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10/19/2003 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Zuleta Makes Panama Proud in Hawks Japan Series Victory"
Zuleta Wins First Japan Series Game with Sayonara Single
The tiny Central American country of Panama, and more specifically Panama City, has to be bursting with pride right now, as Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera took home the MVP trophy from the American League Championship Series and Daiei Hawks DH Julio Zuleta drilled a shot just beyond the reach of Hanshin Tigers centerfielder Norihiro Akahoshi with two on in the bottom of the ninth Saturday at Fukuoka Dome to drive in the winning run in a 5-4 victory by the birds of prey in the first game of the 2003 Japan Series.
Kei Igawa started for Hanshin and only lasted five innings, permitting three runs on nine hits while walking one and hitting a batter. He was then succeeded by Jerrod Riggan, who allowed a run, and Yuya Ando, who was the victim of Zuleta's heroics.
Kazumi Saito started for Daiei and was touched for just four hits, but he was also tense in his first ever Japan Series and uncharacteristically walked six, leading to his exiting in the seventh after seeing the tying run cross the plate. But the Hawks mediocre pen then came to the rescue, with Takayuki Shinohara picking up a three pitch win, the second fewest deliveries ever in a series game by a triumphant hurler.
Hanshin second baseman Makoto Imaoka, the Central League batting champion, singled to center to leadoff the contest and put Saito in a defensive mode. The next two men flew out, but rightfielder Shinjiro Hiyama walked. Saito, though, escaped any harm when DH Katsumi Hirosawa struckout.
Igawa opened his first ever Japan Series appearance by fanning the initial pair of batters he saw. Second baseman Tadahito Iguchi popped out to first and Igawa was looking like his normal self despite the situation and his young age.
Saito tossed a 1-2-3 second and then was staked to an advantage in the home portion, as, following two strikeouts to commence the frame, leftfielder Pedro Valdes walked. Zuleta singled to left. Centerfielder Arihito Muramatsu then spanked one back up the middle, too, to plate Valdes and it was 1-0 Hawks. Torigoe also whiffed, so Igawa struckout the side, but the damage was done and the Tigers were behind.
In the third, Daiei threatened once more, as third baseman Munenori Kawasaki legged out an infield hit and Iguchi rammed a shot down the leftfield line. First baseman Nobuhiko Matsunaka ripped a liner between third and short, but Hanshin third baseman Atsushi Kataoka made a diving stab of the RBI bid and got up and stepped on third for the inning ending double play.
That play proved huge, as in the fourth, the Tigers clawed back. With two gone, Saito walked both first baseman George Arias and Kataoka. Catcher Akihiro Yano then torqued a fastball up the rightcenterfield gap for a two RBI triple and it was 2-1 Hanshin.
Hawks catcher Kenji Johjima, who creamed all 34 of his homers against righties this season, stepped in to begin the bottom of the stanza and terminated that string, as he mercilessly put a whippin' on a 1-2 87mph fastball on the outer half of the plate from the southpaw Igawa and launched it up into the mezzanine section in left to knot it at 2-2. Valdes singled to center. Igawa plunked Zuleta. Muramatsu sent one up the middle for a knock to load the bases. Torigoe lifted a fly ball to left and Valdes tagged up and hustled in to put Daiei back in front 3-2. The next two men popped out to keep it a one run affair.
Daiei had two on with two outs in the fifth, but Zuleta flied out to extinguish that flame. The Tigers then equalized things in the top of the sixth, as Hiyama reached on Torigoe's error on a ground ball and stole second. Arias chopped one off the artificial turf and it bounded over Kawasaki's head and into left to bring Hiyama in and make it 3-3. Kataoka walked. But Yano killed the possibility of further scoring when he grounded into a 5-4-3 twin killing
But the Hawks kept plugging away. With Riggan on the hill in the home segment, rightfielder Hiroshi Shibahara outran a dribbler toward second and Kawasaki walked. Iguchi insideouted one to right and the speedy Shibahara galloped homeward for a 4-3 Daiei lead.
Saito, though, had control problems in the seventh and Hanshin leveled it once more. Shortstop Atsushi Fujimoto walked and, two outs later, so did leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto. Shuji Yoshida replaced Saito. Hiyama clocked a third pitch fastball to center to redeem Fujimoto to make it four all. Katsunori Okamoto was summoned from the bullpen and got behind 3-0 to Hirosawa. Okamoto recovered to blow Hirosawa away on three straight heaters and preserve the deadlock.
In the top of the ninth, with Okamoto still dealing for Daiei, Imaoka singled to center with one out and was sacrificed to second. Shinohara then jogged in to take the ball from Okamoto and he popped Kanemoto up to make that rally for nought.
Yuya Ando had already thrown two fine innings of relief for Hanshin, but he walked Matsunaka with one out in the bottom of the ninth. Motoi Okoshi was dispatched to pinch run for Matsunaka. Johjima singled to right. Valdes struckout. That brought up Zuleta, who, noticing that the outfield was playing up a bit to give them a chance to throw Okoshi out at the plate on a single, resolved to hit what he termed a "big fly." He got an 89mph fastball on the inner half of the plate and while he was partially jammed, he muscled it to deep rightcenter. Akahoshi turned his back to the plate and got on his horse in pursuit and made a flying leap, but it went just beyond his glove and Okoshi blazed to the promised land while Akahoshi was picking himself up from the face plant he did. It was the the first sayonara win in a Japan Series since game two of the 1997 series, when Seibu edged Yakult 6-5. It also halted a seven game losing streak by PL clubs in the series.
Zuleta is playing with a fractured pinky finger, but he obviously acquitted himself extremely well in spite of it. He said that he "was so happy, I could cry." It was the 29th sayoanara win overall in Japan Series history, but the former Cub is only the fourth foreigner in history to win a series battle sayonara stylee.
It was the first series sayonara triumph for the Hawks since 1966 and the fourth overall in club history.
Shinohara has been around for seven years, but this was his first ever Japan Series stint and he made it a good one. The only other pitcher in series lore to win with a lower pitch count was Kintetsu's Akira Okamoto's two pitch performance in the 2001 series against Yakult.
It was Tigers manager Senichi Hoshino's fourth straight defeat in Japan Series action. The last time Hanshin suffered a sayonara Japan Series loss was in game four of the 1964 series to the Nankai Hawks 4-3. Hoshino has managed in three Japan Series and has begun all of them with losses.
This was only the fifth time that two 20 game winners have faced each other in game one of a Japan Series, the last time being Hisashi Yamada of Hankyu (now Orix) and Tsuneo Horiuchi of Yomiuri in 1972.
Akahoshi suffered a scratch to his jaw and a mild nosebleed from hitting the turf.
For Hanshin, Arias was 1-3 with a walk and an RBI and is at .333.
For Daiei, Zuleta was 2-4 with an HBP and an RBI and is at .500. Valdes was 2-4 with a walk and is at .500.
Pitching Lines:
Hanshin:
Igawa IP 5.0 BF 25 PC 91 H 9 HR 1 K 6 BB 2 R 3 ER 3 ERA 5.40
Riggan IP 1.0 BF 6 PC 22 H 2 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 1 ER 1 ERA 9.00
Ando (L, 0-1) IP 2.2 BF 12 PC 56 H 2 HR 0 K 3 BB 2 R 1 ER 1 ERA 3.38
Daiei:
K. Saito IP 6.2 BF 30 PC 106 H 4 HR 0 K 3 BB 6 R 4 ER 3 ERA 4.05
S. Yoshida IP 0.0 BF 1 PC 3 H 1 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
K. Okamoto IP 2.0 BF 7 PC 38 H 1 HR 0 K 3 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
Shinohara (W, 1-0) IP 0.1 BF 1 PC 3 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
E: Iguchi, Torigoe
SB: Hiyama, Shibahara
2B: Akahoshi, Iguchi
3B: A. Yano
HR: Johjima (1)
RBI: Hiyama, Arias, A. Yano 2, Iguchi, Johjima, Zuleta, Muramatsu, Torigoe
SF: Torigoe
HBP: Zuleta (Igawa)
GIDP: A. Yano (5-4-3)
LOB: Hanshin 8, Daiei 12
Series Status: Hanshin 0, Daiei 1
Game Time: 3:46
Attendance: 36,643
Umpires: Nakamura (HP), Kasahara (1B), Yamamoto (2B), Kittaka (3B)
Free Agents List Announced
60 players qualified for free agency this season. Note, though, that just because they have FA rights now, it doesn't mean they will use it. Anyway, here they are:
Hanshin: Katsumi Hirosawa, Teruyoshi Kuji, Hiroshi Ishige, Hideki Irabu, Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi, Keiichi Yabu and Hiroshi Yagi.
Chunichi: Kazuyoshi Tatsunami, Masahiro Yamamoto, Makoto Kito, Tadaharu Sakai, Koichi Sekikawa, Eiji Ochiai.
Yomiuri: Kazuhiro Kiyohara, Takayuki Kawamoto, Koji Goto, Akira Etoh.
Yakult: Atsuya Furuta, Ken Suzuki, Katsuyuki Dobashi, Shingo Takatsu, Chihiro Hamana, Tetsuya Iida.
Hiroshima: Kenjiro Nomura, Shinji Sasaoka, Shuji Nishiyama, Tomonori Maeda, Koichi Ogata, Kojiro Machida, Terunobu Seto, Takuya Kimura.
Yokohama: Takeshi Nakamura, Hirofumi Ogawa, Hitoshi Taneda, Takahiro Saeki, Satoshi Nakajima, Takuro Ishii.
Daiei: Noriyoshi Omichi, Koji Bonishi, Arihito Muramatsu, Masanori Taguchi, Yusuke Torigoe, Shuji Yoshida.
Seibu: Kazuo Matsui, Tsutomu Itoh, Hiroaki Ueda.
Kintetsu: Toyohiko Yoshida, Naoya Shimada, Akihito Igarashi, Hiroshi Takamura, Motoyuki Akahori, Tetsuya Matoyama, Naoyuki Omura.
Lotte: Yukihiko Sato, Takehiro Hashimoto, Tetsuya Kakiuchi, Kiyoshi Hatsushiba, Koichi Hori.
Nippon Ham: Yukio Tanaka.
Orix: Koichi Oshima.
Team Reports
Yomiuri Matt Randell will make an instructional league start on the 21st. His future with the team is still very much up in the air.
Chunichi Kenta Asakura went two innings in an instructional league game, allowing one run on two hits.
Hiroshima The Carp is trying to sign Koryo High School catcher catcher Yuta Shirahama and his batterymate, pitcher Kentaro Nishimura. However, there are at least two other clubs , Yomiuri and Lotte, interested in Nishimura, but Hiroshima hopes that social pressure from locals (Koryo is located in Hiroshima) will sway him their way.
Seibu Shortstop Kazuo Matsui says that he won't talk about his free agency situation until the Japan Series is over. He doesn't want to overshadow that fall institution.
Lotte Ace Tomohiro Kuroki, who has been out of action for thelast year and a half with a shoulder problem, will be making some instructional league starts....Sports Nippon is reporting that Bobby Valentine will indeed take the manager's job and there will be a formal announcement the first week of November.
Orix Ex-manager Leon Lee has returned to the states. He still hasn't given the Blue Wave front office an answer on their offer to be a batting instructor for them.
Miscellaneous Roger Clemens' agent said that a Sports Nippon report indicating that he is considering playing in Japan to stay in shape for the Athens Olympics is false, according to the Newark Star-Ledger. However, he may make a promotional trip there....In reporting on the final game of the ALCS, the Japan Times ran the following headline: Curse of the Boonebino....Joe Christensen of the Baltimore Sun on Hideki Matsui during the ALCS: "He looked like he had ice water running through his veins when he drilled that double down the right-field line off Pedro Martinez in the eighth inning of Game 7. The bigger the stage, the better Matsui seems to play." Derek Jeter told The Oregonian newspaper that "we're going to get [Matsui] a ring!" Godzilla was the Yanks' leading hitter during the league championship series with a .308 average....On Boston manager Grady Little not taking out Pedro Martinez with Hideki Matsui at the dish, Cape Cod Times scribe Bill Higgins offered, " [Little] let his heart rule his head. In the face of a crisis swirling with emotion and intensity, the Red Sox manager choked. Coughed up a fur ball. Gagged. Morphed into Darrell Johnson and John McNamara as all of New England quivered with flashbacks from 1975 and 1986"....Former Nankai, Yakult and Hanshin skipper Katsuya Nomura criticized Yomiuri manager Tsuneo Horiuchi for his relaxed policy concerning mustaches and dyed hair, saying that permitting that makes players appear unprofessional. When he was helming the Tigers, Nomura and then centerfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo came into conflict due to Shinjo coloring his hair brown....Three men were arrested for diving naked into the Dotonbori River off of the Ebisubashi Bridge. They told police that they had been drinking before deciding to take the plunge....Japan defeated Brazil 8-2 in the baseball world cup....And the Rocky Mountain News came up with a very interesting stat: Matsui's 106 RBIs is the most for any Yankees rookie since Joe Dimaggio in 1936, when the hall of famer had 125. Finally, for you Red Sox fans, what could have been, courtesy of Larry Stone at the Seattle Times Here.
In the News
Baltimore to Pursue Kazuo Matsui
See story at: Baltimore Sun Article
Matsui Realizes Dream With Yankees
See story at: NY Daily News Article
Today's Pictures
Julio Zuleta Exults After Driving in Winning Run
Another Shot of Zuleta As Teammates Run Out to Celebrate
Kenji Johjima Takes Kei Igawa to the Downs
Another View of Johjima's Swing on His Homer
