A grand slam by backup leftfielder Tetsuya Kakiuchi Sunday at Sapporo Dom highlighted a five run uprising by the Chiba Lotte Marines in the seventh inning to overcome a 2-1 deficit and take it 6-2 against the Nippon Ham Fighters.  Reliever Masahide Kobayashi was credited with the win after tossing a scoreless inning while Shuichi Iwashita absorbed the defeat. 

This was veteran hulrer Tsutomu Iwamoto's retirement game, so he started and gave up a leadoff single to second baseman Koichi Hori. Tsuyoshi Shinjo and manager Trey Hillman came out to the mound to take him out, Felix Diaz taking his place. Diaz was touched for a one out single to right by first baseman Kazuya Fukuura, but pitched out of it.

The Fighters then seized the upper hand in the home half against Lotte starter Yasutomo Kubo, when second baseman Kuniyuki Kimoto singled to right and rode DH Fernando Seguignol's double to left home. First baseman Tomoyuki Oda walked. Rightfielder Hichori Morimoto flew to left, but leftfielder Matt Franco dropped it and Seguignol rolled on in to the plate to make it 2-0. 

Kubo was touched for two singles in the second and a leadoff double in the third, but wriggled out of those predicaments. In the fourth, Lotte then halved their disparity with the Fighters when rightfielder Benny Agbayani took Diaz over the leftfield wall. Diaz surrendered two singles in the frame, too, but neutralized them and he finished his assignment with a 2-1 advantage. 

Things slowed down offensively until the seventh, when Lotte jumped on Iwashita. pinch hitter Akira Otsuka doubled to left and pinch hitter Toshiya Tsuji singled to center. Third baseman Takaya Hayashi singled to center to plate Otsuka. Both runners advanced on a sac bunt. Hiroshi Shibakusa was ushered in from the bullpen and shortstop Masato Watanabe walked to swell the bags. One out later, Kakiuchi got a first pitch slider and absolutely flattened it, leaving it halfway up the leftfield bleachers to pull Lotte into a 6-2 lead. Nippon Ham would muster only one hit per inning the rest of the way and that was the ballgame. 

The Nippon Ham players then gathered around and threw Iwamoto into the air a few times as a sendoff. 

For Lotte, Agbayani went 1-3 and is at .500 while Franco was 0-4 and is at .143.

For the Fighters, centerfielder Jose Macias was 1-3 and is at .308. Seguignol was 1-2 and is at .167. 

Chunichi Dragons reliever Yuichi Hisamoto blew a two run ninth inning lead to result in a 5-5 tie with the Orix Buffaloes Sunday 
at Kobe Green Stadium in front of 11,247. The late rally saved a defeat for starter Dan Serafini, who was victimized by the Buffs trademark shoddy defense during a four unearned run second to put his side behind the eight ball. 

Hisamoto also cost teammate Yuya Ishii a win, as Ishii twirled four superb shutout innings on one hit, setting the hitters up with his fastball and slider and then going in for the kill with his screwball and changeup, the latter a pitch he just added to his repetoire. 

So let's go to the second, where rookie shortstop Yanagida singled to right with one away and, one out later, DH Kazuyoshi Tatsunami singled to right as well. Buffaloes third baseman Shogo Makita mishandled second baseman Masahiro Araki's ground ball to load the bases. Rightfielder Atsushi Fujii beat out an infield roller to push Yanagida across. Third baseman Masahiko Morino scorched a triple up the rightcenter gap to clean up the basepaths and make it 4-0 Dragons. 

They tacked on another run in the sixth against rookie Chihiro Kaneko on a one out single to right from Tatsunami, a two out infield hit by Fujii and an RBI single to left by Morino to widen it to 5-0. 

Unfortunately, Chunichi reliever Yoshihiro Suzuki allowed Orix to get back into the game in the bottom segment, as leftfielder Yoshitomo Tani singled to center with one down and pinch hitter Mitsutaka Goto singled to center, too. One out later, reserve first baseman Hirotoshi Kitagawa drilled a triple to right to send them homeward. Rightfielder Cliff Brumbaugh doubled to left and Kitagawa eased in to shrink the gap to 5-3. 

Both sides were brought to a standstill for the seventh and eighth, but then Hisamoto ascended the hill for the last of the ninth. Centerfielder Keiichi Hirano singled to center, as did Makita. Shortstop Akira Tanaka doubled to left and Hirano scored. One out later, substitute leftfielder Ryota Aikawa walked to pack the sacks. Eiji Mizuguchi was asked to pinch hit for Goto and legged out a ground ball to the left side and Tanaka busted in with the tying run. However, pinch hitter Masahiro Abe popped up and it ended in a standoff. 

The battle for the regular third base job got a little hotter, as Tatsunami had three hits and Morino four. Morino, though, had been hitless in the three games beforehand while Tatsunami did produce some knocks in that time. 

Aside from being shaken down for the one run, Kaneko threw pretty well, going four innings on four hits and striking out three on 64 pitches. 

For Orix, Serafini ultimately went three innings and permitted seven hits, struck out two and walked one while being clocked at 91mph. Jason Grabowski started at DH and was 0-3 to drop to .364. Brumbaugh was 1-3 and is at .281. 

For Chunichi, first baseman Tyrone Woods was 0-1 with a walk and is at .000. Leftfielder Alex Ochoa doubled in two at bats and is at .375. 

Claudio Galva walked two in a scoreless inning, allowing no hits. 

Eight different players knocked in at least one run for Yomiuri Sunday at Fukuoka Dome and Softbank starter Junji Hoshino punched his ticket to the minor leagues with another horrendous outing in a 9-1 Giants victory. Shinnosuke Abe, starting at DH, 
connected for a two run homer, his first of the spring. 

Shigeki Noguchi finally had a productive day for Yomiuri, lightfingering a win with three innings of one run ball on four hits. He was followed by Gary Glover, who dominated the Softbank lineup for three frames and permitted just one hit on a remarkable 25 pitches without fanning anyone. 

Hoshino, though, was rocked for six runs on nine hits in three innings and was called the loser. 

Yomiuri rightfielder Yoshiyuki  Kamei got the kyojin off on the good foot by doubling to left to open the game and, one out later, cruised in on a double to deep center by shortstop Tomohiro Nioka. Abe was next and he powdered a hanging slider into the rightfield stands for a 3-0 lead. 

Kamei was involved in another Giants run in the second, as first baseman Motohiro Yoshikawa singled to center and, one out later, catcher Takanori Hoshi sent the runner to third with a single to right. Kamei lifted a fly ball to left and it was deep enough to permit Yoshikawa to tag up and get home to stretch it to 4-0.

The Hawks put Noguchi on the ropes in the second, but couldn't finish him off. Third baseman Nobuhiro Matsuda singled to center and DH Kazuhiko Miyaji singled to right, Matsuda flying to third on the play. First baseman Tomoaki Egawa grounded out to second to get Matsuda in and make it 4-1. Centerfielder Hisao Arakane walked. Second baseman Yusuke Torigoe singled to right to load the bases. Catcher Naoki Matoba, though, struckout for the first of two times on the day and thaT would pretty much be it for the Softbank offense, as they had a mere four hits the rest of the way. 

In the third, the Giants used singles to center by leftfielder Takayuki Shimizu and third baseman Mototsugu Kawanaka, an RBI single to left by Yoshikawa and a double to right by centerfielder Ichiro Horita that plated Kawanaka to put themselves in control at 6-1. 

Two innings later, they put it in the refrigerator against Akira Matsumoto, as Shimizu and Kawanaka each doubled to right for one run, Yoshikawa singled to right, Horita went to first on an HBP that loaded the bases, and Hoshi flied out to center so that Kawanaka could tag up and cROss the plate. Backup rightfielder Taka Miura walked to reload the bases. Second baseman Makoto Kosaka flew out to left for the second sac fly of the inning (how often do you see THAT?) and it was 9-1. The last half of the game was largely an obligatory exercise. 

Kamei has batted in the one hole in the last three games and hit in all of them. 

Hawks reliever Hiroshi Shibakusa was ejected under NPB's kikenkyu (dangerous pitch) rule for hitting the one man he faced, backup first baseman Shunsuke Hara, in the head
. 
Including intrasqaud games, Glover is now unscored upon in his last 11 innings. 

Matoba has started three games behind the plate and the Hawks were defeated in all of them and the pitchers he handled have run up a composite ERA of 6.65. 

Softbank A coach told the press Sunday that beginning Tuesday, the team will be shifting into regular season mode and will be seeking to win their remaining exhibition games to generate good  momentum before the bell rings.