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04/17/2006 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Monday Report"
Japanese Baseball News: Monday Report
Japanese Baseball News: The Monday Report By Glenn Davies,Tokyo Japan |
Central League News | ||
The Yomiuri Giants continued their hot start and look almost unbeatable at this stage. Even when the pitching falters in late innings the Giants have found a way back. Sundays 8-7 win over the Baystars. Lee and Kokubo continue to show consistent power and new addition Glover improved to 2-0 on the year. The Dragons faltered in the chase, going down 2-1 to the Swallows and the Tigers have yet to get consistent starting pitching or hitting as yet as they fell to the Carp 2-1 on Sunday. The Tigers and Dragons will need to get a streak going if they are to stay in touch with the Giants and not make this a one team season. The Baystars have looked awful in most of their games in the season so far. More consistent hitting is needed as they regularly fail to score runners, a RBI scoring replacement at first for Saeki would be a good start... | ||
Pacific League News | ||
The Marines showed some signs of life over the week and won 6-4 on Sunday for their eight of the year. The fact that it was against the league leading Lions made it all the more important as they needed to stop them from running away with the lead at this early stage. The Marines have started to hit and an even more impressive 14-5 win over the Lions on Saturday signaled their intent to defend their crown. Softbank has now gone 25 innings without scoring a run and fell to the Fighters for the second time over the weekend. Fighters pitching has been strong thus far and rookie starter TomoyaYagi pitched a 10 inning no hitter on Saturday. The Buffaloes also continued their strong start and legendary first baseman Kazuhiro Kiyohara hit his first HR of the season in a 2-1 win over the Eagles. | ||
Batting Leaders | ||||||||||||||
@ | Central | Team | Avg. | AB | HR | RBI | @ | Pacific | Team | Avg. | AB | HR | RBI | |
1 | Sheets | Tigers | .431 | 59 | 5 | 15 | 1 | Fukuura | Marines | .388 | 76 | 0 | 8 | |
2 | Lee | Giants | .414 | 68 | 4 | 15 | 2 | Nakajima | Lions | .365 | 75 | 3 | 12 | |
3 | Kokubo | Giants | .396 | 58 | 6 | 19 | 3 | Ogasawara | Fighters | .343 | 77 | 2 | 8 | |
4 | Kanemoto | Tigers | .378 | 58 | 3 | 11 | 4 | GG Satoh | Lions | .338 | 76 | 3 | 15 | |
5 | Ochoa | Dragons | .372 | 44 | 4 | 9 | 5 | Inaba | Fighters | .333 | 75 | 2 | 6 | |
Pitching Leaders | ||||||||||||||
@ | Central | Team | ERA | W | L | Sv | @ | Pacific | Team | ERA | W | L | Sv | |
1 | Utsumi | Giants | 0.56 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Sugiuchi | Hawks | 1.04 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
2 | Kawakami | Dragons | 1.17 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Matsuzaka | Lions | 1.13 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
3 | Powell | Giants | 1.59 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | Davey | Buffaloes | 1.35 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
4 | Igawa | Tigers | 1.96 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | Saitoh | Hawks | 1.52 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
5 | Fuji | Swallows | 2.00 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | Shimizu | Marines | 1.88 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
Foreign Player Stats | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2006 Standings |
Central | W | L | T | Pct% | GB | Pacific | W | L | T | Pct% | GB |
Yomiuri Giants | 12 | 2 | 1 | .857 | - | Seibu Lions | 12 | 6 | 0 | .667 | - |
Chunichi Dragons | 6 | 4 | 1 | .600 | 4.0 | Orix Buffaloes | 10 | 7 | 1 | .598 | 1.5 |
Hanshin Tigers | 7 | 5 | 1 | .583 | 4.0 | Softbank Hawks | 9 | 8 | 1 | .529 | 2.5 |
Yakult Swallows | 5 | 7 | 0 | .417 | 6.0 | Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters | 9 | 9 | 0 | .500 | 3.0 |
Hiroshima Carp | 4 | 9 | 1 | .308 | 7.5 | Chiba Lotte Marines | 8 | 11 | 0 | .421 | 4.5 |
Yokohama Bay Stars | 2 | 9 | 2 | .182 | 8.5 | Rakuten Eagles | 5 | 12 | 0 | .294 | 6.5 |