4/2/2004
4/2/2004
| Carrasco Barely Holds on in Ninth in 10-9 Kintetsu Win | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kobe Kintetsu
Buffaloes starter Hisashi Iwakuma cadged his second win of the season Friday
at Kobe Green Stadium, but it sure wasn't pretty. The lanky righthander
was rocked for seven runs, six earned, on ten hits in seven innings and
inflated his ERA past the 5.00 mark as a result, but Blue Wave hillsman
Koo Dae-sung was only marginally better and the bullpen a joke, so following
a scare on a ninth inning two run bomb off of closer Hector Carrasco by
Yoshitomo Tani, the Buffs carted off a 10-9 win. Third baseman Norihiro
Nakamura slugged his first homer of the campaign and he made it a biggie,
as it lent the winners a lead that they wouldn't relinquish.
It was apparent that this was going to be a real long night for Koo, as leftfielder Hiroaki Onishi mauled a slider and pumped it far into the leftfield bleachers. Second baseman Eiji Mizuguchi walked and then Fumitoshi Takano tomahawked one into the leftfield seats, too, and before the seats were barely warm, it was 3-0 Kintetsu. And Iwakuma couldn't maintain it. In the bottom half, second baseman Koichi Oshima was plunked and Tani rifled a single to right. Then rightfielder Roosevelt Brown took a pitch off his body and the sacks were packed. First baseman Jose Ortiz snapped a single to push Oshima and Tani across. Third baseman Kazuhiko Shiotani singled to right to load 'em back up. Shortstop Mitsutaka Goto grounded to second baseman Yusuke Takasu, who flipped it to Abe for the force while Brown crossed the plate. Somehow, another run scored in this sequence and it became 4-3 Orix. However, it would be deja vu all over again in the second, another slider from Koo, another monster jack from Onishi, this one to rightcenter, and it was tied up at 4-4. Iwakuma put the Orix hitters away 1-2-3 in the home segment and his teammates then went back to work on Koo, as Takano walked and Nakamura singled to center. First baseman Hirotoshi Kitagawa walked and once again, the bags were juiced. One out later, Abe flew out to to center and Takano tagged up and busted in for a 5-4 Buffs advantage. That would be shortlived. Tani singled to right to kick off the bottom of the third and Brown torqued a double to leftcenter. After a popout, Shiotani grounded out to Abe to plate Tani and it was even at five all. By this point, it's hard to say why Koo wasn't yanked, but he was dispatched to the mound for the fourth and coughed up a one out single to Onishi. At least he kept him in the ballpark. Mizuguchi walked. Takano went down on strikes, but Nakamura walked to jam the basepaths. Koo then nailed Kitagawa to force Onishi in with his third run scored of the contest to put the score at 6-5 Kintetsu. Onishi was hit on the elbow by reliever Hiroshi Kobayashi in the fifth and was removed from the game. Fortunately, x-rays were negative. But like a scratched record, Iwakuma kept playing the same old tune. Oshima and Tani thumped doubles to leftcenter and it was a pair of sixes on the scoreboard. Probably fatigued from all the running around, the offenses were relatively quiet until the seventh, when the lull was broken by Orix DH Hirano's homer to right. But we all know how long THAT lasted, right? In the top of the eighth, pinch hitter Osamu Hoshino walked off of reliever Jun Hagiwara and, one out later, Nakamura canonaded a slider nearly to the Sea of Japan by way of leftfield and Kintetsu was back in the driver's seat 8-7. Kitagawa got a hanging curve and went upper tank to right on it to widen that to 9-7. An inning down the road, Kintetsu catcher Akihito Fujii walked and came around on an infield single, a single to center and a pinch hit sac fly from Kenshi Kawaguchi to make it 10-7 Buffs. To their credit, the Blue Wave didn't cave. With one out, centerfielder Arihito Muramatsu whizzed a double to leftcenter. One out later, Tani kabonged a Carrasco offering into the rightfield bleachers and manager Masataka Nashida was reaching for some ulcer medicine at 10-9. Just to roil Nashida's insides even more, Takasu booted Brown's grounder and that meant that Jose Ortiz was up with a chance to win this thing. However, he grounded to short and this little farce was a memory. Orix headman Haruki Ihara was livid. His staff has been abused for 39 runs in five games, an average of 7.8 per nine and he doesn't feel that he has any hurlers he can trust right now. His team is hitting .315, but it doesn't help if the opposition is doing similarly against his rotation and bullpen. Rotsa ruck!
E: Takasu, M. Abe
Season Series: Kintetsu 1, Orix 0 Game Time: 3:45
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| Kanemura Outpitches Matsuzaka 5-1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sapporo The headline here is
that Seibu Lions righthander Daisuke Matsuzaka is no longer undefeated
at Sapporo Dome, as he took it on the chin against Nippon Ham Friday 5-1.
Satoru Kanemura started for the Fighters and pleased the surprisingly large
throng of 35,000, allowing a run on five hits in 6.1 innings for his first
2004 victory. The Lions have now dropped four in a row.
Why was the size of the turnout so astonishing? There were two inches of snow on the ground and it was 33 degrees at game time plus it was Nippon Ham, perhaps the most anonymous team in Japan. So hats off to the fans in Hokkaido. Fighters rightfielder Tomochika Tsuboi swung on the
first delivery he saw from Matsuzaka commencing the first and fileted it
down the rightfield line for a double. One out later, third baseman
Michihiro Ogasawara walked. Seibu catcher Kosuke Noda then had a pitch
he should have handled get by him for a passed ball and the runners
They tacked on another two in the second when leftfielder Yoshinori Ueda and DH Tomoyuki Oda singled to left and they moved up on a sac bunt. Shortstop Makoto Kaneko walked to load the bases. Tsuboi grounded out to second to redeem Ueda. Centerfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo's grounded to shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima, whose peg to first was funbled by Taketoshi Goto for an error and Ueda legged it in to make it 3-0 Fighters. Seibu had the bases packed in the fourth with two gone, but Goto grounded out to quash the uprising. In the fifth, Nippon Ham got a double into the rightfield corner from Seguignol and a double off the centerfield wall by Kuniyuki Kimoto and the disparity was 4-0. Kanemura went into the seventh and tired. This time, though, the Fighters third rate pen did the job. Nakajima singled to left but was thrown out trying to steal. Goto walked. Backup catcher Toru Hosokawa thrummed a two bagger to leftcenter. Kanemura was replaced by Akio Shimizu. Second baseman Hiroyuki Takagi grounded out to second to make it 4-1 Fighters. Yokoyama was brought in and he walked Hiroshi Hirao. Tatsuya Ozeki went up to pinch hit and grounded out to preserve the three run Nippon Ham advantage. The Fighters would see that tally in the eighth when Kimoto singled to right, stole second, went to third on a groundout and scored on a sac fly by Oda to raise it to 5-1. Itoh retired three of the four men he faced in the last half of the ninth and it was over. Matsuzaka was clocked at 93mph and is now 6-1 at Sapporo lifetime. Shinjo was hitless but made a nifty back to the plate
running catch of a deep drive to rightcenter in the sixth, having to fully
stetch out to snag it.
E: T.T. Goto, Kimoto 2
Season Series: Seibu 0, Nippon Ham Game Time: 3:05
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| Lotte Sneaks Past Daiei on Sayonara Walk | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Makuhari, I don't know if this
is right, but it's no secret that aside from last season, Daiei has had
a lot of trouble with the Chiba Lotte Marines over the years. But one of
the Japanese sports dailies claims that the Hawks have dropped their last
12 when Bobby Valentine was running the show for Lotte. If that's true,
that is good psyche material. But on the other hand, this is a much
better edition of the Hawks than in 1995 and that is going to end, probably
sooner rather than later. But let's talk about the latest loss by the Fukuoka
contingent to the men from the east of Tokyo a 5-4 affair that went right
down to the wire.
Lesley Gulin started for Daiei was buffeted pretty badly in the second inning, but then settled down to get through the seventh, emerging with a no decision. That's because reliever Shinji Kurano walked centerfielder Toshio Haru on a 3-2 slider in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded to hand Lotte a sayonara victory. Naoyuki Shimizu started for Lotte and went eight solid innings of three run ball on five hits only to see usually deadly closer Masahide Kobayashi victimized by a game tying solo homer from catcher Kenji Johjima. Thus, Kobayashi vultured the win when Haru waited out Kurano. Daiei went on top in the first, as shortstop Munenori Kawsaki got aboard on an infield hit and second baseman Tadahito Iguchi blasted a Shimizu pitch into the leftcenterfield seats to make it 2-0. However, Lotte DH Seung-yeop Lee singled to right in the second and, one out later, third baseman Matt Franco doubled down the leftfield line, with Lee rumbling all the way around to score from first. Catcher Tomoya Satozaki cashed Franco in with a sijngle to center. Following another out, shortstop Makoto Kosaka lined a double to leftcenter and Satozaki ste the control for the heart of home plate and made it safely. Haru flew to leftfielder Pedro Valdez, who geeked it and Kosaka blazed in with a 4-2 advantage. Lotte then had second baseman Koichi Hori on third on a double and groundout with one out in the third but squandered it when leftfielder Benny Agbayani struckout and Franco flew out to extinguis the threat. Daiei made it a one run game in the fourth when first
baseman Nobuhiko Matsunaka walked and Johjima
Kobayashi entered for the ninth and was greeted by Johjima crushing his forkball into the leftfield bleachers to deadlock it at 4-4. Masato Kawano then came out to face Lotte in the bottom of the inning and Masato Watanabe singled to center off of him and then went to second on a sacrifice. Kawano then intentionally walked Satozaki and struck Kiyoshi Hatsushiba. Manager Sadaharu Oh dialed local for Kurano and he induced a popout. That brought up Haru, who worked the count full before Kurano threw a slider wide of the plate to force Watanabe in with the game winner. Gulin was only clocked in the low 80's, but for the
most part displayed excellent control to compensate for the lack of velocity.
E: Johjima, P. Valdez
Season Series: Daiei 0, Lotte 1 Game Time: 3:04
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Team Reports
| Daiei | |
| Second year lefthander Tsuyoshi Wada made a minor league rehab start Friday and went seven shutout innings on three hits. However, he uncharacteristically walked four. Manager Sadaharu Oh thinks | that Wada is now ready to come back with the big club and may start
on the ninth against Nippon Ham at Fukuoka Dome.
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