Daiei second baseman Tadahito Iguchi leadoff the game with a single to left and shortstop Munenori Kawasaki singled to center. Leftfielder Pedro Valdez grounded into a 4-6-3 double play. Either before or while first baseman Nobuhiko Matsunaka was walking, Iguchi somehow scored to make it 1-0. There is no wild pitch, passed ball or stolen base in that sequence, so I don't know how it happened. 

In the second, Shibahara cannonades a shot off of a beam at the back of the first level of the rightfield seats about 390 feet away to extand that lead to 2-0. He also got himself a $27,000 check for hitting the beam, which was adorned with advertising for a real estate company. 

Nippon Ham counterattacked in the bottom of the frame, as Yoshinori Ueda singled to right with one away and, following another out, second baseman Kuniyuki Kimoto singled to right. Shortstop Makoto Kaneko singled to right to drive Ueda in and make it 2-1 Hawks. 

Arakaki struckout the side in the third. So in the fourth, Oshimoto plunked Maatsunaka and catcher Kenji Johjima singled to left. Shibahara poleaxed one into the rightfield bleachers and it was 5-1 Hawks. It was the first time in Shibahara's career that he had gone yard in back to back at bats. 

Nippon Ham had men on second and third with one out in the fourth and left them there. 

In the sixth, Daiei rightfielder Kazuhiko Miyaji homered to rightcenter to put his team up 6-1. 

They added another in the seventh on a walk to Kawasaki, an infield hit by Valdez and a single to right by Matsunaka that goosed it to 7-1. 

In the bottom stanza, Nippon Ham put men on first and second with nobody out planted them there, as the next nine men were retired in order to lock it up for the Hawks, who were now within half a game of Seibu. It also submerged Nippon Ham to one game under .500. 

It should be noted that while Arakaki was clocked at a high of  97mph, he had more usuully been maxing out at around 92mph during the game. 

Fumiya Nishiguchi started for the Lions and went six innings of four run ball (three earned) on six hits to absorb the loss. 

Kintetsu dissolved a scoreless deadlock in the third, as centerfielder Naoyuki Omura reached on a two out infield hit and second baseman Eiji Mizuguchi pinged a shot off the centerfield wall for an RBI double to make it 1-0.

Next time up, Barnes singled to right, first baseman Hirotoshi Kitagawa walked and rightfielder Daisuke Masuda singled to left to chase Barnes in for a 2-0 advantage.

Seibu reduced the disparity in the seventh when leftfielder Kazuhiro Wada singled to right and first baseman Masahide Kaizuka singled to center. One out later, shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima singled to center and Wada crossed to put it at 2-1 Kintetsu. The next two men couldn't get out of the infield and Powell never had another major problem with Seibu again. 

But in the bottom segment, Seibu centerfielder Tatsuya Ozeki dropped Omura's fly ball and Nishiguchi walked Mizuguchi. Tetsuya Shiozaki entered from the bullpen for his first appearance of the season and, one out later, he made a bad pickoff throw that enabled the runners to move up. Third baseman Norihiro Nakamura was then intentionally walked to pack the sacks. Barnes got a sinker and lifted it into the rightcenterfield seats for a grand slam and a 6-1 lead. Kitagawa singled to right. Kazuyuki Hoashi relieved Shiozaki. Pinch hitter Hiroaki Onishi grounded to third baseman Jose Fernandez, who threw it away and now there were men on second and third. Shortstop Masahiro Abe squeezed Kitagawa in, who had to be taken out after a collision with catcher Toru Hosokawa, and it was 7-1. 

In the eighth, backup second baseman Yosuke Takasu legged out an infield hit against Ono and Nakamura reached on an error by second baseman Hiroyuki Takagi. Barnes cleaned and jerked one beyond the centerfield wall and the Buffs had a 10-1 stampede. 

Mizuguchi became the eighth player with 250 bunts in Japanese history. 

For Barnes, aside form the homers, it was his first three hit game of 2004. Plus he did all this with his wife Angie in the stands. 

Seibu tied a season worst with four errors. 

I usually don't even cover this because I think the player of the week and month awards are bogus, but for what it's worth this time around, Hisashi Iwakuma won pitcher of the month for the second month  straight, the first time it has been done by a Japanese pitcher in the Pacific League since Mikio Kudoh of Nippon Ham in 1982. Iwakuma's teammate, Jeremy Powell, pulled it off in 2002. 
 

The Fighters have decided to try to sign 19 year old Brazilian righthander Chiago DaSilva. He combines an 87mph fastball with a 

Centerfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo missed Tuesday's game with a hamstring complaint.