Nagisa Arakaki started for the birds of prey and was preyed on himself, as a change he made to his arm angle
in an attempt to add more depth to his curve ball flattened out his usually deadly slider for his second defeat of
the young season. 

Shunsuke Watanabe started for Lotte and continued his hot hand, going all the way despite surrendering four runs on six hits for his second shiroboshi of the year. 

Daiei broke on top in the second, when first baseman Nobuhiko Matsunaka singled to center and, one out later,
leftfielder Pedro Valdez made his a muy grande and left it for a fan in the rightcenterfield bleachers to clean up
to make it 2-0.

Lotte retorted in their ups with a one out walk to leftfielder Benny Agbayani and a two out double to leftcenter 
from centerfielder Jun Inoue that the stocky Hawiian managed to score on to put it at 2-1 Hawks.

In the fourth, Lotte would pull in front and stay there, as first baseman Kazuya Fukuura, after turning on an 
Arakai pitch and rocketing it just foul from here to Xanadu, singled to right. Lee then got a 90mph fastball that was up and on the inner half of the plate and massacred it, arching it completely beyond the rightfield stands and
off the rear windshield of a fan's car, a blast that was estimated at 490 feet. Yes, the ballclub will pay for the damaged glass and Arakaki was a run in the hole at 3-2. Agbayani walked. One out later, Inoue singled to center, Agbayani turning left and getting into third safely. Centerfielder Toshio Haru beat out a roller toward third and 
Agbayani crossed. Shortstop Makoto Kosaka doubled into the rightfield corner for an RBI. Second baseman
Koichi Hori singled to right to plate another. Matt Franco cracked a knock to the right as well and it was 7-2. Matsu replaced Arakaki on the mound. Fukuura, who ignited this offensive orgy, walked to load the bases. Lee looped a double to center for a two RBI double. Makoto Sato was inserted to pitch to Agbayani, who flew out 
to right. Catcher Tasuku Hashimoto walked to reload the bases. But Inoue went down on strikes and the 
scoreboard flashed 9-2 Lotte at the end of four. 

Daiei catcher Kenji Johjima homered to left with one out in the seventh to make it 9-3. But Daiei reliever Kazuhiro Takeoka walked Inoue and Haru, they were sacrificed along, and, one out later, Franco delivered them home with a pea off the centerfield fence to push them across and this one was over for all practical purposes at 11-3.

Daiei would add one final tally on a Tadahito Iguchi single, a stolen base and a couple of groundouts, but that was their last hurrah and Lotte had a sweep.

According to Japanese press reports, there is either a 100 foot high wall or light tower that Lee had to surmount to land the ball in the parking lot. Is that right? In any event, the biggest blast of his career with Samsung in the
KBO was 440 feet, so this monster surpassed it by a while. It was just the third ball ever slugged out of 
Chiba Marine Stadium, the other two being by Lee Stevens and Alex Cabrera. "That he kept that ball fair really says something," commented Daiei manager Sadaharu Oh. A fan found the ball and gave it to Lee, who confessed to feeling pressure to hit a homer with his father watching him from the stands. With the dinger in the books now, Lee senior is heading back to his homeland. 
 

Daiei	IP	BF	PC	H	HR	K	BB	R	ER	ERA
Arakaki (L, 0-2)	3.1	20	88	8	1	4	3	9	8	15.75
Matsu	0.0	2	11	1	0	0	1	0	0	0.00
Sato	1.2	7	26	1	0	1	1	0	0	2.08
Mise	1.0	4	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	6.75
Takeoka	2.0	10	35	1	0	1	3	2	2	6.75

Daiei	Shibahara (CF)	Kawasaki (SS)	Iguchi (2B)	Matsunaka (1B)	Johjima (C)	Matoba C	Valdez (LF)	Zuleta (DH)	Honma (3B)	Torigoe SS	Ide (RF)	Deguchi PH, RF	Totals
AB	4	4	3	4	3	1	4	3	2	1	1	2	32
R	0	0	1	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	4
H	1	0	1	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	6
RBI	0	0	0	0	1	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	4
AVG	.273	.242	.300	.375	.258	.000	.296	.308	.000	.167	.231	.333	.269

Lotte	IP	BF	PC	H	HR	K	BB	R	ER	ERA
Watanabe (W, 2-0)	9.0	33	115	6	2	5	1	4	4	2.57

Lotte	Hori (2B)	M.Watanabe	Franco (3B)	Fukuura (1B)	Lee (DH)	Agbayani (LF)	Morozumi PR, LF	Hashimoto (C)	Inoue (CF)	Haru (RF)	Kosaka (SS)	Totals
AB	4	0	5	4	5	2	0	4	4	3	3	34
R	2	0	1	1	1	2	0	0	2	1	1	11
H	1	0	2	1	2	0	0	0	2	1	2	11
RBI	1	0	2	0	4	0	0	0	1	1	1	10
AVG	.323	.500	.259	.323	.300	.250	.000	.143	.300	.120	.190	.242

E: M. Kawasaki, S. Ide, Franco
SB: Iguchi, Franco, Hori
2B: J. Inoue, Kosaka, Lee, Zuleta, Franco
HR: P. Valdez (3), Lee (1), Johjima (3)
Sac: Kosaka
K: Matsunaka, Johjima, Honma, S. Ide, Deguchi, Franco, Lee, Hashimoto 2, J. Inoue, Haru
BB: Hori, Agbayani 3, Iguchi, Fukuura, Hashimoto, J. Inoue, Haru
GIDP: Franco (4-6-3), M. Kawasaki (4-6-3)
LOB: Daiei 2, Lotte 8

Season Series: Daiei 0, Lotte 3

Game Time: 2:58
Attendance: 17,000
Umpires: Yamamoto )HP), Shinya (1B), Yanagita (2B), Kakigizono (3B)

Mitsutaka Goto started for Seibu and was not good, permitting five runs on six hits in six innings, but got the
victory thanks to bigtime run support. 

Itsuki Shoda's career continues to go down the tubes after being sliced and diced for seven runs on four innings. You gotta believe that number one draft choice Yoshio Itoi is going to get a start soon after the recent string of debacles perpetrated  by the current Fighters staff. 

Okay, time to tour this carney midway of a game. Seibu snatched an early edge when centerfielder Shogo Akada
got aboard on an infield hit and was sacrificed to second. DH Jose Fernandez singled to right. Leftfielder 
Kazuhiro Wada grounded out to short and Akada was in to make it 1-0.

Goto had control problems and, following an infield hit by centerfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo with one out, third baseman Michihiro Ogasawara walked, as did leftfielder Angel Echevarria to pack the sacks. One out later,
second baseman Kuniyuki Kimoto singled to right and both Shinjo and Ogasawara galloped in for a 2-1 Fighters
lead. 

Seibu, though, would repossess the upper hand in the fourth on a one out walk to shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima, who went to second on a groundout and then skated home on a deep drive to leftcenter that Shinjo just missed flagging down, but it took a high bounce off the artificial surface and Hosokawa was able to rumble all the way to third. Second baseman Hiroyuki Takagi slapped one off of Shoda for an infield hit and an RBI to make it 3-2 Lions.

But Nippon Ham fought back in its turn, as Tomoyuki Oda laced one into the rightfield corner that went for a triple. One out later, normally light hitting shortstop Makoto Kaneko boomed one into the leftfield seats to lend
the Fighters a 4-3 advantage. Rightfielder Tomochika Tsuboi went yard to right and it was 5-3.

The Lions countermanded that in the fifth with an infield hit from Tomoaki Sato, a single to center by Fernandez, a walk to Wada that filled the bases and an RBI  single to center from Hiroshi Hirao. Naoyuki Tateishi replaced Shoda. One out later, Tatsuya Ozeki flew out to right and Fernandez tagged up and crossed. Hosokawa drilled one into the leftfield bleachers, good for three runs and an 8-5 lead. 

Seibu would later on abuse reliever Akio Shimizu in the eighth, as Hosokawa leadoff by swinging at the first pitch he saw and dropped a broken bat single into center to complete the cycle. He was sacrificed along and sailed home on Akada's triple off the rightfield fence. Sato singled to right to hit double digits at 10-5. Fernandez singled to right, Sato sliding into third. Wada flew out to right and Sato tagged up and hustled in to make it 11-5. 

Nippon Ham went nine up, nine down during the final three innings to close this one out in a silent way. 

The Fighters starters have a collective ERA of 9.00. Hillman noted that this may be having a negative effect on
the offense, who may be asking themselves just how many runs they have to put up every night to win. Hillman is
a class act all the way and it's too bad to see him having to endure this. 

Seibu	IP	BF	PC	H	HR	K	BB	R	ER	ERA
M. Goto (W, 1-0)	6.0	26	94	6	2	4	3	5	5	7.50
Onodera	1.0	3	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	2.08
Hoshino	1.0	3	13	0	0	0	0	0	0	5.40
Onuma	1.0	3	10	0	0	1	0	0	0	6.35

Seibu	Akada (CF)	Sato (RF), LF	Fernandez (DH)	Shibata PR, DH	Wada (LF)	Oshima RF	Hirao 3B	Nakajima (SS)	T.H.Sato (1B)	Ozeki PH	Nakamura 1B	Hosokawa (C)	Takagi (2B)	Mizuta 2B	Totals
AB	5	4	5	0	3	0	5	4	2	0	2	5	1	0	36
R	2	2	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	3	0	0	11
H	2	2	3	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	4	1	0	13
RBI	1	1	0	0	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	4	1	0	11
AVG	.231	.333	.313	.250	.214	.217	.154	.313	.000	.333	.000	.583	.304	.000	.277

Nippon Ham	IP	BF	PC	H	HR	K	BB	R	ER	ERA
Shoda  (L, 0-2)	4.0	23	84	8	0	1	3	7	7	18.47
Tateishi	0.2	3	10	1	1	0	0	1	1	.257
Sasaki	1.1	5	20	0	0	0	1	0	0	5.79
Shibakusa	1.0	3	15	0	0	1	0	0	0	0.00
Shimizu	1.0	7	28	4	0	1	0	3	3	13.50
Kato	1.0	3	19	0	0	3	0	0	0	8.31

Nippon Ham	Tsuboi (RF)	Shinjo (CF)	Ogasawara (3B)	Echevarria (LF)	Ueda LF	Shimada PH, LF	Seguignol (DH)	Kimoto (2B)	Narahara 2B	Oda (1B)	Nakajima (C)	Y.Tanaka PH	Kaneko (SS)	Totals
AB	4	4	3	1	0	1	4	3	1	4	3	1	3	32
R	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	5
H	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	0	1	6
RBI	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	2	5
AVG	.300	.310	.296	.222	.556	.000	.360	.300	.000	.529	.000	.500	.235	.307

E: T. Hoshino
SB: H.Y. Shibata, K. Wada
2B: Hosokawa
3B: Hosokawa, Oda, Akada
HR: Kaneko (1), Tsuboi (2), Hosokawa (2)
Sac: Sato, H. Takagi
SF: Ozeki, K. Wada
BB: M. Ogasawara, Echevarria, H. Takagi 2, H.Y. Nakajima, K. Wada
HBP: Echevarria (M. Goto)
GIDP: Oda (4-6-3), K. Shimada (6-3)
LOB: Seibu 6, Nippon Ham 3

Season Series: Seibu 2, Nippon Ham 1

Game Time: 3:27
Attendance: 35,000
Umpires: Sakaemura (HP), Tsugawa (1B), Akimura (2B), Nakamura (3B)

hosokawa need a single and did it on a first pitch shuuto. he broke his bat on that knoc,k. he is the 59th in histroy to do that. the last lion to do with was kazuo matsui in 2000. four lions have done it in club history. he is playing due to noda's sprained ankle. nippon ham's starters have an ERA of 9.00 so far.