[Previous entry: "Phillies Journal - 2003"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Phillies Journal - 2003"]
08/30/2003 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Tigers Whitewash Giants 11-0; Mirabal to Re-up With Fighters"
Arias, Hirosawa Each Homer Twice to Stomp Giants 11-0
The Yomiuri Giants had what must have seemed to Hanshin ace Kei Igawa like the entire population of Tokyo's Suidobashi section on base during the game, but the southpaw prevented that lot from treading the most sacred territory of all, home plate, to end up with a complete game shutout. Supporting Igawa's tenacity was the man who puts the "old" in OB, first baseman Katsumi Hirosawa, 41, who drilled a pair of homers and chased in six runners while third baseman George Arias also did double dinger duty and tacked on four RBIs in an 11-0 Tigers wipeout of their hated rivals Thursday at Koshien Stadium before a cheering 51,000 strong throng.
Kimiyasu Kudoh, who had this start delayed by a rainout, saw anything and everything he ran up to the dish get tattooed in a rare off day for the great lefthander.
The Osaka nine obtained the only tallies they would in fact require in the first, as second baseman Makoto Imaoka singled to left and, two outs later, Hirosawa leaned into an 85mph first pitch fastball on the outer half of the plate and crushed it into the centerfield seats for a 2-0 lead. Arias just missed copycatting that, pounding a double off the centerfield fence. He was ultimately stranded, however.
Yomiuri had a man on third with two outs in the third, but Masahiro Kawai struckout to waste that opportunity.
And Hanshin then went wild during the home segment. Imaoka crashed a shot off the rightfield wall for a double and to set a new personal one season best for hits with his 161st. He was advanced on a sac bunt. Leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto walked. Hirosawa noticed another first pitch 85mph fastball on the outer half coming his way and he airmailed it deep into the leftfield stands to widen it to 5-0. Arias stepped in and jumped all over a curve ball (or a slider, depending on which account you want to believe) and rocketed it into the leftcenterfield bleachers to make that 6-0.
In the fourth, Yomiuri loaded the bases on two singles and a walk with nobody out. But Akira Etoh popped out in foul territory, Takayuki Saito bounced into a 1-2 force and catcher Yoshinori Murata struckout to frustrate the Giants comeback plans.
Next time up, Yomiuri had men on second and third with one away, but rightfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi and leftfielder Roberto Petagine fanned to darken that frame.
Hanshin then turned this one into a laugher when they had their ups. Akahoshi walked and stole second, his club record tying 51st of the year. Kanemoto walked. Hirosawa singled to center and Akahosi wheeled in. Arias belted a breaking ball into the leftfield seats and it was 10-0 Tigers.
Yomiuri organized a pair of knocks in the sixth, and then had that shortcircuited by a 1-6-3 twin killing for Saito's second GIDP in the game.
Arias ignited another Hanshin rally when he singled to center with one away in the seventh and was balked to second by reliever Yuji Sogawa. One out later, Yutaka Nakamura laced a double to leftcenter to cash Arias in for the final margin of victory, 11-0.
Igawa was perfect the last three innings to put the kyojin out of their misery quietly. He has now taken five straight from Yomiuri.
With his 16th victory, Igawa is the first Hanshin hurler to that mark since Shigeru Kobayashi in 1981 and the first Tigers lefty to do that since Yutaka Enatsu racked up 16 shiroboshi in 1973. That should indicate how much this team has stunk the last couple of decades.
Hirosawa had his first multihomer contest since September 12, 2001. He is the first batter 40 years or older to go yard against Yomiuri since October 18, 1987, when Hiroshima hall of famer Sachio Kinugasa pulled that off. However, Hirosawa is the first 40 year old to transgress the friendly confines twice in a single game ever against the Tokyo outfit. The last time that the former Swallow had a six RBI day was in 1997.
Akahoshi is even with old time Hanshin great Yoshio Yoshida in the bag theft department. That is a manifestation of Akahoshi reducing his strikeouts to about 13% and improving his OBP to .381. Considering that he has just 21 extra base hits in over 500 plate appearances, he needs to reduce that further while upping his walks to become a star player. No complaints, though, about his .324 average.
Hirosawa admits that as he gets older, his vision isn't near what it used to be and on some days, he revealed, he can't really pick up the baseball at all. So what he does these days is try to get a good read on the pitch type and put a a mice swing on it. In the seven games he's started, almost all of them being inserted into the cleanup spot, he has thundered four homers and driven in ten runs while posting a .409 average. Lifetime, he has victimized the Giants 54 times on longballs (the record is by Kinugasa, who went over the wall 101 times against them. Then Carp teammate Koji Yamamoto is second with 100). Hirosawa's Tigers compatriot, Kanemoto, is a 58 bomb man career off of Yomiuri. Hirosawa, though, has hit under .200 when he has come on in the middle of a match.
The Giants have dropped their last five at Koshien Stadium and are 2-10 at that facility this season. The 16 Hanshin wins means that they need one more to tie their best ever anti-Yomiuri campaign, 1974 (17-9).
Igawa was clocked at 92mph and has threeAugust victories, a contrast to 2002, when he had zero. This was also only the fourth time in Giants history that they were beaten in a shutout when the Tigers scored ten runs or more.
Pitching Lines:
Yomiuri:
Kudoh (L, 6-4) IP 3.0 BF 16 PC 43 H 6 HR 3 K 2 BB 1 R 6 ER 6 ERA 3.96
Sogawa IP 1.0 BF 3 PC 13 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
Jobe IP 1.0 BF 8 PC 29 H 3 HR 1 K 1 BB 2 R 4 ER 4 ERA 15.75
Kashiwada IP 2.0 BF 8 PC 29 H 2 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 3.07
M. Hayashi IP 1.0 BF 3 PC 15 H 0 HR 0 K 2 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 3.21
Hanshin:
Igawa (W, 16-5) IP 7.0 BF 29 PC 110 H 7 HR 0 K 6 BB 2 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.90
Yoshino IP 0.2 BF 2 PC 9 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.40
Ishige IP 0.1 BF 1 PC 1 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 1.08
Santo IP 1.0 BF 3 PC 15 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.70
E: Petagine
SB: Akahoshi
2B: Arias, Imaoka, Y. Nakamura 2
HR: Hirosawa 2 (4), Arias 2 (27)
RBI: Hirosawa 6, Arias 4, Y. Nakamura
WP: Kashiwada
HBP: Y. Takahashi (Igawa)
Balk: Sogawa
GIDP: Takayuki Saito 2 (4-6-3, 1-6-3)
LOB: Yomiuri 8, Hanshin 3
Season Series: Yomiuri 6, Hanshin 16 1 Tie
Game Time: 3:10
Attendance: 51,000
Umpires: Kasahara (HP), T. Kobayashi (1B), K. Kobayashi (2B), Shimada (3B)
Swallows Peck Dragons 7-1
Third baseman Akinori Iwamura drove in four runs and scored another from second on a passed ball while reliever Futoshi Yamabe was credidted with the victory after three shutout innings in a 7-1 Yakult Swallows triumph over the Chunichi Dragons Thursday at Meiji Jingu Stadium.
Shohei Tachiyama started for Yakult and had to exit in the middle of the fourth when a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand broke. He permitted the sole Dragons tally on two hits and plunked a pair of batters in his 3.1 innings, striking out three.
The Swallows went in front to stay in the first, as shortstop Shinya Miyamoto singled to center with one down and Iwamura yanked one into the rightfield bleachers for a 2-0 lead.
In the third, Yakult rightfielder Mitsuru Manaka singled to left and rambled to third on a single to left by Miyamoto. Iwamura grounded out to short, Manaka crossing to make it 3-0 Swallows.
Fukudome terminated the shutout in the fourth when he turned and burned on a 94mph fastball and launched it into the rightfield seats. Third baseman Kazuyoshi Tatsunami singled to center and Tachiyama hit centerfielderAlex Ochoa before the blister problem arose and Hideki Sato was called in to retire the last two men of the inning with the score 3-1.
Then a play that really got under the skin of the Dragons' fans and manager Hisashi Yamada happened in the fifth with Marc Valdes on the hill. Miyamoto singled to right and Iwamura singled to center. They moved up on a groundout. First baseman Ken Suzuki was intentionally walked to load the bases. With centerfielder Ryuji Miyade at the plate with two now out, Chunichi catcher Motonobu Tanishige wanted an 0-2 fastball down in the zone. Valdes threw a 90mph heater that was up and it tipped off the glove of Tanishige, who had trouble finding the ball. Miyamoto crossed no problem. Iwamura never broke stride and sprinted to the promised land and by the time Tanishige found the ball and relayed it to Valdes, Iwamura was in to enlarge the Swallows advantage to 5-1.
When Tanishige got on with a single in the sixth, Chunichi fans started heckling him, resulting in the veteran backstop turning to the responsible parties and giving them some lip of his own.
In the eighth, Miyade singled to center and second baseman Noriyuki Shiroishi doubled up the leftcenter gap, Miyade making for the plate. One out later, reserve centerfielder Tetsuya Iida singled to center to welcome Shiroishi home and it was 7-1 Yakult.
Ryota Igarashi then struckout the side to finish the Dragons off in the ninth.
Tachiyama wasn't only unable to earn what could have been his first pro win, but he was taken off the roster until the finger heals. Reliever Toshihide Narimoto will be promoted to take his place.
Fukudome has wrecked the Swallows this season. He has seven homers against them with 19 RBIs and a .391 average.
For Chunichi, Ochoa was0-3 with an HBP and is at .278. Omar Linares was 0-1 in a pinch hit appearance and is at .242.
For Yakult, leftfielder Alex Ramirez was 0-3 with a walk and is at .331. Todd Betts was 0-1 as a pinch hitter andis at .285.
Pitching Lines:
Chunichi:
M. Kito (L, 7-7) IP 2.1 BF 11 PC 38 H 4 HR 1 K 1 BB 0 R 3 ER 3 ERA 4.52
Yamakita IP 1.2 BF 8 PC 19 H 1 HR 0 K 1 BB 2 R 0 ER 0 ERA 3.33
M. Valdes IP 2.0 BF 10 PC 38 H 2 HR 0 K 3 BB 1 R 2 ER 0 ERA 4.85
Endo IP 2.0 BF 9 PC 38 H 3 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 2 ER 2 ERA 2.90
Yakult:
Tachiyama IP 3.1 BF 14 PC 50 H 2 HR 1 K 3 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 5.03
H. Sato IP 0.2 BF 3 PC 16 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 3.86
Yamabe (W, 2-0) IP 3.0 BF 11 PC 39 H 3 HR 0 K 4 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 1.01
H. Ishii IP 1.0 BF 4 PC 9 H 1 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.81
Ryo. Igarashi IP 1.0 BF 3 PC 17 H 0 HR 0 K 3 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 3.45
2B: Shiroishi
HR: Iwamura (7), Fukudome (23)
RBI: Fukudome, Iida, Iwamura 3, Shiroishi
IBB: Ramirez (Yamakita), Watarai (Yamakita), K. Suzuki (M. Valdes)
WP: M. Valdes
HBP: H.Y. Watanabe (Tachiyama), Ochoa (Tachiyama), S. Sato (M. Valdes)
PB: Tanishige
GIDP: Ibata (4-6-3)
LOB: Chunichi 7, Yakult 7
Season Series: Chunichi 13, Yakult 10
Game Time: 3:02
Attendance: 16,000
Umpires: Honda (HP), Shikita (1B), Mori (2B), Kittaka (3B)
Hiroshima Wins Battle of the Damned 10-6
This game perhaps isn't as bad as a matchup featuring the Chiba Lotte Marines and the Orix Blue Wave, but each of the competitors in this one possesses horrendous pitching and dubious defense even if they can both score every now and again. So call this a faceoff between the damned, two clubs not going anywhere for at least two to three more seasons, best case scenario. Hiroshima got four in the second and two in both the fifth and eighth on the way to a 10-6 offensive sideshow that saw Carp starter Masayuki Hasegawa finally win a start with a mediocre outing while Hiroshi Yamada, making his first start of the year, got bruised.
Yokohama had a shortlived 1-0 lead when centerfielder Tatsuhiko Kinjo opened the inning by reaching on a Hasegawa error and he went to second on a sac bunt. Rightfielder Hitoshi Tamura doubled to rightcenter and Kinjo scampered home.
The Carp brought some artillery to bear in countering that in the top of the second, as shortstop Andy Sheets homered to right to make it 1-1. Leftfielder Tomonori Maeda singled to center. First baseman Takahiro Arai outran a dribbler toward third. Third baseman Kenjiro Nomura grounded into a 5-4 force. Catcher Yoshiyuki Ishihara homered to left and it was 4-1 Hiroshima.
In the fifth, Hiroshima rightfielder Shigeru Morikasa singled to right and went to second on a groundout. Centerfielder Koichi Ogata singled to center. Sheets singled to left to push Morikasa in. Maeda singled to center and Ogata rushed to the plate for a 6-1 Carp advantage.
Then Hasegawa had issues in the seventh. Pinch hitter Takahiro Saeki singled to center and Takashi Manei came in to run for him. Catcher Takeshi Nakamura mortared one into the rightcenterfield stands. Second baseman Shuichi Murata reached on an infield hit and was forced out on a groundout by shortstop Takuro Ishii. Tamura conked one over the centerfield wall and the Stars were back in it at 7-5.
At least until Yokohama reliever Masahiro Tazaki was similarly generous to the enemy batting order. In the eighth, Arai doubled off the rightfield wall and was pinch run for by Kazuki Fukuchi. Nomura walked. One out later, pinch hitter Itsuki Asai tripled off the centerfield fence to convert Fukuchi and Nomura and make it 9-5. They scored one more in the ninth on a single to center by Sheets and an RBI double to leftcenter by Fukuchi and it was 10-5.
Yokohama manufactured a run in the bottom of the ninth on a one out Kinjo double to rightcenter and a two out RBI single to center by Tamura and Tyrone Woods flied out to put this one to rest at 10-6. The Stars are on pace to lose 100.
For Hiroshima, Sheets was 3-5 with three RBIs and is at .324.
For Yokohama, Woods was 1-5 and is at .252.
Pitching Lines:
Hiroshima:
Hasegawa (W, 2-7) IP 6.0 BF 27 PC 100 H 7 HR 1 K 4 BB 1 R 4 ER 3 ERA 6.12
S. Tamaki IP 1.0 BF 4 PC 11 H 1 HR 1 K 1 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 4.54
Nishikawa IP 0.0 BF 2 PC 3 H 2 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 6.35
Sawazaki IP 2.0 BF 7 PC 30 H 2 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 4.01
Yokohama:
H. Yamada (L, 0-2) IP 4.2 BF 23 PC 88 H 8 HR 2 K 4 BB 1 R 6 ER 6 ERA 3.71
Fukumori IP 2.0 BF 8 PC 28 H 0 HR 0 K 2 BB 1 R 1 ER 1 ERA 5.19
Tomioka IP 0.1 BF 1 PC 6 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 4.76
Tazaki IP 1.0 BF 6 PC 20 H 2 HR 0 K 0 BB 1 R 2 ER 2 ERA 3.54
T.H.Kato IP 1.0 BF 5 PC 29 H 2 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 2.92
E: Hasegawa
SB: K. Nomura, Sheets, Tamura
2B: Tamura, Kinjo 2, T. Arai, Fukuchi
3B: I. Asai
HR: Sheets (22), Ishihara (3), T. Nakamura (10), Tamura (12)
RBI: Sheets 3, T. Maeda, Fukuchi, Ishihara 3, I. Asai 2, Tamura 4, T. Nakamura 2
HBP: T. Kimura (Fukumori)
LOB: Hiroshima 6, Yokohama 7
Season Series: Hiroshima 14, Yokohama 7
Game Time: 3:32
Attendance: 13,000
Umpires: Suginaga (HP), Nako (1B), Manabe (2B), Ino (3B)
Team Reports
Yomiuri Infielder Masahiro Kawai will receive a commendation for breaking the late Philadelphia A's hall of famer Eddie Collins' record for sacrifices from the governor of his native Okayama Prefecture, who says that Kawai's steady effort provided inspiration to the people of his province.
Seibu The Lions are owned by one of the richest men in the world, workaholic Seibu Department Stores king Yoshiaki Tsutsumi. They are saying that they will fight hard to hold on to Kazuo Matsui when he goes on the free agent market this offseason. Will they make him a 600 million yen player to stave off what should be lucrative bids from several MLB teams? If so, he would be the highest paid Japanese player in history.
Daiei The Hawks announced that ace Kazumi Saito will start games one and six in the Japan Series. Because Saito has had injury problems, they are thinking about his long term health and want to keep pitching him every sixth day....He is currently rehabbing an ankle tendon injury, but when the Japan Series starts, fireballing rookie Nagisa Arakaki may find himself put in the closer's role during the Japanese fall classic. It will be interesting to see how he handles the pressure. Regular closer Matt Skrmetta, who has been on the shelf with a muscle inflammation, has gone back to the states to have his shoulder looked at and it isn't known when he will return, if at all.
Nippon Ham Carlos Mirabal's ERA is up, but so is his win total and thus the Fighters are going to have him back in action for them in 2004 with a raise in salary. Mirabal had contemplated making another MLB bid, but after a talk with manager Trey Hillman, indicated that he would look favorably on moving with the club to Sapporo.
Lotte This team has a lot of holes, so they apparently will go after pitching first during the November draft since the big three injuries they suffered to three of their starters this season proved costly and resulted in a second division finish.
Orix The team's front office is saying that they don't know if they will ask manager Leon Lee back next season, though a definite decision won't be made until the end of the schedule....Masato Yoshii has undergone season ending ankle surgery. There is no word on whether he will decide to hang it up, but considering his performance this season and his age, he probably should.
Miscellaneous Tohoku High School righthander Yu Darvish, who will be signed by some MLB or NPB team in just a little over a year, if not sooner, has been voted his team's captain....According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, outfielder So Taguchi has five RBIs in 12 at bats this season.
In the News
Kinugasa: Why Erect Fences Between Players and Fans?
See story at: Asahi Shimbun Article
Big Store Sales Planned When Hanshin Wins Pennant
See story at: Mainichi Shimbun Article
Off Topic: Diamonds Shone Brighter With Bobby Bonds
See story at: Cleveland Plain Dealer Article
Today's Pictures
Katsumi Hirosawa Puts the Big End of the Bat on the Ball
Another View of Hirosawa's Homer Swing
Masayuki Hasegawa Thursday Night
Kosuke Fukudome and a Big Jack
