5/7/2004
5/7/2004
| Box Scores are Here: Click onto Numbers on Scoreboard |
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| Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture Seibu Lions
manager Tsutomu Itoh got a couple of unexpected performances Friday that
enabled him to restore his three game margin on the second place Daiei
Hawks when power-challenged rightfielder Tatsuya Ozeki boosted a three
run homer and starter Onuma, in his first season in that role, wove a three
hit shutout for a 3-0 vistory over the Nippon Ham Fighters. Koji Onuma,
who had surrendered six homers in only 22 innings coming in, was clocked
at 92mph.
Nippon Ham was missing its great third baseman, Michihiro Ogasawara, due to an oblique strain, which may have helped account for the lack of production by the Fighters on the evening. Tsutomu Iwamoto started for Nippon Ham and, aside from the one mistake, pitched pretty well, going six innings of four hit ball while striking out eight and walking four. Nippon Ham had its only vague chance to send a run across in the first when centerfielder Tsutomu Ishimoto singled to center and was sacrificed to second by centerfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo. The ex-Hanshin Tiger and Met now has five sacrifices, the most ever for him in one season. However, the next two men grounded out and, aside from a pair of knocks from Tomoyuki Oda, that was it for the Fighters offense the remainder of the game. The Lions grabbed all they needed in the third when catcher Toru Hosokawa singled to right and Hiroshi Hirao walked. One out later, Ozeki got a fastball that was up and tailing in toward the inner half of the plate and tomahawked it into the rightfield seats to make it 3-0. They muffed a bases loaded, two out opportunity in the fifth when leftfielder Hirokazu Wada struckout. Seibu wouldn't do a thing the rest of the match and that is how it ended. |
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| Makuhari, Chiba Prefecture Despite Kevin Beirne
and four relievers being touched for 11 hits, they held the Chiba Lotte
Marines offense to a lone run Friday at Chiba Marine Stadium to make third
baseman Norihiro Nakamura's fourth inning three run clout stand up in a
3-1 Kintetsu Buffaloes victory. Beirne is now 2-0.
Naoyuki Shimizu, the Lotte starter who normally gives Nakamura a hard time, tossed 7.1 solid innings, but just didn't receive the necessary run support for a victory. The offenses of both sides were going absolutely nowhere until the fourth, when centerfielder Naoyuki Omura singled to right and went to second on a sac bunt. DH Kenshi Kawaguchi singled to left. Nakamura crushed a 1-0 89mph fastball on a low line just beyond the centerfield wall (estimated distance: 405 feet) and it was 3-0 Kintetsu. The chunky slugger is now only ten homers away from taking over the all time club record in that category. The mark is currently held by Masahiro Doi, who cranked 305 while he was with the Buffs. Lotte could have messed Beirne up bad in the sixth, as they amassed two singles and two walks, but got zero out of it due to shortstop Makoto Kosaka being thrown out attempting to steal. First baseman Seung-yeop Lee flew out to center with the bases loaded and two outs and that was that. They pushed a run across in the seventh on a single to center by third baseman Kiyoshi Hatsushiba and, one out later, pinch hitter Tasuku Hashimoto singled to center that got Hatsushiba over to third. Toyohiko Yoshida replaced Beirne. Leftfielder Matt Franco reached on an infield hit and Hatsushiba scored. Second baseman Koichi Hori also got aboard on an infield hit to load the bases. But DH Kazuya Fukuura whiffed and Lotte rapped two more hits during the final two innings, Fukumori striking out the side in the ninth to save it. Hatsushiba, who appeared to be washed up, has revived himself under manager Bobby Valentine's tutelage, currently hitting at .314 with an.878 OPS. Matt Franco has been on fire recently as well, raising his average to .345. But Lee is down to .238 and Kosaka, who had three hits, is at .208 and has been an easy out most of the season. Lotte is kind of confounding, They aren't doing that poorly with
runners in scoring position with the exception of Benny Agbayani, who is
.233 in those situations. Kosaka and their two main catchers have an OBP
in the .280 range, but the others are doing at least average. They do suffer
from not having a true OBP hit producer with speed at the top, so now they
are using Franco there, hardly known as a fleet footed kind of guy. But
he won't have many RBI opportunities unless Kosaka and the catching corps
can start getting on more frequently at the bottom of the lineup. If they
can improve at the bottom and Masahide Kobayashi can regain his form of
seasons past, this team could still be dangerous, but they had better do
it soon before Daiei and Seibu's pitching gets back in line and they begin
pulling away from the pack.
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| Fukuoka Daiei Hawks rookie Takahiro Mahara
absorbed his first pro defeat Friday at Fukuoka Dome, as he allowed a two
run lead to abandon him in a three run uprising by the Orix Blue Wave in
the fourth in what turned into a 4-3 loss to the Kobe contingent. Trey
Moore, high ERA (6.99) but lots of victories, is halfway to another double
digit season in wins after holding the Hawks to three runs in five innings
for his fifth shiroboshi of the campaign. I will talk about Moore's numbers
later.
The Hawks went out to a 2-0 lead in the first when second baseman
Tadahito Iguchi got aboard on a two out infield hit and first baseman Nobuhiko
Matsunaka walked. Catcher Kenji Johjima singled to centerto plate Iguchi.
Leftfielder Pedro Valdez singled to center to drive
But in that fourth inning, rightfielder Roosevelt Brown reached on a bleeder between third and the mound with one away. First baseman Jose Ortiz walked. Shortstop Mitsutaka Goto doubled up the rightcenter alley and Brown rambled in. Hidemitsu Saito walked to load the bases. Catcher Takeshi Hidaka flied out to right and Ortiz tagged up and crossed with the tying run. Mahara nailed Keiichi Hirano with a pitch to repack the sacks. Centerfielder Arihito Muramatsu walked to force Goto in and make it 3-2 Orix. They had a briefer flurry for their next tally in the fifth on a
single to left by DH Yoshitomo Tani, a single to right by Brown and a
Hawks rightfielder Yudai Deguchi leadoff their turn with a double to leftcenter and Iguchi singled him in. Moore then induced a pair of ground balls and a flyout to holdon to the 4-3 lead. The Hawks should have won this thing since Orix relievers Jun Hagiwara
and Hisashi Tokano walked the bases loaded in the eighth with nobody out,
but that also brought up the bottom of the order and two groundouts and
a strikeout later, that offensive endeavor was history.
Yamaguchi's velocity was a little off in this one, as he was clocked
at between 90-91mph. He still got the job done and that is all that matters
Because Orix is batting a collective .310, Moore has had enough run
support to overcome the following ugly numbers:
Yikes! Because Moore is such a gutsy SOB, his teammates like playing
behind him, but he needs to stanch the bleeding since he has been putting
such heavy pressure on his teammates in the batting order already. A good
run of strong outings could really energize this club, though they don't
have enough pitching to contend for the pennant unless they just bludgeon
the league to death. It's tough to see that happening, however.
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Team Reports
| Orix | |
| The team has dispatched a couple of scouts to the U.S. ostensibly to look at possibilities for next season. Club officials deny that it is with an eye to replacing Koo Dae-sung, who earlier said that he wanted to | return to Korea to play due to the way he is being treated by manager Haruki Ihara. |
