Japanese-American Perspectives

Second of two games against Australia. Sounds like the game is sold out again. Start time for tonight is 6pm.

The announcers mentioned that tickets for tonight's game actually sold out last night. They also said that tickets for these two games against Australia actually went on sale back back at the end of January and weren't selling all that well. It seems it wasn't until after the first game between Samurai Japan and the Yomiuri Giants in Miyazaki that everyone started getting interested.

Daisuke Matsuzaka gets the start for Japan. Damian Moss gets the start for Australia.

Code:

Japan           Australia
CF Aoki         2B Wearne
SS Nakajima     RF Collins
RF Ichiro       CF Snelling
LF Inaba        3B Huber
3B Murata       DH Risinger
2B Iwamura      1B Roneberg
DH Johjima      RF Brice
C  Abe          SS Dutton
2B Uchikawa     C  Karlsen

First pitch - 6:09pm

First Inning - Japan

Aoki grounds out to second.

Nakajima flies out to deep right (caught near the lip of the warning track).

Ichiro grounds out to second.

First Inning - Australia

Wearne strikes out swinging.

Collins strikes out swinging.

Snelling singles to center.

Huber skies one in between second and center... Iwamura dives and gloves it, but the ball pops out. Snelling to third, Huber to second. No error on the play, the hit is called a double.

Risinger strikes out swinging to end the inning.

Second Inning - Japan

Inaba grounds out to first.

Murata hits one to center, Snelling dives but the ball gets passed him. Murata to second on a double. It didn't really seem like Snelling had to dive. The replay actually shows that the ball was already past Snelling when he dove.

Iwamura walks.

Johjima hits a grounder to second, only play is at first.

Abe walks to load the bases.

Uchikawa hits a sharp liner toward short, Dutton dives and makes a great catch to end the inning.

Second Inning - Australia

Roneberg hits a hopper toward short, throw over to first, not in time. Infield hit.

Brice hits into a fielder's choice, one out.

Dutton lines one over the leaping Nakajima into left-center for a single.

Karlsen drills a double to right. Brice scores. Dutton scores.

Wearne hits a short bloop to short, Nakajima makes the catch for the second out of the inning.

Pitching change: Matsuzaka out, Sugiuchi in. Matsuzaka final line - 38 pitches, 10 batters, 5 hits, 0 walks, 3 strike outs.

Collins strikes out swinging to end the inning.

Third Inning - Japan

Aoki hits a sharp liner one to right, Brice mis-fields the ball (error) and it rolls toward the wall. Aoki rounds second. The ball comes into the cut-off man. The throw to third... Aoki is tagged out!

Nakajima walks.

Ichiro hits a high chopper over to first. Roneberg under-hands it to Moss, but it's over his head. Nakajima to third. Ichiro to second. Runners advance on throwing error by Roneberg.

Inaba hits a chopper to second, throw over to first for the second out of the inning. Nakajima scores. Ichiro to third.

Murata pounds a high chopper to short, Dutton fields it but can't get it out of his glove. Ichiro scores. Murata reaches on a error by Dutton.

Iwamura strikes out swinging to end the inning.

Third Inning - Australia

Snelling strikes out looking.

Huber strikes out swinging (check-swing).

Risinger strikes out looking.

Fourth Inning - Japan

Pitching change: Moss out, Brassington in.

Johjima singles to right.

Abe hits into a fielder's choice.

Uchikawa works out a walk.

Aoki dunks one down the left field line... Fair! Abe scores. Uchikawa scores. The throw comes in toward third from the cut-off man and strikes Aoki in the arm. He's in pain. The trainer comes running out... Looks like he's alright and he stays in the game. That hit is scored a triple.

Nakajima hits one back up the box for a single. Aoki scores.

Pinch running: Nakajima out, Kawasaki in.

Ichiro up to bat.

Kawasaki steals second. Bad throw by the catcher, Kawasaki to third.

Ichiro pounds one into the ground toward first. Fielded there by Roneberg. There's no play at home, Kawasaki scores. Roneberg runs over to first, but Ichiro legs it out for a single.

Inaba singles to left. Ichiro was running on the pitch and makes it to third.

Pitching change: Brassington out, Kelly in. Brassington's final line - 30 pitches, 7 batters, 5 hits, 1 walk, 0 strike outs.

Murata skies one to right. Brice is coming in... He can't make the catch. Ichiro scores. Inaba to second. Murata reaches first on the fielding error by Brice.

Iwamura walks to load the bases.

Johjima hits into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.

Fourth Inning - Australia

Defensive changes: Kawasaki stays in and takes over at short. Fukudome replaces Aoki in center.

Roneberg strikes out swinging.

Brice grounds out to short.

Dutton flies out to center.

Fifth Inning - Japan

Defensive changes: Snelling moves over to right, Brice is out. Kimpton enters the game at center.

Abe singles back up the box. It bounces off the pitcher and Dutton keeps it from trickling into the outfield.

Uchikawa lines out to right.

Fukudome strikes out looking.

Kawasaki hits a sharp liner to third, bobbled by Huber. Kawasaki reaches first on the error.

Ichiro lines out to third to end the inning.

Fifth Inning - Australia

Pitching change: Sugiuchi out, Utsumi in.

Karlsen grounds out to second.

Wearne grounds out to second.

Collins flies out to center.

Sixth Inning - Japan

Pitching change: Kelly out, Spear in.

Inaba lines a single into right.

Murata hits a shot back up the box for a single.

Iwamura hits a chopper to second. Fielder's choice. Inaba to third.

Johjima serves one into left for single. Inaba scores. Iwamura to third.

Abe gets hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Pinch runner: Ishihara goes in to to run for Abe.

Uchikawa walks in a run. Iwamura scores.

Fukudome strikes out swinging (tried to check his swing).

Kawasaki grounds out to first (broken bat) for the final out of the inning.

Sixth Inning - Australia

Defensive change: Ishihara stays in the game and becomes the catcher.

Snelling grounds out to short.

Pitching change: Utsumi out, Watanabe in. Utsumi's final line - 9 pitches, 4 batters, 0 walks, 0 hits.

Huber grounds out to short.

Risinger pops out to short for the final out of the inning.

Seventh Inning - Japan

Pitching change: Spear out, Cassidy in.

Defensive change: House comes in to catch. Kandilas comes in to right.

Ichiro grounds out to first.

Inaba takes the ball back up the middle for a single.

Murata strikes out swinging.

Iwamura hits a humpack liner to left, Collins slides and makes a great catch for the final out of the inning.

Seventh Inning - Australia

Pitching change: Watanabe out, Yamaguchi in.

Defensive changes: Kataoka comes in to play third. Murata shifts to first. Uchikawa goes to left. Inaba takes over in right. Ichiro is out of the game.

Roneberg grounds out to second.

Kimpton hits a grounder to first. Murata can't glove it, but Iwamura is there. Throw to the pitcher covering first, in time for the second out of the inning.

Dutton hits a chopper to short, throw over to first for the final out of the inning.

Eighth Inning - Japan

Defensive changes: Collins moves to first. Baker comes in at left.

Pinch hitter: Ogasawara comes in for Johjima.

Ogasawara hits a double to center.

Ishihara pops out to first.

Uchikawa flies out to center.

Fukudome hits a run-scoring double to right-center. Ogasawara scores.

Kawasaki hits a flare that drops in between short and center for a double. Fukudome scores.

Kataoka hits a liner to first. Stopped by the first baseman but dropped. Kataoka safe at first with an infield single.

Inaba flies out to left.

Eighth Inning - Australia

Pitching change: Yamaguchi out, Wakui in.

House strikes out looking.

Pinch hitter: Graham comes in for Wearn.

Graham strikes out looking.

Pinch hitter: Kennelly comes in for Collins.

Kennelly skies one to deep left, caught by Uchikawa for the final out of the inning.

Ninth Inning - Japan

Pitching change: Cassidy out, Timms in.

Murata strikes out swinging.

Iwamura is hit by a pitch.

Ogasawara grounds into a double play to end the inning.

Ninth Inning - Australia

Pitching change: Wakui out, Fujikawa in.

Kandilas walks.

Pinch hitter: D'Antonio comes in for Huber.

D'Antonio strikes out swinging.

Risinger strikes out swinging.

Baker strikes out swinging to end the game.

====================

Code:

     1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9   R   H   E
JPN  0  0  2  5  0  2  0  2  0   11  16  0
AUS  0  2  0  0  0  0  0  0  0   2   5   6

Japan
3B: Aoki
2B: Murata, Ogasawara, Fukudome, Kawasaki
SB: Kawasaki

Australia
2B: Huber, Karlsen
E: Huber, Roneberg, Brice(2), Dutton, Karlsen

Game Time: 3 hours and 9 minutes

Pitching Stats

Code:

                   IP   BF  H  K  BB  HBP  ER  Pitches
Daisuke Matsuzaka  1.2  10  5  3  0    0   2     38
Toshiya Sugiuchi   2.1  7   0  5  0    0   0     30
Tetsuya Utsumi     1.1  4   0  0  0    0   0     9
Shunsuke Watanabe  0.2  2   0  0  0    0   0     7
Tetsuya Yamaguchi  1.0  3   0  0  0    0   0     8
Hideaki Wakui      1.0  3   0  2  0    0   0     12
Kyuji Fujikawa     1.0  4   0  3  1    0   0     21

                   IP   BF  H  K  BB  HBP  ER  Pitches
Damian Moss        3.0  15  2  1  3    0   0     60
Phil Brassington   0.1  7   5  0  1    0   3     30
Mark Kelly         1.2  8   1  1  1    0   0     33
Russell Spear      1.0  8   3  1  1    1   2     27
Darryn Cassidy     2.0  11  5  1  0    0   2     30
Matthew Timms      1.0  3   0  1  0    1   0     15