4/3/2004
4/3/2004
| Minchey, Kobayashi Hold Daiei to Four Hits in Lotte Victory | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Makuhari, Chiba Prefecture A
bases clearing double from leftfielder Benny Agbayani and a pair of RBIs
from third baseman Matt Franco provided Chiba Lotte Marines starter Nathan
Minchey with the necessities for
posting his first win of 2004, as they forced the Daiei Hawks into a 5-2 defeat Saturday at Chiba Marine Stadium. Daiei starter Kazumi Saito fell to 1-1 on the season, as he never got comfortable and put Lotte in position for a sweep as well as in first place in the Pacific League for the first time in three years. Lotte exploited a defensive lapse by the Hawks in the third to break a scoreless standoff, as rightfielder Takashi Tachikawa walked and went to second on a sacrifice. Centerfielder Toshio Haru grounded to third baseman Mitsuru Honma, who booted it to allow Tachikawa to insinuate himself into third. Franco flew out to left and Tachikawa tagged up and crossed the plate to make it 1-0. In the fourth, Agbayani inaugurated the fourth by doubling
off the centerfield fence and going to third on a sac bunt. With the infield
up, though, catcher Tasuku Hashimoto's grounder to first wasn't enough
to bring the ex-Met
However, Saito couldn't hold the Marines back in the
fifth. With one away, Haru walked. Following a flyout, DH Kazuya Fukuura
singled to right. First baseman Seung-yeop Lee, who is looking increasingly
comfortable against Japanese pitching, walked to load 'em up. Agbayani
worked the count to 3-1 and Saito threw him a slider that he
In the seventh, Franco mortared one into the rightfield stands to broaden the Lotte advantage to 5-0. Minchey was working on a one hitter before Daiei centerfielder Hiroshi Shibahara homered off the rightfield foul pole with two outs in the eighth to negate the possibility of shutout, but it was still 5-1 Lotte. The big righty mosied out to the mound for the ninth
and was bullied for a double to rightcenter by second baseman Tadahito
Iguchi and a double off the leftfield wall by first baseman Nobuhiko Matsunaka
to make it 5-2.
Agbayani has had a lot of back problems in the past, so the team's conditioning coach has been working with him on preventing injury to that area, including having him drop 11 pounds. In the wake of a horrid spring, Agbayani seems to be settling in. Now it will be a matter of how long his health holds out.
E: Johjima, M. Honma, Lee, Kosaka
Season Series Daiei 0, Lotte 2 Game Time:
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| Can't We Get Anybody Out? Orix Gets Seven in the Eighth to Bounce Kintetsu 14-10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kobe Geez, this is getting embarrassing!
The Pacific League is becoming the no pitching circuit and it was all hands
on deck and man your battle stations Saturday at Kobe Green Stadium, where
the Orix Blue Wave prevailed in another of a recent SPATE of such track
meets 14-10 over the Kintetsu Buffaloes. If I were a member of the Orix
pitching staff, I would be perusing the want ads. I mean, it's so bad that
it seems weird that the team ERA isn't any higher than the 8.00+ they are
at now. They're giving up runs like a Chicago alderman hands out favors.
So to spare the families of the hurlers who were responsible for this mess, I won't mention their names. So let the carnage begin! In the first, Kintetsu second baseman Eiji Mizuguchi walks and rightfielder Koichi Isobe singles to right. Third baseman Norihiro Nakamura singles to left and it's 1-0 Buffs. One out later, DH Kenshi Kawaguchi bastes one off the glove of Orix shortstop Makoto Shiozaki and Nakamura pads across the plate to inflate that to 2-0. Orix rebounded with a three spot when it came to bat, as centerfielder Arihito Muramatsu singled to center, went to second on a sac bunt and scored on a single to center from leftfielder Yoshitomo Tani. Rightfielder Roosevelt Brown nine irons one up the leftcenter alley for an RBI double. So does first baseman Jose Ortiz and the home team is up 3-2. After a respite in the second, it was back on the chain gang in the third, when Kintetsu centerfielder Naoyuki Omura singled to center and Mizuguchi singled to right, setting the stage for a three run homer by rightfielder Koichi Isobe to left to send the Buffs ahead 5-2. One out later, first baseman Hirotoshi Kitagawa singled to center and was out on a subsequent 4-6 force play. Daisuke Masuda singled to center. Shortstop Masahiro Abe singled to right for an RBI. Catcher Akihito Fujii singled to right to plate Masuda and it was 7-3 Kintetsu after three. Mizuguchi leadoff the fourth with a single to center and sprinted in on a one out double into the leftfield corner by Nakamura to improve the extent of the Kintetsu hegemony to 8-3. But Orix catcher Takeshi Hidaka walked with one down in the bottom of the frame and went to second on a wild pitch. One out later, Keiichi Hirano singled to center and it was 8-4 Buffs. They acquired two more runs in the fifth on a walk to seocnd baseman Koichi Oshima, a sac bunt (four runs down?) and, one out later, Ortiz dented the rightfield fence for an RBI double. Pinch hitter Manabu Satake singled to right to make it 8-6. Next time up, Ortiz singled to left and Saito got aboard on an infield hit, but one of those two made an out on the basepaths before Hidaka tripled into the rightfield corner to contract the gap to a run. Shiozaki lifted a fly ball to Isobe, who made an accurate throw to the plate and Hidaka was a dead man and the inning was over. Neither team had batted around yat, so Orix fixed that
in the eighth. Hirano leadoff with a drive into the rightfield bleachers
to even it at eight all. Muramatsu singled to right. One out later, Tani
walked. Brown flew out to left, but Ortiz and Saito each walked to force
Muramatsu in with the lead run. Hidaka walked to push another in. Pinch
hitter Takeshi Yamasaki whistled a shot up the leftcenterfield gap and
it was 1,2,3, runners blazing home on the double. Yamasaki went to third
on the relay to the plate. Mukae beat out a ground ball toward third and
Yamasaki
Kintetsu would splatter a deuce on the big board in the ninth when Kitagawa singled to center and Fumitoshi Takano doubled to leftcenter. Chikazawa doubled down the leftfield line to convert the runners. The Buffaloes bats then went catatonic and that was your final. Tatsuo Kato obtained his first pro win with a 4.2 inning two run effort.
E: Takasu, A. Fujii, Y. Tani, Ortiz
Season Series: Kintetsu 1, Orix 1 Game Time: 4:06
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| Seibu's Pitching Sucks a Little Less 11-9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sapporo Seibu Lions third baseman
Jose Fernandez drove in four runs and relievers Shinji Mori and Kiyoshi
Toyoda combined for three innings of shutout relief after starter Koji
Mitsui went up in flames to edge Nippon Ham Saturday at Sapporo Dome 11-9.
Fighters starter Carlos Mirabal received a thorough hiding by the Lions,
seven runs on ten hits in four innings, so it devolved to a battle of the
bullpens and the home side lost.
Seibu went on the offensive from the outset, as DH Hiroyuki Shibata got aboard on an infield hit and went to second on a groundout. Fernandez stepped in and wacked a single to center to redeem Shibata. One out later, centerfielder Masahide Kaizuka burned one up the leftcenter alley and Fernandez sojourned around the bases for the second run and a 2-0 Lions advantage. They turned another one in when Shibata walked with two gone in the second and rightfielder Hiroyuki Oshima singled to right. Fernandez punched a single to left and Shibata had another run scored to make it 3-0. That was the former Antgel's first run batted in since Opening Day. Nippon Ham shortened the disadvantage to two again in the bottom of the stanza when DH Angel Echevarria doubled off the leftfield wall and, after going to third on a groundout, first baseman Yukio Tanaka slingshotted him in with a hotshot down the leftfield line and it was 3-1 Seibu. The Fighters grabbed a tally in the third, too, as shortstop Makoto Kaneko singled to center. Centerfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo reached on an error and, one out later, Echevarria singled Kaneko in to put things at 3-2 Lions. In the fourth, though, the Tokorozawa brought out the field pieces and put Mirabal away. Takagi walked with one away. One out later, Oshima thumped an 87mph fastball that was on the inner half of the plate and up into the rightfield bleachers. Fernandez unloaded a cruise missile more than 400 feet to leftcenter and it was 6-2. Leftfeilder Kazuhiro Wada made it back to back to back jacks by going upper tank to left and the Lions thought that things were well in hand at 7-2. Wrongo! Nippon Ham hit Mitsui with some major fury of their own in the home version, as Tanaka singled to center, catcher Shinji Takahashi walked and Eiichi Koyano singled to left to juice the bags. Kaneko drilled one into the leftcenter alley for two RBIs on the double. Rightfielder Tomochika Tsuboi singled to center to plate two more. Hsu Ming-chieh spelled Mitsui and Shinjo singled to left. Third baseman Michihiro Ogasawara clubbed one offr the centerfield wall and both runners crossed to give Nippon Ham an 8-7 lead. But Seibu catcher Toru Hosokawa powered one into the
leftfield bleachers in the fifth to tie it up at 8-8. Then in the sixth,
Oshima ripped a gapper to rightcenter and blazed around to third, eventually
scoring on Fernandez'
They added more in the seventh on a sijngle to left from Shogo Akada, a sac bunt and, one out later, a single to center by Shibata to attain double figures at 10-8. In the eighth, Wada walked with one out and Kaizuka tripled to rightcenter off of Kiyoshi Sasaki and it was 11-8 Lions. In the bottom of the inning, Takayuki Oda connnected for his first pro homer, a drive to right off of Chikara Onodera, to make it a two run game at 11-9. The Fighters would fail to convert on a subsequent two on, one out opportunity in the same frame and Kiyoshi Toyoda got them to cough up two grounders and a strikeout to secure the triumph in the ninth and terminate Seibu's four game losing skid. Wada's grandfather died on April 1st and the funeral was Saturday, but he didn't attend so that he could play in this game. The last time Seibu had three homers in an inning was 5/12/2003 against Orix at Kobe Green Stadium, with Scott McClain, Hiroshi Hirao and Kazuo Matsui doing the honors. Their last exhibition of back to back to back bombing runs was on 8/29/1997 against Nippon Ham at Seibu Dome in the fourth inning, when Ken Suzuki, Domingo Martinez and Makoto Sasaki pulled it off. The most dingers in a single time at bat by the Lions goes all the way back to 8/6/1961, when they racked up six against Kintetsu at Fujiidera Stadium, tying an NPB record.
E: Nakajima
Season Series: Seibu 1, Nippon Ham 1 Game Time: 3:50
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