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04/03/2006 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News- Weekly Report"
Japanese Baseball News- Weekly Report
| Japanese Baseball News: The Monday Report By Glenn Davies,Tokyo Japan |
| Central League News | |
| The Central League opened its season on Friday with all six teams in action. The Giants faced off against the Baystars and took 2 of 3 behind strong pitching from WBC hero Uehara and strong batting from Lee and Takahashi who both hit 2HRs in the 3 game set. Yoshihiro Doi of the Baystars won the 2nd game for the Stars with solid pitching, giving up only one run in seven innings of work. Shuichi Murata looked sharp for the Baystars hitting 2 HRs in one game. The Swallows took 2 of 3 from the Tigers with Tigers pitcher Egusa saving the embarrassment of a sweep by blanking the Swallows in the last game. Kanemoto also started to look more in form with a 4-4 performance in the game (1HR).Aoki and Miyamoto played well in the series for the Swallows hitting 8-20 .400 and Riggs and Ramirez opened their HR accounts, each hitting their first of the season. Sheets played well for the Tigers and hit 2HRs in the set. Domingo Guzman pitched well to lift the Dragons to a 3-2 win over Marty Brown's Carp and take 2 from 3 in the series. Iwase looked sharp for the Dragons in the ninth and recorded his second save of the season.Alex Ochoa came up with a number of key hits in the series and has 3RBIs.
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| Pacific League News | |
| The Hawks took a good lead on the field over the weekend by winning 2 of 3 against the hapless Eagles. Strong pitching from Sugiuchi (2-0) and timely hitting from the middle order continues to be the order of the day for the Hawks. All of the frontline rotation pitchers for the Hawks have picked up a win already and Zuleta already has 3HRs on the season. GG.Sato continues to lead a strong Lions attack that swept the Marines over the weekend. Marines pitching has been hit hard and Agbayani has yet to find his power stroke. Wakui(2-0) was the winning Lions pitcher on Sunday and if his form continues the Lions look to have the only rotation that could compete with the Hawks. The Fighters and Buffaloes signaled their intention to slug it out for a place in the off season in their games over the weekend. Seguignol played well and went 4-5 with two doubles and a HR(his 100th in Japan) in Sundays 9-2 win.The Fighters swept the series but each game was tightly fought and usually decided by one run. | |
| Batting Leaders | ||||||||||||||
Central | Team | Avg. | AB | HR | RBI | Pacific | Team | Avg. | AB | HR | RBI | |||
| 1 | Sekimoto | Tigers | .571 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 1 | GG Satoh | Lions | .485 | 33 | 1 | 10 | |
| 2 | Abe | Giants | .500 | 13 | 0 | 3 | 2 | Inaba | Fighters | .464 | 32 | 1 | 3 | |
| 3 | Murata | BayStars | .500 | 12 | 2 | 6 | 3 | Fukuura | Marines | .458 | 29 | 0 | 5 | |
| 4 | Lee | Giants | .500 | 13 | 2 | 4 | 4 | Nakajima | Lions | .444 | 35 | 2 | 6 | |
| 5 | Kokubo | Giants | .500 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 5 | Hidaka | Buffaloes | .409 | 28 | 0 | 4 | |
| Pitching Leaders | ||||||||||||||
Central | Team | ERA | W | L | Sv | Pacific | Team | ERA | W | L | Sv | |||
| 1 | Egusa | Tigers | 0.00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Arakaki | Hawks | 1.00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2 | Kawakami | Dragons | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Watanabe | Marines | 1.08 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| 3 | Kuroda | Carp | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | Matsuzaka | Lions | 1.13 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 4 | Doi | BayStars | 1.29 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | Hoashi | Lions | 1.13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 5 | Domingo | Dragons | 1.59 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | Maekawa | Buffaloes | 1.13 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Foreign Player Stats | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2006 Standings |
| Central | W | L | T | Pct% | GB | Pacific | W | L | T | Pct% | GB |
| Chunichi Dragons | 2 | 1 | 0 | .667 | - | Softbank Hawks | 6 | 2 | 0 | .750 | - |
| Yakult Swallows | 2 | 1 | 0 | .667 | - | Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters | 5 | 3 | 0 | .625 | 1.0 |
| Yomiuri Giants | 2 | 1 | 0 | .667 | - | Seibu Lions | 5 | 3 | 0 | .625 | 1.0 |
| Hanshin Tigers | 1 | 2 | 0 | .333 | 1.0 | Orix Buffaloes | 4 | 4 | 0 | .500 | 2.0 |
| Yokohama Bay Stars | 1 | 2 | 0 | .333 | 1.0 | Chiba Lotte Marines | 3 | 5 | 0 | .375 | 3.0 |
| Hiroshima Carp | 1 | 2 | 0 | .333 | 1.0 | Rakuten Eagles | 1 | 7 | 0 | .125 | 5.0 |
