5/8/2004
5/8/2004
| Box Scores are Here: Click onto Numbers on Scoreboard |
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| Fukuoka With Hayato Terahara not showing the
kind of velocity in the pros he did in high school and Nagisa Arakaki's
velocity way down in the early going, one had to wonder if Daiei
Hawks pitching coach Takao Obana was perhaps at fault, that he wasn't suited
to handling power pitchers. Of course, this isn't to put everything on
Obana since Arakaki still has some maturity issues to deal with in his
second year in the pros, but Saturday, the lanky righty cranked up the
heat to 94mph and went 8.1 innings that, while not exactly smooth, he did
step up substantially the second half of the match to grab a 7-3 victory
over Orix at Fukuoka Dome. However, his control was a big issue in this
one, as he walked five.
Orix starter Kazuya Motoyanagi, after being tagged for four runs through four, kept his team in the game while pitching into the seventh before reliever Hiroshi Kobayashi opened the barn door and allowed the Hawks to invade at will in the eighth. Arakaki is very lucky to have survived those first four innings. In the first, he walked the game's first hitter, centerfielder Arihito Muramatsu, who advanced on a sac bunt. Leftfielder Yoshitomo Tani singled to right. Rightfielder Roosevelt Brown singled to left to redeem Muramatsu for a 1-0 lead. First baseman Jose Ortiz then attempted to pull one of Arakaki's sharp sliders and grounded into a 4-6-3 double play that marred what should have been a bonanza for the Blue Wave. Daiei saw that run and slathered on two more for good measure in the home segment, as Rightfielder Yudai Deguchi reached on an infield hit and leftfielder Pedro Valdez doubled up the leftcenter alley. First baseman Nobuhiko Matsunaka rattled the centerfield fence with a double to send both Deguchi and Valdez across. One out later, DH Julio Zuleta walked. Centerfielder Kazuyuki Takahashi singled to left to drive in Matsunaka and it was 3-1 Hawks. But Orix shortstop Mitsutaka Goto began the second with a single
to center and Ryota Aikawa doubled down the leftfield line. Catcher Takeshi
Hidaka flew out to left and Goto tagged up and strode in to make it 3-2
Hawks. Aikawa went to third on a sacrifice, but Muramatsu
In the fourth, it became a new ballgame when Goto leadoff with a double to leftcenter and Aikawa singled to right for a 3-3 tie. Daiei responded by obtaining the edge once more in their ups when Takahashi's one out grounder was misplayed by second baseman Koichi Oshima for an error. Third baseman Mizuki Tanaka singled to right and second baseman baseman Mitsuru Honma singled to center on a slider for the RBI and a 4-3 Hawks lead. They could have then broken it open in the fifth, as Valdez singled to right with one away and Matsunaka scorched a double down the rightfield line. Catcher Kenji Johjima was intentionally walked to load the bases. But Zuleta grounded into a double play and that possibility was neutralized. Arakaki permitted only one hit and two walks between the fifth and the eighth. Daiei reloaded and toppled Kobayashi in the bottom of the eighth. Matsunaka ignited it with a single to center and Johjima doubled off the leftfield wall. Zuleta was intentionally walked to set up a force at every base and to get to the far less powerful Takahashi, who struckout. Tanaka singled to left and Matsunaka was in. Honma walked to force a run in. Kato was drafted in from the bullpen. Shortstop Munehiro Kawasaki flew to Muramatsu and Zuleta tagged up and crossed to make it 7-3 Hawks. Arakaki was back on for the ninth and Goto lined out to second. But he walked Aikawa. Hidaka singled to right. Daiei shot caller Sadaharu Oh resorted to rookie reliever Koji Mise, who threw a slider that pinch hitter Daisuke Maeda grounded to Honma, who started a game ending double play for a one pitch save for Kato and the triumph for Arakaki. |
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| Makuhari, Chiba Prefecture Before another nice
crowd of 27,000, Lotte starter Satoru Komiyama scooped up his first Japanese
win since October, 2001 by blanketing the Kintetsu Buffaloes on three hits
and a run over eight innings in a 3-1 victory. Tetsuro Kawajiri, who has
received only about 1.72 runs a game in offensive support from his teammates
in his seven starts, battled valiantly in defeat with eight innings of
three run ball. Boy, with some of the Hanshin rotations struggles, don't
you think they wish they had the veteran sidehander back?
Komiyama, who was clocked at 86mph, and Kawajiri had this one well in their grasp in the early going, as there was only one hit between the two sides over the first three. But in the fourth, Lotte rightfielder Benny Agbayani got a curve ball that was left out over the plate and conked it in the leftfield seats for a 1-0 lead. In the fifth, Lotte centerfielder Kenji Morozumi singled to center with two outs and shortstop Makoto Kosaka got aboard on an infield hit. Second baseman Koichi Hori singled to right to load the bases. Leftfielder Matt Franco singled to center to plate a pair and it was 3-0. Komiyama had relegated Kintetsu to a single over the first seven before they got their act together and used a one out single from rightfielder Koichi Isobe, a walk to first baseman Hirotoshi Kitagawa and a single to right by leftfielder Daisuke Masuda for the RBI to obtain their first run. Shingo Ono was ordered in from the bullpen and got pinch hitter Osamu Hoshino to flyout in foul territory in left, but he walked pinch hitter Fumitoshi Takano to load the bases. Centerfielder Naoyuki Omura then grounded to first to freeze the score at 3-1. Masahide Kobayashi put three of the four men he faced away in a hitless ninth and Lotte's nightmare string of losses was over. |
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| Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture Chang Chia-chiah
walked six, three of them in one inning, but he nevertheless checked the
Nippon Ham Fighters on two runs in seven innings for the Seibu Lions while
leftfielder Kazuhiro Wada and shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima each slugged
two run homers off of Fighters starter Satoru Kanemura and DH Hiroyuki
Oshima claimed two more
RBIs in an 8-2 win. Kanemura gave up seven runs in taking the loss. The Lions were fierce from the opening bell, as Tatsuya Ozeki singled to center and, one out later, Wada unloaded to rightcenter for a 2-0 lead. Nippon Ham second baseman Kuniyuki Kimoto retorted with a solo shot into the centerfield seats in the second to make it 2-1. Then in the third, Chang walked DH Tomoyuki Oda, centerfielder Tsutomu Ishimoto singled to left and leftfielder Angel Echevarria and First baseman Fernando Seguignol each worked walks to force Oda in. However, the next two men struckout and so it was left as a 2-2 deadlock. In the fourth, this time a walk would cost Kanemura, as first baseman Masahide Kaizuka went to first on a base on balls and moved to second on a groundout. Nakajima singled to left. With catcher Toru Hosokawa at the plate, manager Tsutomu Itoh called for the hit and run on a 3-2 pitch. Kanemura ran a fastball right down the middle of the plate that Hosokawa swung and missed on for strike three and catcher Satoshi Nakajima threw to second in an unsuccessful attempt to nail Hiroyuki Nakajima. Kaizuka had already been cheating off of third and when he saw Nakajima release the ball, he busted bigtime for home and made it for a 3-2 lead. It was the first time in Kaizuka's life that he had thieved home. In the following frame, Seibu then put it away when centerfielder Shogo Akada singled to left and, one out later, third baseman Jose Fernandez singled to left for the RBI. After another out, Kaizuka doubled down the rightfield line. Oshima singled to center to usher Fernandez and Kaizuka in. Hayato Nakamura replaced Kanemura and was greeted with a rendition of "Long Stick Goes Boom" from Nakajima to pump it up to 8-2. Nippon Ham would take one last shot at compensating for the difference in the eighth when Seguignol and Kimoto each walked against the rookie Yamazaki and, one out later, Hiroshi Narahara singled to center to load the bases. However, Shinji Takahashi struckout and shortstop Makoto Kaneko popped out. They had a one out walk in the ninth, but Echevarria bounced into a double play to turn out the lights. |
Team Report
| Daiei | |
| Righthander Kazumi Saito made a minor league start Saturday and went five innings of two run ball on five hits while striking out nine. | He probably won't be back up with the big club, though, until the last week of the month. |