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05/11/2004 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: This Week In JBall! (5/5/04-5/10/04)"

This Week In JBall! by Henry Lu
Your weekly resource for the exciting world of Japanese Baseball
Standings (current through May 10, 2004) Central League Won Lost Tied Pct. GB Hanshin 17 14 0 .548 -- Yomiuri 16 15 0 .516 1.0 Hiroshima 16 16 0 .500 1.5 Yokohama 14 14 1 .500 1.5 Chunichi 13 15 1 .464 2.5 Yakult 13 15 0 .464 2.5 Pacific League Won Lost Tied Pct. GB Seibu 23 15 0 .605 -- Daiei 19 15 2 .559 2.0 Nippon Ham 18 18 1 .500 4.0 Kintetsu 17 19 1 .472 5.0 Orix 15 18 1 .455 5.5 Lotte 15 22 1 .405 7.5	Wins Leader Board (current through May 10, 2004) Central League Pacific League Rank Player Win-Loss Rank Player Win-Loss 1st Fukuhara (Hanshin) 5-1 1st Iwakuma (Kintetsu) 7-0 2nd Ishido (Yakult) 4-1 2nd Moore (Orix) 5-1 3rd Kawakami (Chunichi) 4-2 3rd Hoashi (Seibu) 4-2 4th Kudo (Yomiuri) 3-0 4th Kanemura (Nippon Ham) 4-3 5th Shimoyanagi (Hanshin) 3-1 5th H. Kobayashi (Lotte) 3-1

This Week's Highlight -- May 9, 2004: Imaoka Powers Hanshin to 16-5 Romp over Chunichi
Tigers' second baseman Makoto Imaoka had himself quite a day at the plate in a 16-5 Hanshin victory over the Chunichi Dragons at Koshien Stadium. He went 3 for 4 and drove in 6 runs with an rbi single in the 1st, a 2-run homer to center in the 4th, and 3-run homer to left in the 5th. Imaoka's big game gave him season tallies of .336 batting (tied for 5th in CL), 29 rbi (3rd in CL), and 12 home runs (4th in CL). It only took him 31 games this season to match the 12-homer total of his entire 2003 season, in which he played 120 games. (Henry Lu, HLu@BaseballGuru.com)