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10/29/2002 Archived Entry: "Japan Series Game Two"
Giants Destroy Lions to Take Two Game Lead 9-4
As was unfortunately predictable, the Yomiuri Giants batting order tattooed Seibu Lions starter Takashi Ishii for six runs on seven hits in two plus innings, as the Tokyoites went on to demolish their Saitama rivals Sunday at Tokyo Dome 9-4. Masumi Kuwata started for the victors and had the Lions hitters on their heels all night, limiting the Pacific League's top offense to one run on seven hits in seven innings to grab his first series shiroboshi since game five of the 1994 classic and the third of his career.
Kuwata got off to a shaky start, though, as rightfielder Tatsuya Ozeki, after fighting off several of Kuwata's deliveries, spanked one back up the middle. Giants second baseman Toshihisa Nishi backhanded it, but couldn't get a handle on it and Ozeki reached. Ozeki then went to second on a groundout. Kuwata nailed Alex Cabrera on the right elbow. Cabrera advanced out toward the mound and said something to Kuwata, causing Giants first baseman Kazuhiro Kiyohara, who had to take painkillers to fight off pain from his bad leg, to put himself between his pitcher and the big Venezuelan. Cabrera then slowly walked to first base staring and gesticulating at Kuwata while a Lions coach tried to calm him down. Kuwata walked leftfielder Kazuhiro Wada on five pitches to load the bases. Yomiuri second baseman Tomohiro Nioka attempted to sneak over to the bag at second on a pickoff play and fumbled the throw from Kuwata as Cabrera slid back in safely. Ozeki, seeing that, took off for the plate. Nishi recovered, though, and winged a strike to catcher Shinnosuke Abe in a bang bang play where Ozeki was judged to be out. Ozeki protested the call, but to no avail and Kuwata escaped with no damage.
Yomiuri then came up for its initial shot at Ishii and seized the upper hand. Leftfielder Takayuki Shimizu drilled a liner to right, but Ozeki managed to run it down on the track. Shortstop Tomohiro Nioka clocked a groundball by Lions shortstop Kazuo Matsui for a single. Rightfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi pulled the ball on the ground to Cabrera, who toed first as Nioka moved to second. Centerfielder Hideki Matsui, who batted .294 with runners in scoring position (16th in the CL) then belted a 1-1 89mph fastball on the inner half of the plate into the rightcenter gap to redeem Nioka while Matsui slid in to second just ahead of centerfielder Kazuhiko Miyaji's offline relay to make it 1-0 Giants.
Ishii, who had won ten in a row at Tokyo Dome since 1997, fashioned a perfect second. However, Yomiuri isn't Nippon Ham and he was throttled in the third. Kuwata leadoff by slapping an 0-2 fastball up through the middle for a knock. Shimizu laced a single to right, Kuwata wheeling on in to third. Nioka inside outed one to right and it fell in for an RBI single. After a conversation with the Lions pitching coach, Ishii went back to getting killed. Takahashi snaked one by second. Second baseman Hiroyuki Takagi dove and got his glove on it, but the ball trickled away and Shimizu hustled around to widen the Giants lead to 3-0. Matsui cracked a single to right and Nioka checked in with a fourth tally while Takahashi beat the throw to third. Ishii was dispatched to the showers in favor of Hsu Ming-chieh, who fanned Kiyohara. But Abe singled to right and it was 5-0. Following a pop out by third baseman Akira Etoh, Nishi scorched a two RBI double to the base of the wall in leftcenter and Yomiuri now had a forbidding 7-0 advantage. Kuwata, who ignited the whole mess, fouled out to first, but now he enjoyed a big cushion and oculd concentrate on throwing strikes.
The Lions appeared that they might put something together in the fourth, as Miyaji squirted a single through the center of the diamond and Cabrera singled off a 3-0 pitch on the outer half of the plate by yanking it into leftfield. But Wada bit on a cut fastball and tapped it to Nioka, who initiated a 6-3 twin killing and that was that, as third baseman Hiroshi Hirao whiffed to on a 3-2 offering to put the inning in the books.
In the fifth, Koji Mitsui relieved Hsu and Kosuke Noda, who was in the bathroom when he got word that he was being sent in, spelled starting backstop Tsutomu Itoh, who tied a record for most series games played by a receiver with 69 (the previous record holder was former Giants catcher and Seibu and Yokohama manager Masaaki Mori). Mitsui then literally got his pound of flesh for Cabrera's plunking by deflecting a heater off the middle and ring fingers of Godzilla Matsui's right hand. He otherwise had two stellar frames before passing the ball to Shinji Mori, who didn't do nearly as well.
In the meantime, Seibu finally scored a run in the sixth, as Ozeki looped a pitch into center for a one out single. Miyaji torqued one into the rightfield corner and Ozeki cruised into third. Cabrera then grounded a slider off of his shoetops to second and Ozeki loped in to make it 7-1 Yomiuri.
Backup third baseman Scott McClain, who had died his handlebar mustache blonde and elicited comparisons to Hulk Hogan from the Japanese press, creamed a two out full count screamer off the leftcenterfield wall in the top of the seventh. Matsui got to it quickly and fired toward second, but the throw was off a hair and McClain slid in head first safely. Nice play by Matsui. Takagi blooped one near Nishi, who gloved it no problem and another Lions scoring chance went by the wayside.
Mori came on for the seventh and was victimized by a single to right by Nioka. Giants manager Tatsunori Hara calls for the hit and run and Takahashi rams one through the right side to push Nioka over to third. Make no mistake about it, Yomiuri just can't seem to do anything wrong in this series so far. Mori then hung a splitter to Matsui, who roped it off the centerfield fence to plate Nioka for another two bagger. Takahashi attempted to join the party and ran Noda over at home, but Noda had the gate down, the tag was in time and he held on for the out while Matsui went to third. Daisuke Motoki, who had replaced Etoh at third, lofted a fly ball deep enough to right to allow Matsui to tag up and bust for home and it was 9-1 Giants.
Erratic Yomiuri lefthander Hideki Okajima was assigned the duty of carrying on for Kuwata and he issued a two out walk to Takashi Inubushi in the latter's first ever series appearance in his 12 year career. Cabrera then got a pitch that was up and on the outer half of the plate and went with it, unloading a majestic high drive into the rightcenterfield seats to pull his side within 9-3.
Mori wriggled out of a two on, one out jam in the bottom of the eighth and now the Lions had one more chance to comeback in the top of the ninth. Yukinaga Maeda jogged in from the pen endeavoring to put it in the refrigerator. Tomo Sato leadoff by crushing a shot over Takahashi's head and to the wall for a double. Two groundouts later, Sato scored, but Takagi also grounded out and it was "game setto" and Yomiuri had a 2-0 series lead. It is also the first time in 30 years that the Giants have won the first two games of a Japan Series and it is also the sixth match in a row they've won in the post season (the last four in 2000 and the first pair in 2002), a new team record, besting the five in a row they racked up in 1971-72.
Kuwata's last outing in a Japan Series was in the second game of the 2000 affair with Daiei, where he was hung with the defeat in relief.
Godzilla Matsui's three hits constituted the first time he had collected a trio of safeties in one of his 19 lifetime post season tilts.
How formidable is being down 2-0 in a Japan Series? 28 times teams have triumped the first couple of times out and in 21 of those series they became Japanese champs, a 75% clip. Yikes! But then again, the Giants dropped the first two games to the Hawks in 2000 before sweeping the succeeding four to win it all.
Nioka had five hits in as many at bats over the two games, only the third time that has been accomplished in history. The record is six, by Koji Otsuka (Seibu) in 1998. And the last man to match Nioka's back to back three hits or better performance was Yakult rightfielder Atsunori Inaba in 1997 in the second and third games and it has been done 13 previous times in Japanese annals, but only one other time by a Giant, that being Hara in 1994. He is the fourth in history to have done it over the course of the first two series games. The last time THAT was done was in 1970, by Yomiuri centerfielder Isao Shibata.
The last time a club had five straight hits in an inning in a series game was by the Yokohama Bay Stars in 1998 in the ninth inning of the fifth game. This was the fourth time in history it has occurred.
The seven hits in an inning was the fourth time that has taken place, the last such occasion being by Daiei in 2000 in the second game. The Giants did it in 1958 and 1963.
For Seibu, Cabrera was 2-3 with an HBP and three RBIs and is hitting .500 for the series. McClain was 1-3 with an RBI and is at .333 for the classic.
Some of the information about this game is culled from Michael Westbay's reportage for Japanese Baseball.com at:
http://www.japanesebaseball.com/forum/thread.jsp?forum=1&thread=1529
Pics:
Kiyohara steps between Kuwata and Cabrera at:
http://www.nikkansports.com/news2/baseball2/02series/paper/bb-021028-4.jpg
Nioka gets on top of a high fastball at:
http://www.nikkansports.com/news2/baseball2/02series/paper/bb-021028-1.jpg
McClain sliding headfirst into second at:
http://www.nikkansports.com/news2/baseball2/02series/paper/bb-021028-9.jpg
Matsui swing on his first inning double at:
ttp://www.sanspo.com/baseball/top/bt200210/image/02102801matsuiOS113A27.jpg.
Another view of Matsui's double at:
http://www.sponichi.com/base/200210/28/images/base02.jpg
Kuwata's lovely wife Maki and son Shoji watching dad from the stands at:
http://www.sanspo.com/baseball/top/bt200210/image/0210280203familyNK124A27.jpg
Cabrera gets real gone at:
http://www.sanspo.com/baseball/top/bt200210/image/02102805cabreraOS167A27.jpg
See related article at: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getsp.pl5?sb20021028a1.htm
See another related piece at: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20021028wo53.htm
In addition, http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20021028wo54.htm
Seibu:
Takashi Ishii (L, 0-1)....IP 2.0 PC 40 H 7 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 6 ER 6 ERA 27.00
Hsu.......................IP 2.0 PC 34 H 2 HR 0 K 3 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 4.50
Mitsui....................IP 2.0 PC 34 H 0 HR 0 K 2 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
S. Mori...................IP 2.0 PC 31 H 4 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 2 ER 2 ERA 9.00
Yomiuri:
Kuwata (W, 1-0)...........IP 7.0 PC 112 H 7 HR 0 K 3 BB 1 R 1 ER 1 ERA 1.29
Okajima...................IP 1.0 PC 21 H 1 HR 1 K 1 BB 1 R 2 ER 2 ERA 18.00
Y. Maeda..................IP 1.0 PC 15 H 1 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 9.00
2B: H. Matsui 2, Nishi 2, Miyaji, McClain, T. Sato
HR: Cabrera (2)
RBI: Cabrera 3, McClain, Nioka, Y. Takahashi, H. Matsui 3, Motoki, S. Abe, Nishi 2
SF: Motoki
HBP: Cabrera (Kuwata), H. Matsui (Mitsui)
GIDP: K. Matsui, K. Wada
LOB: Seibu 5, Yomiuri 5
Series Status: Seibu 0, Yomiuri 2
Game Time: 3:16
Attendance: 45, 223
Umpires: Higashi (HP), Mori (1B), Yamamoto (2B), Manabe (3B) Nakamura (OF),
Kasahara (OF)
Makoto Suzuki to Lotte?
According to Hochi Sports, a sports daily owned by the Yomiuri chain, the Chiba Lotte Marines are considering drafting Kansas City Royals righthander Makoto Suzuki on the third round. Suzuki, a 27 year old Kobe native who dropped out of Takigawa Number Two High School in 1992 to play class A ball at Salinas and then signed with the Mariners in 1993, has won 16 games in 117 games stretched over seven MLB seasons, all but one of which he has finished with an ERA over 5.00.
In 2002, Suzuki was in just seven games with the big club, otherwise spending his time at Omaha, where he posted an 0-4 record with a 4.53 ERA.
Lotte is bereft of its great number one starter, Tomohiro "Johnny" Kuroki, due to a shoulder problem and it is uncertain as to when he will be back. So if Suzuki is made available by the Royals, Lotte apparently wants to lock those rights up. Right now, if Kuroki can't begin the 2003 season, Nathan Minchey would go in as the club's top hurler.
Lotte officials say that Suzuki "would be a good influence" on the other Japanese pitchers on their staff. However, looking at what he's done in MLB, it's hard to see how Suzuki would help them on the hill unless they seem to think that he will suddenly turn into Darryl May, who had a mediocre tenure in MLB before notching several credible campaigns with Yomiuri before heading back to the states.
Yokohama Makes Three Year Offer to Saito
The Yokohama Bay Stars have tendered a three year offer to free agent closer Takashi Saito that will pay him around $2 million a year, according to the Hochi Shimbun. Saito has drawn interest from Boston and Texas, among others. However, the size of that deal will make it difficult for other Japanese teams to sign him, so his only other outlet, should he choose not to stay with the Stars, would be the big leagues.
For his part, Saito says he wants to hear all offers that may come his way, but that he isn't ruling out staying put.
Destrade May be Hired as Orix Foreign Player Batting Coach
According to Hochi Sports, former Seibu Lions slugger Orestes Destrade has received overtures for a position as a special batting coach for the foreign players of the Orix Blue Wave. The Cuba native was a three time homer champ after coming to Tokorozawa in 1989. He also seized a pair of RBI crowns during his five year Japanese tour, where he posted a cumulative .262 average with 160 homers and 389 RBIs. He then returned to the U.S., where he played first base for the Florida Marlins before retiring and doing some work for ESPN and a production company.
Orix field boss Hiromichi Ishige was a teammate of Destrade's at Seibu. The last place nine is looking to add two more foreign position players to bolster their weak offense. Much like Tom O'Malley, who was recently cut loose by Hanshin after fulfilling a similar role in Osaka. it is hoped that the big friendly former switch hitter will provide not only effective instruction, but will help the outfit's foreigners negotiate their way through life in Japan.
Ishige is really on the hot seat to improve the team's showing in the Pacific League. At a meeting with team officials, it was suggested that if the club isn't within striking range of the pennant in 2003, he could end up being booted in mid-season. So his future is literally in the hands of Scott Sheldon and whatever other foreigners they bring in.
Tadano, Toritani Out of Intercontinental Cup
According to Sports Nippon, Rikkyo University hurler Kazuhito Tadano, expected to be one of the top choices in the November pro draft, as well as Waseda University infielder Kei Toritani, aren't going to be able to play for Japan as part of its Intercontinental Cup team in Cuba. Tadano is receiving treatment for both elbow and
shoulder pain while Toritani has apparently said he wants to concentrate on finishing his school work before he graduates.
In their place, Keio University righthander Shuichiro Osada, alos expected to go high in the draft, and Toyo University infielder Manabu Iwatachi will join the Japanese contingent.
Woodard, Clapinski to Workout for Carp
According to Sports Nippon, Steve Woodard and Chris Clapinski will be working out at the Hiroshima Carp's fall camp in Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture starting November 1st in an attempt to win a roster spot with the club. They intend to look at Clapinski as a shortstop, perhaps in the hope that he can give them more with the bat than light hitting young starting shortstop Akihiro Higashide. The other foreign position player in their organization is second baseman Eddie Diaz, who was having a pretty good year until injuries ended his season.
Hiroshima's main problem is the lack of any kind of respectable bullpen and their starting staff ain't that hot either once you get past aging veteran Shinji Sasaoka, Hiroki Kuroda and Masayuki Hasegawa, who are all merely okay. It would be interesting to see how Woodard, with a career ERA of almost 5.00 in MLB, would adjust to pitching in a bandbox of a ballpark.
Sasaki to Have Surgery Tuesday
See Japan Today story at: http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=6&id=236149
Pair of Choi Homers Powers LG Over Kia in Korea Playoffs
See Korea Times story at: http://www.hankooki.com/kt_sports/200210/t2002102719345247110.htm
Kim Jin-woo Blows Save and Game to Kia to Even Series
See Korea Times story at: http://www.hankooki.com/kt_sports/200210/t2002102719375147110.htm
Today in Japanese Baseball History
This report is for October 27th and on that date in Japanese baseball history in 1962, then Crown Prince Akihito (who is now the Emperor) and wife Michiko attended a game between the Detroit Tigers and the Daimai Orions. Throwing out the first pitch was U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin Reischauer with the Japanese Foreign Minister acting as catcher.
Also on that date in 1972, the Nishitetsu Lions were sold and became the Taiheiyo Club Lions.
