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LEAD: Chunichi clinches Central League title
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TOKYO, Oct. 10 Kyodo
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(EDS: ADDING DETAILS, QUOTES)
Kosuke Fukudome drove in the go-ahead run and Tyrone Woods hit a
grand slam in the top of the 12th inning Tuesday as the Chunichi
Dragons clinched the Central League title with a 9-3 victory over the
Yomiuri Giants.
Fukudome lined a single to center field to break a 3-3 deadlock
after Motonobu Tanishige, Masahiro Araki and Hirokazu Ibata singled
off Hisanori Takahashi (2-6) to load the bases with one out.
Woods followed with his second homer of the night at Tokyo Dome,
driving a 2-2 pitch from the Yomiuri closer into the left-center
stands. Hiroshi Narahara added an RBI single to cap the 12th-inning
outburst, in which Chunichi batted around and had seven hits.
The extra-innings win gave the Dragons their seventh league
championship and first in two years at 85-52 with five ties, taking
an insurmountable four-game lead over the second-place Hanshin
Tigers, last year's league winners.
The Nagoya ballclub will meet the Pacific League champions --
the Nippon Ham Fighters or the Softbank Hawks who meet in the second
stage of the PL playoffs opening Wednesday -- in the best-of-seven
Japan Series beginning on Oct. 21 at Nagoya Dome.
Chinichi has been without a Japan Series title since 1954, the
longest drought among the existing clubs in the Japanese professional
leagues except for the Rakuten Eagles, who had their inaugural season
last year.
''The players have trained very hard, making me always feel that
they deserve to win the championship and it's my task to help them
achieve it,'' Chunichi manager Hiromitsu Ochiai said.
''Hanshin made us work hard with its surprising comeback effort
down the stretch,'' he added. ''It was really tough. And I never
intended to show my tears, but I was the first one on the team who
cried tonight.''
Ochiai saw his team maintain their league lead since June 13 on
the strength of a solid pitching staff and a potent lineup featuring
Woods and Fukudome at its core.
The 52-year-old manager steered the Dragons to the league title
two years ago in his first year in charge but missed out on a Japan
Series title after losing to the Seibu Lions in seven games.
On Tuesday night, Woods put Chunichi ahead in the fourth when he
launched a towering three-run blast over the right-field wall after
Ibata walked leading off the inning and Fukudome set a CL record with
his 46th double of the season.
Woods increased his CL-leading totals to 47 homers and 143 RBIs
after the game, which saw him drive in seven runs, while Fukudome
improved his batting average to a league-high .350 with a 3-for-6
showing.
Yomiuri cut the lead in the bottom of the fourth on a Tomohiro
Nioka solo homer. Yoshinobu Takahashi and Hiroki Kokubo delivered
back-to-back solo shots with none out in the seventh -- also off
Kenshin Kawakami -- to tie the score.
Kawakami, who leads the league with 16 wins, left after eight
innings giving up five hits and a walk while striking out six.
In the top of the eighth, Ibata doubled down the third-base line
with one out to chase Yomiuri starter Chiang Chien-ming. But Chunichi
had no follow-up support against reliever Masanori Hayashi.
Chunichi wasted a scoring opportunity again in the top of the
11th after Fukudome and Woods hit back-to-back singles with no outs
against Hisanori Takahashi, while the Dragons' vaunted bullpen turned
in a solid performance to keep the Giants at bay.
Lefty Yuichi Hisamoto relieved Kawakami to start the ninth and
retired Lee Seung Yeop and Yoshinobu Takahashi before giving way to
Shinya Okamoto, who got Nioka to pop up to the catcher to send the
game into extra innings.
Hitoki Iwase (2-2) worked the final two innings to pick up the
win. On Sunday, the left-hander became the first player in Japanese
baseball to reach 40 saves for the second straight year.
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Swallows 13, Carp 8
Yakult scored 10 runs on 11 hits, including a two-run homer by
Norichika Aoki, in the fifth inning to beat Hiroshima in a 37-hit
slugfest at Jingu Stadium.
All the Swallows starters and pinch-runner Hiroyasu Tanaka got
at least one hit in the big inning, which made a winner of
left-hander Kazuhisa Ishii (11-7). Akinori Iwamura went 4-for-5 with
a two-run homer and a pair of doubles for Yakult, while Jun Hirose
homered twice with four RBIs for Hiroshima.
Hiroshima starter Shinjiro Kojima (0-2) was tagged with seven
runs in four-plus innings in taking the loss.
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