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10/07/2003 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Latham, Etoh Three Run Homers Complete Uehara; Matsunaka Goes Nuts Again"
Matsunaka RBI Binge Continues with Five More in 10-4 Victory
With the Daiei Hawks offense setting new Japan records left and right, the only question now remaining is who will lead the league in RBIs, for which Nobuhiko Matsunaka, penciled in at DH Friday, and catcher Kenji Johjima are vying. It could also mean the MVP award as well. Well, both Johjima and Matsunaka homered twice, but the Matsunaka's counted in larger amounts, a total of five RBIs to Johjima's two to surge to a two RBI edge in the Pacific League rankings. Oh, and almost as an afterthought, they destroyed the Orix Blue Wave, 10-4.
To add to the fun, starter Tsuyoshi Wada is now making a joke of the Rookie of the Year voting, as he scooped up his 14th victory with seven killer innings of one run (and that was unearned), two hit ball while striking out seven and walking one. Congratulations to the Waseda University graduate on the trophy soon to be his.
On the other hand, Daisuke Kato started for Orix and was screwed, blued, and tattoed for seven runs, six earned, in a 4.2 inning outing of seven hit, three homer twirling against what awas effectively Daiei's "B" team to even his record at 4-4.
The one thing that marred this game for the Hawks was that they handled the baseball like a hot potato. Orix rightfielder Ryota Aikawa leadoff the bottom of the first with a single to left and went to second on a sac bunt. Centerfielder Yoshitomo walked. One out later, DH Takeshi Yamasaki grounded to Mizuki Tanaka at third, who threw the ball away to allow Aikawa to cross with a 1-0 Blue Wave lead.
Johjima, though, equalized it in the second, as he leaned into a Kato delivery with one out and parked it in the leftfield seats for his 150th career longball and a 1-1 deadlock. Rightfielder Motoi Okoshi walked. One out later, centerfielder Tadashi Matsuda flew to Tani, who muffed it, and Okoshi kept on motoring to the plate to make it 2-1 Hawks.
Matsunaka then gave his side some separation, as Tanaka singled to center in the third, but was erased on a groundball to second by shortstop Munenori Kawasaki. First baseman Mitsuru Honma singled to right. Kawasaki made the turn for third, only to find Aikawa's relay waiting for him for the second out. Matsunaka then stepped out and beat the daylights out of a Kato offering, depositing it well into the centerfield bleachers and it was 4-2 Hawks.
Kato worked a perfect fourth, but then it was time for Daiei to get serious. Homare Inamine singled to center and, one out later, Kawasaki singled to center. Matsunaka called Narita Airport and got clearance for takeoff and launched a moon shot "center backscreen" stylee. Atsushi Kubota replaced Kato. Johjima, seeing he was being upstaged, socked a shot into the leftfield seats to make it 8-1 Hawks.
Things were so bad that even Masanori Taguchi, normally a backup catcher and, with Johjima seeking to play every inning of every game this year, thus a guy who has seen more pine time than a lumberjack, took Orix reliever Shuichi Iwashita into the leftfield stands in pinch hit duty to expand his outfit's lead to 9-1.
Orix finally coalesced in the eighth, when Tomotaka Tamaki hit a little fly ball just over shortstop. Substitute middle infielder Inamine dropped it for an error. Aikawa pinged a Katsunori Okamoto pitch off the leftfield wall for a double and Tamaki hustled all the way from first to the plate. Third baseman Koichi Oshima beat out a roller toward short. Tani singled to center to convert Aikawa and Oshima sped into third. Second baseman Jose Ortiz walked. Yamasaki, not your speed merchant to be sure, did outran a ground ball and Oshima crossed to make it 9-4 Hawks.
But rookie backup shortstop Koichi Nakamura ignited another brief rally by Daiei in the ninth when he legged out a grounder and then made like a bat out of hell for home when Taguchi steamed a double into the rightfield corner to improve the Hawks position to 10-4. By the way, Nakamura's knock also set a new all time total bases record for one club in a season with the Hawks 2250th, passing the 2249 (in a 130 game season) by the 1980 Kintetsu Buffaloes.
Wada came within five strikeouts of being the first 200 K rookie since Hideo Nomo in 1990.
Tani has been something of a mystery this season defensively, as he has committed ten errors, which is outrageously high for a good quality centerfielder such as him. He has made up for it offensively, though, batting .342 with an OPS over .900 and has struckout only about 7% of the time.
For Orix, Ortiz was 0-3 with a walk and three strikeouts and is at .254.
Pitching Lines:
Daiei:
T. Wada (W, 14-5) IP 7.0 BF 25 PC 105 H 2 HR 0 K 7 BB 1 R 1 ER 0 ERA 3.38
K. Okamoto IP 0.1 BF 6 PC 22 H 3 HR 0 K 0 BB 1 R 3 ER 2 ERA 4.05
M. Sato IP 0.2 BF 2 PC 9 H 1 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.98
Shinohara IP 1.0 BF 4 PC 16 H 0 HR 0 K 2 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.32
Orix:
D. Kato (L, 4-4) IP 4.2 BF 22 PC 93 H 7 HR 3 K 4 BB 1 R 7 ER 6 ERA 5.17
A. Kubota IP 2.0 BF 8 PC 36 H 2 HR 2 K 1 BB 0 R 2 ER 2 ERA 7.45
Iwashita IP 1.1 BF 5 PC 17 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 5.25
T. Kawaguchi IP 0.2 BF 5 PC 16 H 2 HR 0 K 2 BB 1 R 1 ER 1 ERA 13.50
T. Kitagawa IP 0.1 BF 1 PC 1 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 7.43
E: M. Tanaka 2, M. Honma, Inamine, Tani
SB: M. Kawasaki. Okoshi, Inamine
2B: Ryota Aikawa, Taguchi
HR: Johjima 2 (34), Matsunaka 2 (29), Taguchi (1)
RBI: Taguchi 2, Matsunaka 5, Johjima 2, Ryota Aikawa, Tani, T. Yamasaki
GIDP: Tani (4-6-3), Shiotani (4-6-3)
LOB: Daiei 4, Orix 6
Season Series: Daiei 17, Orix 11
Game Time: 2:05
Attendance: 12,000
Umpires: Higashi (HP), Hayashi (1B), Sato (2B), Kodera (3B)
Latham, Etoh Three Run Homers Kill Swallows 8-3
Koji Uehara notched his 11th complete game thanks to three run homers by leftfielder Chris Latham and reserve first baseman Akira Etoh, both of whom may be elsewhere next year, as the Yomiuri Giants thumped the Yakult Swallows 8-3 Friday at Meiji Jingu Stadium.
Shohei Tachiyama continues to pitch in tough luck, as he is still winless after going 6.2 innings of three run ball on three hits, though he wasn't in on the decision. Instead, the kuroboshi went to reliever Ryota Igarashi, who was victimized by one of the Giants bombs.
Yomiuri moved out to a 1-0 lead in the first, as shortstop Tomohiro Nioka walked to open the game and went to third on a single to center by rightfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi. First baseman Kazuhiro Kiyohara flied out to left and Nioka tagged up and scored.
However, catcher Atsuya Furuta sliced one into the rightfield seats with one out in the fifth and it was one all.
In the sixth, they then commandeered the lead, as centerfielder Mitsuru Manaka ripped a triple up the rightcenter gap and was plated on a squeeze bunt from shortstop Shinya Miyamoto. Third baseman Akinori Iwamura beat out a ground ball toward second. Leftfielder Alex Ramirez drilled one off the centerfield fence and Iwamura flashed around the bases with the third Yakult tally to make it 3-1.
But Giants third baseman Takayuki Saito laced a double to rightcenter with one out and, one out later, second baseman Toshihisa Nishi walked. Swallows boss Tsutomu Wakamatsu dialed local for Igarashi, who ran a breaking ball up to the plate that never returned from its journey with Etoh out to the umbrella oendan in right and it was 4-3 Yomiuri.
Futoshi Yamabe then ascended the hill in the eighth for Yakult and obtained the first two outs before Takahashi singled to right. Catcher Kohei Oda grounded to Iwamura for what should have been the third out, but he made a wild throw to first and Takahashi circled the bases to score. Pinch hitter Daisuke Motoki singled to center. Latham flattened one into the rightcenterfield stands and the Giants were comfortably ahead 8-3.
Uehara then just had to worry only about throwing strikes and fashioned a perfect bottom of the eighth. In the ninth, though, Ramirez singled with one out and first baseman Ken Suzuki walked. Furuta singled to left and the sacks were packed. But rightfielder Ryuji Miyade grounded to Motoki, who started the 5-4-3 game ending twin killing and Uehara had his 16th win.
That was the Giants 4000th win since the two league system began in 1950, the first Japanese team to reach that number during this era. That was accompanied by 2870 losses and 226 ties. If you include the single league days, their total record is 4783-3280-254.
The Giants also set a single season club record with 204 homers, breaking its 2000 record of 203.
Soon to be former Yomiuri manager Tatsunori Hara was cheered mightily in his last game in the Tokyo area in 2003.
For Yakult, Ramirez went 3-4 with an RBI on his 29th birthday and is at .329. Yuichi Matsumoto was 0-1 in a pinch hit assignment and is at .400.
For Yomiuri, Latham was 1-4 with three RBIs and is at .228.
Pitching Lines:
Yomiuri:
Uehara (W, 16-5) IP 9.0 BF 34 PC 134 H 8 HR 1 K 6 BB 1 R 3 ER 3 ERA 3.17
Yakult:
Tachiyama IP 6.2 BF 25 PC 98 H 3 HR 0 K 2 BB 3 R 3 ER 3 ERA 4.66
Ryo. Igarashi (L, 5-5) IP 0.1 BF 2 PC 19 H 1 HR 1 K 1 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 3.95
Yamabe IP 1.0 BF 7 PC 31 H 3 HR 1 K 2 BB 0 R 4 ER 4 ERA 1.11
Kawabata IP 1.0 BF 3 PC 12 H 0 HR 0 K 2 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 3.05
E: Iwamura 2
2B: Ramirez, Takayuki Saito
3B: Manaka
HR: Furuta (22), Etoh (17), Latham (7)
RBI: Furuta, S. Miyamoto, Ramirez, Etoh 3, Latham 3, Kiyohara
SF: Kiyohara
PB: Furuta
GIDP: Y. Murata (1-6-3), Miyade (5-4-3)
LOB: Yomiuri 2, Yakult 4
Season Series: Yomiuri 14, Yakult 13 1 Tie
Game Time: 2:55
Attendance: 28,000
Umpires: Arisumi (HP), Sasaki (1B), Honda (2B), Ino (3B)
Shimizu Three Hits Kintetsu 3-1
Kintetsu Buffaloes righthander Kevin Beirne tossed a great five innings Friday at Chiba Marine Stadium, but the Buffs bullpen then permitted two Lotte runs to score in the eighth inning to reward their starter, Naoyuki Shimizu, for his three hitter in a 3-1 victory. Shimizu has now won five in a row.
Kintetsu drew first blood in the second, as DH Hirotoshi Kitagawa crashed a shot off the centerfield wall and first baseman Kenshi Kawaguchi walked. Third baseman Masashi Miki singled to center for his first pro hit to load the bases. Akihito Igarashi, playing in the final game of his career, then flied out to left deep enough for Kitagawa to tag up and head home for a 1-0 lead.
But in the fifth, Lotte third baseman Jose Fernandez mortared one into the leftfield seats and it was gridlocked at 1-1.
Neither side organized a major threat until the eighth, when Lotte centerfielder Toshio Haru singled to center and went to second on a sac bunt. Shortstop Makoto Kosaka was struck by a pitch. One out later, leftfielder Jun Inoue torched a triple up the rightcenter gap for two RBIs and a 3-1 Lotte advantage. Shimizu then put the Buffs away in order in the ninth to wrap it up.
For Kintetsu, leftfielder Tuffy Rhodes was 0-1 and is at .275.
For Lotte, Fernandez was 1-3 with an RBI andis at .300.
Pitching Lines:
Kintetsu:
Beirne IP 5.0 BF 17 PC 63 H 2 HR 1 K 3 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 4.37
Arime IP 1.0 BF 3 PC 7 H 1 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 7.15
H. Asai IP 1.0 BF 5 PC 19 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 2 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
Fujisaki (L, 0-1) IP 1.0 BF 6 PC 15 H 2 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 2 ER 2 ERA 4.70
Lotte:
N. Shimizu (W, 14-10) IP 9.0 BF 31 PC 104 H 3 HR 0 K 7 BB 2 R 1 ER 1 ERA 3.18
E: Fernandez
SB: Shimoyama
2B: H. Kitagawa
3B: J. Inoue
HR: Fernandez (29)
RBI: Fernandez, J. Inoue 2, A. Igarashi
SF: A. Igarashi
HBP: Kosaka (Fujisaki)
GIDP: Onishi (4-6-3), Nagasaka (1-6-3)
LOB: Kintetsu 3, Lotte 4
Season Series: Kintetsu 12, Lotte 15 1 Tie
Game Time: 2:12
Attendance: 7,000
Umpires: Sakaemura (HP), Akimura (1B), Nakamura (2B), Kawaguchi (3B)
Chunichi Explodes for Eight Late Runs to Top Yokohama 9-4
The Chunichi Dragons swooped in for three runs in the seventh and five more in the eighth to turn a 4-1 deficit into a 9-4 victory against the Yokohama Bay Stars Friday at Yokohama Stadium and assured itself of a winning record for the first time in three years with their 70th win. Yokohama also became the first club to lose 90 since Yakult in 1970.
Dragons leftfielder Koichi Sekikawa did something that he never had in 12 previous campaigns, leadoff a game with a homer, this one a shot on the second pitch he saw from Yokohama starter Daisuke Miura to right and it was 1-0.
Chunichi starter Kazuhiro Hiramatsu worked his way out of a men on first and second, one out predicament in the bottom of the inning. But in the second, centerfielder Tatsuhiko Kinjo walked and rookie third baseman Yuki Yoshimura lined a Hiromatsu delivery off the leftfield wall for a double and his first pro hit. Catcher Ryoji Aikawa rolled one out near short that he beat out as Kinjo toed the dish and it was 1-1. Two outs later and with men now on second and third, second baseman Hitoshi Taneda singled to center to cash them in and it was 3-1 Yokohama.
In the third, Yokohama tacked another one on with a one out infield hit by first baseman Tyrone Woods, a single to right from leftfielder Takanori Suzuki and a single to left by Kinjo that juiced the bags. Yoshimura walked to force Woods in and make it 4-1 Stars.
The Dragons had their first major uprising in the sixth, as Sekikawa singled to left with one out and was moved over on a sac bunt. Rightfielder Kosuke Fukudome walked. Third baseman Kazuyoshi Tatsunami outran a bleeder and the bases were full. But centerfielder Alex Ochoa struckout and it stayed 4-1 Yokohama.
They would get more organized, though, in the seventh. First baseman Kazuki Inoue doubled off the leftfield wall. Catcher Motonobu Tanishige singled to left. Pinch hitter Takayuki Onishi singled to right to drive Inoue in. Sekikawa singled to left to load the bases. Second baseman Masahiro Araki singled to left and Tanishige and Onishi scurried around to tie it at 4-4. Fukduome struckout and Tatsunami grounded out to keep it there.
Denny Tomori was inserted for Yokohama to begin the eighth and Ochoa tapped a little ground ball out in front of the plate. But Aikawa couldn't get a handle on it and Ochoa was safe. Inoue beat out a ground ball. The runners were sacrificed up. Shortstop Masahiko Morino played jai lai with the leftfield wall and Ochoa and Inoue ran in on the double. Pinch hitter Hiroyuki Watanabe singled to right. Sekikawa singled to left for the RBI. Tomori balked and the runners trotted over to second and third. Araki wacked a curve ball back through the middle and two more crossed for a 9-4 Dragons advantage.
Yokohama had no other bullets left in its chamber and that was that.
For Chunichi, Ochoa was 0-5 with three strikeouts and is at .290.
For Yokohama, Woods was 1-3 with two walks and two strikeouts and is at .268.
Pitching Lines:
Chunichi:
Hiramatsu IP 2.1 BF 14 PC 44 H 6 HR 0 K 2 BB 2 R 4 ER 4 ERA 4.05
S. Okamoto IP 2.2 BF 10 PC 43 H 2 HR 0 K 2 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 3.33
Endo IP 1.0 BF 3 PC 11 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.54
Hisamoto (W, 1-1) IP 1.0 BF 5 PC 19 H 1 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 3.48
Iwase IP 1.0 BF 4 PC 21 H 0 HR 0 K 2 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 1.02
A.N. Otsuka IP 1.0 BF 4 PC 12 H 1 HR 0 K 2 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.21
Yokohama:
D. Miura IP 7.0 BF 31 PC 138 H 9 HR 1 K 8 BB 2 R 4 ER 4 ERA 4.09
Tomori (L, 1-7) IP 0.1 BF 7 PC 26 H 5 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 5 ER 4 ERA 4.02
Tomioka IP 0.2 BF 2 PC 7 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 4.41
Nakanowatari IP 1.0 BF 3 PC 11 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 5.40
E: Ryoji Aikawa
SB: M. Araki, K.A. Furuki
2B: T. Ishii, Tanishige, Yoshimura, K. Inoue, Morino
HR: Sekikawa (2)
RBI: Sekikawa 2, M. Araki 4, Morino 2, T. Onishi, Taneda 2, Ryoji Aikawa,
Yoshimura
HBP: Yoshimura (Iwase)
Balk: Tomori
GIDP: Ryoji Aikawa (5-2)
LOB: Chunichi 7, Yokohama 9
Season Series: Chunichi 15, Yokohama 8, 1 Tie
Game Time: 3:28
Attendance: 10,000
Umpires: K. Kobayashi (HP), Kasahara (1B), Nishimoto (2B), Mori (3B)
Team Reports
Yomiuri According to Chunichi Sports, former Giants first baseman Hiroo Ishii will be the team's batting instructor next season.
Hanshin 41 year old infielder Katsumi Hirosawa will be the DH during the Japan Series games at Fukuoka Dome. He is the oldest DH in the fall classic ever.
Seibu According to now former manager Haruki Ihara, he was asked to be Tatsunori Hara's head coach for next season. This was before the Giants decided to fire their one time third baseman. Ihara will take over at Orix once the schedule is concluded.
Nippon Ham Pitcher Satoru Kanemura announced that he will marry 27 year old tv announcer Ayako Okuda. They met through mutual friends five years ago and have been a couple for the last four. He says that she doesn't really know anything about baseball, but she comes to all of his home games anyway.
Lotte Tomohiro Kuroki made a minor league start and went four scoreless innings on three hits.
Today's Pictures
Kenji Johjima Hits Another One Out
Satoru Kanemura and His Hot Fiance
