BASEBALL
Giants defeat Dragons 12-4 in Central League
The Yomiuri Giants trounced the Chunichi Dragons 12-4 at Tokyo Dome on Sunday afternoon. In sweeping the weekend series against their Central League rivals, the Giants prevented the Dragons from clinching first place for three consecutive games.
Chunichi starter Daisuke Yamai (3-3) pitched four shaky innings and left the game with his team in a 7-0 hole. The Giants sent nine batters to the plate in a four-run third, and left fielder Alex Rodriguez hit a three-run home run in the fourth inning for his fourth round-tripper in as many games.
The Dragons looked to rally in the top of the fifth when center fielder Yohei Oshima led off the inning with an infield single and pinch hitter Masaaki Koike followed with a home run to left off Giants reliever Levi Romero (1-3). But Romero settled down to retire the side and pick up the win in an appearance that lasted an inning and a third.
Elsewhere in the Central League, Hanshin blanked Hiroshima 2-0. In the Pacific League, Softbank tied Seibu 4-4, and Rakuten beat Nippon Ham 2-0.
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edojin
Did the Giants win those three games with the Dragons ... or did the Dragons' manager give those games away? I've never seen such stupid managing in my life. It looked as is Dragons manager Ochiai wanted to lose those games. In game two, for example, starting pitcher Chen came up to bat in a late inning and instead of putting a pinch-hitter in, Ochiai let Chen bat for himself. They were training 2-1 at the time. Ochiai didn't even try to score in that inning. Then the next inning Chen gave up two more runs ... and still Ochiai didn't take him out. It looked like Chen was being punished for something.
There was something fishy about the way the Giants won all three games ... as there was no effort at all on the Dragons' part to do anything. Ochiai played for the Giants at one time ... so did he "owe" them one, two or three games down the road?
Lousy baseball, lousy managing ...
Just so the Giants can get to the playoffs instead of the Tigers ...
Wonder if the gaijin sports editors will pick up on this in their local publications ... ??
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JapaHaYn
Sounds a lot like what happened between the Red Sox/Yankees/Rays this year. My question is, knowing how the Dragons and Giants are bitter rivals, why would the Dragons prefer the Giants in the climax series rather than the Tigers? Doesn't make sense to me. I don't think these games were thrown, just bad baseball by the Dragons. They'll clinch soon enough though.
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multitasker
Lions!!! Lions!!! Li ooooo nnnnn sssssss!!!
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