In any event, Daiei first baseman Nobuhiko Matsunaka went 5-5 with three RBIs, including two homers, in falling a triple short of the cycle
while catcher Kenji Johjima went 2-4 with five RBIs to stoke the pillaging and hand Lotte its sixth consecutive kuroboshi. 

The beneficiary of  this was lanky righthander Nagisa Arakaki, who went all the way on a five hitter and strukout ten. 

Satoru Komiyama started for Lotte and, with one out in the first, shortstop Munenori Kawasaki mortared one into the rightfield bleachers. One out later, Matsunaka followed Kawasaki's lead and exited to the righthand side, too, for a 2-0 lead.

In the second, Komiyama boarded the train for palookaville. DH Julio Zuleta singled to center and was advanced to second on a sacrifice. One out later, third baseman Mitsuru Honma got behind 0-2 and then singled to center to plate Zuleta. Second baseman Tadahito Iguchi singled to left for an RBI. Kawasaki singled to left. Leftfielder Pedro Valdez singled to right to cash Iguchi in. Matsunaka doubled down the rightfield line and Kawasaki crossed. Johjima howitzered a shot into the leftfield stands to make it 9-0. Zuleta singled to center. Centerfielder Yudai Deguchi then homered to left and it was 11-0. Valentine finally went to the bullpen and Koji Takagi obtained the third out. 

Takagi, it seemed, had restored some semblance of order, not allowing a run through the fifth. But the Hawks gave him a right round kicking in the sixth. Reserve third baseman Mizuki Tanaka double to center. Iguchi singled to left and then stole second. With an 11 run lead? One out later, Valdez singled to right and both runners crossed. Matsunaka pinged a shot off the rightfield fence for a double. Yasuhiko Yabuta replaced Takagi. Johjima doubled down the leftfield line and it was 15-0. One out later, reserve centerfiel.der Takeshi Tsuji grounded to third baseman Matt Franco, who threw it away and Johjima scurried on home to put it at 16-0.

Dan Serafini worked a scoreless seventh, but in the eighth and with Soichi Fujita at the center of the diamond, Matsunaka went yard to right. Johjima walked. Zuleta bludgeoned one off the rightfield wall for a long single. Tsuji doubled into the leftcenter gap and Johjima and Zuleta leadfooted it to the promised land. Rookie pinch hitter Akihiko Kato, in his first pro game, singled to center for two more and his initial career knock to make it a ridiculous 20-0. 

Now it was Masahide Kobayashi's tunr to stink it up in the ninth. Fill in first baseman Ryo Yoshimoto singled to right and during the next two hitter's at bats, scored on three wild pitches. No, that's not a typo. That's the seventh time in Japanese history a pitcher has found the fencing behind the plate thrice in an inning. That put the score at 21-0, topping the 20-2 humiliation suffered at the hands of the Nippon Ham Fighters on the 12th.

Arakaki spun a flawless ninth and another Lotte nightmare was history.

Matsunaka has four homers in his alst three games. 

The 24 hits and 21 runs by Daiei are the most produced by any team this season. 

On the margin of victory in a shutout front, this one is tied for third all time. The record was 26 by Kinki Great Ring (a permutation of the Hawks) on July 15, 1946 against Goldstar. Second place was a 22-0 wipeout against Kintetsu bu Seibu on 9/1/1992. The other 21-0 routs were by Taiyo against Hanshin on 5/9/1979 and Seibu against Daiei on 5/7/1997. 

On the reason the public apology ordered by Valentine may have been a good thing, after the last game of the 1996, then manager Akira Eijiri, who had replaced Valentine in a wildly unpopular decision by general manager Tatsuro Hirooka, didn't offer an apology for the 
club's fifth place showing, so a group estimated at about 1000 assembled at the front gate of Chiba Marine Stadium and called for Ejiri to protrate himself in front of them. A brawl  with the stadium's security guards ensued and riot police had to be called, a real suprise for the normally mild mannered Lotte fanbase. 

Lotte is 1-11 in May. It perhaps bears some reminding, though, that the team was mired in fifth when Valentine had his first tour of duty in Chiba and then thry caught fire and just missed catching Seibu for the pennant. 

Nippon Ham starter Carlos Mirabal still hasn't gotten untracked yet and his ERA is now up around 7.00 after he was folded, stapled and mutilated for seven runs in 3.1 innings on seven hits, four of them longballs. 

Orix asserted itself rightaway, as second baseman Koichi Oshima singled to left with one away and Tani airmailed one into the leftfield seats. One out later, first baseman Jose Ortiz unloaded a monster missile into the leftfield bleachers and it was 3-0.

Nippon Ham had two on and nobody out in the second, but left them on the basepaths. In the bottom of that inning, Orix rightfielder Keiichi Hirano homered to right to make it 4-0. 

Ortiz then lambasted a Mirabal delivery into the leftfield stands with one out in the third for a 5-0 advantage.

Nippon Ham posted its first tally of the evening in the fourth when first baseman Fernando Seguignol leaned on a Motoyanagi offering and put it in the rightcenterfield bleachers to make it 5-1.

Mirabal came back out for the home half of the fourth and catcher Takeshi Hidaka doubled to leftcenter and Hirano walked. Both runners were sacrificed over (now that makes sense; you got a guy on the ropes and you give him a free out). Manager Haruki Ihara ordered up a squeeze and Oshima got it down. However, Mirabal tried to get the runner at second and threw it away. Tatsuhito Kato was summoned from the bullpen and Tani singled to left and Hirano trotted in for a 7-1 lead.

The Fighters rebelled for a run in the fifth on a single to right by rightfielder Tomochika Tsuboi, a single to left from Centerfielder Tsutomu Ishimoto that enabled Tsuboi to turn iton for third, as a gounder to second off the bat of DH Tomoyuki Oda that made it 7-2 Orix.

With Orix rookie Tatsuo Kato on the mound in the seventh, Nippon Ham drew closer on a one out single to right by Tsuboi, a two out HBP to Oda, and a single to center by Seguignol and they were within a grand slam of tying it at 7-3.

Orix swelled it to five again in the eighth when third baseman Tomotaka Tamaki singled to left, went to second on a sacrifice and headed in on a two out single to center by centerfielder Arihito Muramatsu and the scoreboard read Orix 8, Nippon Ham 3. 

Kazuo Yamaguchi, though, disappated almost all of that in the top of the ninth. With one away, Yamaguchi nailed Tsuboi with a pitch. Ishimoto walked. One out later, Seguignol singled to left to drive Tsuboi in. Leftfielder Angel Echevarria dynamited one into the leftfield 
stands and it was 8-7.  Third baseman Kuniyuki Kimoto reached on an error by Oshima. Takashi Aiki was inserted from the bullpen and catcher Shinji Takahashi grounded out to save it, his first lifetime. 

Ihara is now thinking that Yamaguchi, whose velocity is still off, needs to another breaking pitch. It could be that his shoulder just needs some time off. 

Ortiz has five homers in his last six games while Seguignol has homered in three straight. 

In the statistical quirks category, Orix has won its last seven when 20,000 or more are in the stands at home. Saturday, a big crowd of 32,000 showed up. 

But it really looked ugly for Onuma in the first. With two outs, DH Kenshi Kawaguchi singled to right and third baseman Norihiro Nakamura killed a hanging slider and conked it off of a seat in centerfield. Rightfielder Koichi Isobe also drilled a shot into the centerfield stands and it was 3-0 Buffs.

Wada opened the second by doing a long distance runaround on Kawajiri to left to make it 3-1. 

The Lions then drew alongside the herd in the third on a one out single to right by second baseman Hiroyuki Takagi, a walk to centerfielder
Shogo Akada, a  single to left from DH Hiroyuki Shibata that packed the sacks and, one out later, Wada singled to left to redeem Takagi and Akada for a 3-3 deadlock. First baseman Masahide Kaizuka walked to reload the bases. However, rightfielder Tatsuya Ozeki grounded to first for the third out. 

Kintetsu had two on and nobody out in the home episode, but a one out double play ball eliminated the opportunity.

In the sixth, Kaizuka homered to right and the Lions had their first lead at 4-3. 

They tacked on another in the seventh when Shibata singled to left, third baseman Jose Fernandez walked and Wada singled to right to put it at 5-3 and knock Kawajiri out of the game.

In the eighth, shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima put the bomp in an Akira Okamoto pitch and landed it in the leftcenterfield seats to make it 6-3. 
When the Kintetsu faithful heard the announcement that Hector Carrasco was entering the game, they booed him loudly as he made his way to the mound. With one out, Shibata walked and stole second. Wada singled to left to plate him and that was how it ended, 7-3. 

A Buffs pitching coach told the press after the game that he doesn't feel he can use Carrasco in close games. Manager Masataka Nashida 
averred that fan unhappiness with the former Twin might make it harder for him to use Carrasco in the future. Should Hector just ask for his release now? Ort maybe they can trade him for Lew Ford. 

Kawajiri believes he was getting squeezed by the plate umpire and believes that it threw him off mentally, thus the less than optimum performance. 

Nakamura's jack was his first in nine games. He needs three more for 300 lifetime. 

A plaque with Bobby Valentine's likeness that was installed in a