Seibu's minor (at least in Japan, where the age at which one becomes an adult is 20) combination of righthander Hideaki  Wakui. and catcher Ginjiro Sumitani, did it again Sunday, as they lead the Lions to a 7-2 victory over the Chiba Lotte Marines to sweep the three game series by a 7-2 margin. To be sure, it wasn't pretty, as Wakui walked six and threw 134 pitches to survive seven innings, but he never allowed them to get the big knock that would have banished him to the showers. and Sumitani threw shortstop Tsuyoshi Nishioka out attempting to steal to keep the Marines under wraps. Only one of the six hits Wakui surrendered waa more than a single, that being a double. 

Kevin Beirne started for Lotte and was better than his farcical outing against Softbank, but his death was that of a thousand cuts and he was gone after five innings of four run ball on eight hits, two walks and 105 pitches, 

The Lions seized the upper hand in the second, as shortstop Yasuyuki Kataoka singled to center with one out and stole second. DH Hiroyuki Nakajima doubled to left and Kataoka was in with a 1-0 lead. One out later, leftfielder Kazuhiro Wada popped one up high and in front of the plate. It was being blown around by the 22mph wind and catcher Tomoya Satozaki muffed it. Nakajima was off like a shot from second as soon as the ball was hit and managed to cross the plate before it stopped rolling around and it was 2-0. It was ruled an error all the way.

In the second, Sumitani singled to center and second baseman Hiroyuki Takagi walked. They were advanced on a sac bunt. Kataoka then reached on an infield hit and Sumitani busted in to grow it to 3-0. 

Lotte answered with a run in the bottom version when first baseman Matt Franco doubled to left and went to third on a wild 
pitch. Satozaki flied to center and Franco tagged up and engaged in some home invasion to halve the disadvantage to 2-1.

Beirne twirled a 1-2-3 third and Sumitani, who had taken a ball in the dirt off of his throwing shoulder, then pegged Nishioka out in the home ups.

Seibu put a little more breathing space between them and Lotte in the fifth, as Nakajima and first baseman Alex Cabrera each singled to left, Nakajima speeding into third. One out later, rightfielder Takahiko Sato singled to center to pick Nakajima up and make it 3-1.

Wakui then had what could have been fatal control problems in the home half. Centerfielder Akira Otsuka singled to center with two outs and Nishioka and third baseman Toshiaki Imae walked to load the bases. DH Kazuya Fukuura walked to force Otsuka in and put it at 4-2. Rightfielder Benny Agbayani, though, grounded to second.

Veteran Koji Takagi, who has been pitching himself out of a career this spring and so far in the regular season, walked Hiroyuki Takagi to initiate the sixth and, following a sac bunt and a strikeout, also walked Nakajima and Cabrera to juice the bags. Wada singled to left and two runners crossed for a 6-2 edge. 

Wakui walked two more in the seventh after two were out and was also done up for a knock to load the bases again, but Agbayani grounded to third and Lotte went hitless the remainder of the day to go quietly.

The Lions tacked on one more in the eighth on singles by Cabrera and Wada and a double to right by Sato and that is how it ended, 7-2. 

Because of the shoulder issue, Sumitani was removed after the fourth and treated the bruise with ice. He is day to day.

When frontline starters Shunsuke Watanabe, Naoyuki Shimizu and Hiroyuki Kobayahsi aren'/t on the mound, the combination of Beirne, Yasutomo Kubo, Shingo Ono and Kosuke Kato are being folded, spindled and mutiliated for 8.2 runs per nine. They are a combined 0-5. 

Lotte lefthanded specialist Soichi Fujita went a scoreless inning, his 439th straight appearance without a start, second most in Japanese history. 

For Lotte, Agbayani was 1-4 and is at .267. Franco was 1-3 and is at .300. Val Pascucci popped out to catcher in a pinch hit appearance and is at .167. 

For Seibu, Cabrera was 2-4 with a walk and is at .300. 

Eight different Nippon Ham Fighters hitters had at least one RBI against Orix Sunday at Kobe Green Stadium, as they cracked a team total of 15 hits and won it in a rout 13-6.  DH Fernando Seguignol lead the way with a 4-5,. two RBI day.

Shintaro Ejiri started for Nippon Ham and he was fabulous for four innings before they figured him out and began to put it to him. His line read 6.1 innings, five runs, ten hits and a walk to swipe his firsat 2006 victory. 

Dan Serafini started for Orix and stunk, as he had his pocket picked for six runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings and he is now 0-2 with an 11.74 ERA. 

Serafini had the bases loaded in the top of the first on two two out hits and a walk before he lured centerfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo into popping out. But the Fighters then dented him in the second. With two gone, shortstop Makoto Kaneko doubled to left and second baseman Jose Macias singled to left to send him in for a 1-0 lead.

Orix got it back in the bottom segment, when Ejiri walked third baseman Norihiro Nakamura, who went to second on a sac bunt, and, one out later, first baseman Hirotoshi Kitagawa singled to left to redeem Nakamura and level it at one all.

Nippon Ham attained some separation in the third, as Seguignol doubled to left with one out and rightfielder Atsunori Inaba singled to right. One the first pitch to Shinjo, the former Met squared around and bunted it down the first base line on a squeeze  play and Kitagawa got to it as Seguignol rumbled home and then fumbled it in what was ruled a sacrifice and a fielder's choice. Now THAT is hometown scoring. Third baseman Kuniyuki Kimoto walked to load the bases. One out later, Kaneko, who has about as many career homers as I do Pulitzer Prizes, walked to force Inaba in and make it 3-1. Macias popped up, but Nippon Ham wouldn't need to look back from that point forward. 

Serafini worked a perfect fourth, but Nippon Ham was only reloading. In the fifth, Shinjo doubled to leftcenter with one out and, one out later, catcher Shinji Takahashi walked. Katsunari Yoshikawa came in to relieve Serafini and Kaneko walked to jam the basepaths. Macias walked to force in a run and leftfielder Hichiori Morimoto singled to left for two more for a 6-1 lead.

Orix countered in their turn on a single to center by DH Karim Garcia and Kitagawa singled to right. They moved up on a groundout. Pinch hitter Eiji Mizuguchi lined out to third. Rightfielder Arihito Muramatsu singled to left to plate Garcia to make it 6-2. Keiichi Hirano flew out, though, to stem the uprising.

In the sixth, it would be time for a little longball, as Seguignol doubled to right with one out and, one out later. Shinjo was intentionally walked (what, does he own Shogo Yamamoto or something?). Kimoto then defenestrated a Yamamoto offering and
left the remains for the folks in the rightfield stands and it was now beyond Orix' control at 9-2.

And might as well make it a trifecta of threes. In the seventh, Morimoto singled to left and hitched a ride on first baseman Michihiro Ogasawara's double to center to the plate. Seguignol hammered a slider on the inner half  into the leftfield bleachers, a two run bomb that was also his 100th dinger for his Japanese career. Only 260 more to go to catch Tuffy Rhodes for most by a foreign player. 

So at 12-2, Orix made it a little more respectable, though due to an unlikely source. In the bottom of the inning, catcher Takeshi Hidaka doubled to center and Mizuguchi singled to center. Muramatsu homered to right and it was 12-5.

Shinjo doubled to rightcenter in the eighth, went to third on a groundout, and scored on a groundout by Takahashi that raised it to 13-5.

The Buffs got their last run in the ninth on two singles and a groundout and that was all she wrote for the 13-6 final. 

There was actually booing heard from the faithful and who can blame them. 

Before the game, Shinjo, standing out at shortstop, winged the ball into the fifth level and carromed it off of a billboard after the fans there started chanting his name. 

Seguignol's first homer came against Nippon Ham while he was with Orix. It's the circle of baseball.

For Orix, Garcia was 1-4 and is at .182. Brumbaugh was 0-1 in a pinch hit appearance and is at .000.

When your fastball tops out at 92mph and your trying to throw inside you can really get hurt if the opposition is allowed to sit on that pitch and that location. That is precisely what happened to Softbank Hawks starter Toshiya  Sugiuchi , so he made an adjustment and began working the outside half more and scattered three hits from the fourth through the seventh and his teammates in the lineup overcame an early 2-0 deficit  with eight unanswered runs to take the series two games to one with an 
8-2 win. Sugiuchi is now 2-0.

Rakuten starter Hideki Asai was doing okay through four before a run in the fifth and four more in the sixth deposed him for his second defeat. 

Softbank had two on and two outs in the first, but that went away on a groundout. Rakuten then took the first lead of the day in the second, as DH Jose Fernandez homered to left to make it 1-0. 

They added to that in the third, as shortstop Yoshinori Okihara singled to right and was erased on a 4-6 force off the bat of Akihito Fujii. Centerfielder Akihito Moritani doubled to right. Second baseman Manabu Satake then failed to get a squeeze bunt down and Fujii was meat. Satake subsequently struckout. Sugiuchi plunked rightfielder Koichi Isobe. Fernandez grounded to Matsuda, who kicked it for an error, and Moritani crossed. First baseman Yuji Yoshioka flied out to right to end the rally.

The Hawks swooped in for a run in the fifth, when shortstop Yusuke Torigoe doubled to right with one away and catcher Katsuki Yamazaki singled to left for his first pro RBI to make it 2-1.

In the sixth, DH Nobuhiko Matsunaka reached on an infield hit and, one out later, Miyaji singled to center. The ball went through Moritani for an error and Matsunaka motored around to score the tying run. Matsuda walked. Torigoe singled to center and the bases were loaded. Yamazaki singled to right for a run and centerfielder Naoyuki Omura singled to center and two more came home for a 5-2 lead. 

Three innings down the road, Softbank used a one out single to center by leftfielder Jolbert Cabrera, a run scoring double to left by Matsunaka and a two run homer to left by Zuleta to put it at 8-2. Shintaro Yoshitake worked a perfect bototm of the ninth and it was over. 

If Yamazaki ends up being a viable choice at catcher it will also be quite economical. He is only makling $60,000. 

Regular DH Takeshi Yamasaki was sat down by Rakuten, as he was hitless in 13 official at bats against Sugiuchi last season. Manager Katsuya Nomura started eight righthanded hitters against the southpaw Sugiuchi. It also appears that outfielders Daisuke Masuda  and Teppei Tsuchiya are also going to sit when lefties are on the hill for the opposition. 

Rakuten had its one millionth fan file through the turnstyles in its 69th home game. Miyagi Prefectural Stadium is the biggest ballpark in Japan in terms of the length from home to the outfield walls, but it is the smallest of the 12 pro parks in capacity by far at less than 25,000. 

For Rakuten, Fernandez was 1-4 and is at .194. Leftfielder Rick Short was 1-4 with two strikeouts and is at .379. 

For Softbank, Cabrera was 1-5 and is at .258. Zuleta was 2-5 and is at .276.