ball and, one out later, Nishi drove a ball to the wall in left. Leftfielder Tomonori Maeda had some trouble finding the handle on it and by the time he was able to relay it back to the infield, Aikawa had raced home for a 4-3 edge. 

Yuji Yoshimi and Takeharu Kato combined to get three of the four men they saw between them in the bottom segment to turn the lights out.

For Hiroshima, Ochoa was 2-5 and is at .336. 

For Yokohama, Matt White also got into the game and tossed one-third of a scoreless inning on a hit and a walk and is at 5.64. 

Miscellaneous Yankees leftfielder Hideki Matsui ended an 0-22 drought with a 1-3 day (he also walked), as his club bested Kansas City 6-3 for their fifth straight win. They are four up on Detroit for the wild card. Matsui is currently hitting .292.

Kei Igawa has also rejoined the big club after spending considerable time in AAA.

In any event, Boston kept pace with their AL East rivals by edging out Baltimore 3-2. Hideki Okajima tossed another scoreless inning in the eighth. He was clocked at 91mph. 

Daisuke Matsuzaka will face those Yankees on the 14th. 

Mariners centerfielder Ichiro Suzuki was 3-4 and scored four runs to make it 100 on the year in a 14-7 rout of the Tigers to halt their four game losing streak. However, they have altogether dropped 13 of their last 15. Ichiro is the only man to have seven straight seasons of 200 hits, 100 runs scored and 30 steals in MLB history. 

Catcher Kenji Johjima was beaned in the third but stayed in and ultimately went 0-4. 

Ichiro also reportedly had another go at the umpires in MLB, referring to a bad call Saturday on a close play at first as "so absurd you can only laugh at it." He has yet to be disciplined for his statements concerning the declining quality of officiating in MLB and one wonders if commissioner Bud Selig and his subordinates are afraid to do so for fear of a backlash from the Japanese public. 

Takashi Saito made some noises about considering retirement after this season, but that has been put on hold as he is reportedly interested in pitching again for the Dodgers in 2008. 

Cardinals outfielder So Taguchi was 0-3 with a walk in a 6-5 loss to Arizona. 

Tampa Bay third baseman Akinori Iwamura was 1-4 with three strikeouts in a 3-2 triumph over Toronto. 

Philadelphia infielder Tadahito Iguchi was 2-4 with a walk in his first start at second in six games in an 8-5 win over Florida. 

The Chinese national baseball team played NTT Higashi Nihon's industrial league nine Sunday and battled them to a 3-3 tie. 

The Ibaraki Golden Golds beat Hideo Nomo's ballclub in the Japanese club baseball tournament Sunday. 

Osaka Toin High slugger Sho Nakata formally declared hsi intention to go pro Sunday and said that he doesn't care who drafts him.