After Rakuten starter Hideki Asai walked two and was tagged for three hits in a two run Hiroshima first Monday, Golden Eagles skipper Katsuya Nomura decided to yank him and go with a relief relay that held the Carp to two runs despite 13 hits (the Carp would leave 14 on), but that second run came in the top of the 12th and reliever Katsuhiro Nagakawa wove his third perfect inning of the match and that was all she wrote. 

Mike Romano started for Hiroshima and had his longest outing of the year to date, 6.2 innings, during which ge permitted all three Rakuten runs on four hits, only one of those tallies being earned. 

Asai walked the first two hitters of the game, second baseman Akihiro Higashide and shortstop Eishin Soyogi, and, one out later, third baseman Takahiro Arai singled to left to load the bases. Leftfielder Tomonori Maeda singled to right and two runners crossed for a 2-0 lead, but Arai was thrown out attempting to go to third. Leftfielder Kenta Kurihara doubled to left, bringing up the smoking hot DH Masafumi Suenaga. But he would ground out to impede exerting any further damage. 

Romano no hit Rakuten over the initial three innings, but in the fourth, Eagles centerfielder Teppei Tsuchiya singled to center and went to third when catcher Yoshikazu Kura's pickoff attempt sailed past Kurihara Yoshinori Okihara outran an infield grounder. First baseman Kenshin Kawaguchi lined out to Romano, who threw to third attempting teo get a retreating Tsuchiya and it was wide of the mark to allow Tsuchiya to score. Reserve DH Yuji Yoshioika, standing in for starter Jose Fernandez, who had injured his hamstring while running the bases in the second, grounded to Arai, who let it go through the wickets, and Okihara crossed on the error. A flyout and a groundout kept the 2-2 tie intact. 

The Carp, though, pulled ahead once again in the fifth when rightfielder Shigenobu Shima pounded a delivery from Hironori Fujisaki into the rightfield seats to make it 3-2. 

Rakuten responded in the sixth with a single to right by Tsuchiya, a sac bunt, and a double to leftcenter by Kawaguchi for the RBI and his team's last hit of the night. In fact, after a walk and an HBP in the seventh, the next 16 Eagles batsmen would be banished without a peep, six on strikeouts and only one ball reaching the outfield. 

Hiroshima had two on and two out in the eighth and two on and one out in the ninth and those went by the wayside. They would have only one more baserunner through 11.

Finally, they got it together in the 12th. Maeda reached on an infield hit and was pinch run for by Soichiro Amaya, who went to second on a groundout. Suenaga creamed a 3-2 forkball off the leftfield wall and Amaya scurried across on the double for a 4-3 lead. Centerfielder Shigeru Morikasa singled to right. Backup catcher Yoshiyuki Ishihara, though, flew out to right and Nagakawa took care of things in the bottom segment to lock it up and put the brakes on a four game Carp losing skid. 

Rakuten third baseman Katsumi Yamashita broke the middle finger of his lefthand when he slid headfirst  into first in the first on a ground ball. Doing that at first base is such an idiotic move that teams ought to suspend or fine players who do it. Oakland's minor league clubs immediately remove players who pull that maneuver in a game, which is a good idea. Yamashita is gone for at least a month. 

Suenaga had three more hits and is at .486. 

Hiroshima manager Marty Brown commented after the game, "to be honest, we're just not playing good baseball right now."

Nomura suggested that Asai could be sent to the minors to discover some control. He has a great curve ball, but when you can't spot your fastball you will get hurt plus you aren't going to get borderline strike calls from the umpires. 

Fernandez walked in his one appearance and is at .330. Leftfielder Rick Short was 0-5 and is at .300. 

Orix Pitcher Katsuhiko Maekawa and outfielder Cliff Brumbaugh have been demoted and rookie reliever Mamoru Kishida has been promted to the big club along with veteran backup catcher Fumihiro Suzuki.

After it is formally announced that Orix will take over management of Osaka Dome, they are going to make some changes to it, including removing the netting down the baselines and adding seats closer to the field like they did with Kobe Green Stadium. That's a little bit like putting lipstick on a pig since the park looks like a big unused condom from the air. 

Seibu The Lions are considering hooking up with J-League soccer team Urawa Reds both for purposes of training and marketing. Seibu is particularly interested in how soccer players train their legs to build speed and endurance. 

The Lions playera have vowed to keep the bases from becoming flying objects when Hiroshima comes into town. They are concerned that Brown may do it again in an attempt to spur his team on to another victory. So at the corners, first baseman Alex Cabrera and third baseman Takeya Nakamura, who each weigh in at better than 230 pounds, are going to put their feet down. Literally. And at second, the lighterweight combination of shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima and second baseman Yasyuki Kawashima have sworn to gang up on Brown if the even thinks of attempting to root that bag out. But one wonders what they will do to stop Brown from throwing bats and other objects on the field from his own dugout. Put up a fence? 

Softbank Manager Sadaharu Oh has refused what is being termed an "unofficial offer" to run Japan's 2008 olympic baseball squad. Other candidates that have been bandied about are former Hiroshima Carp skiper Koji Yamamoto and onetime Chunichi and Hanshin boss Senichi Hoshino. Hoshino, though, has health problems that may encourage him to turn that offer down as well.