Rhodes Sets New Pacific League HR Record

In their weekend series in what turned out to be a battle for first place, the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes finally managed to take one game out of the three against the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, stopping their 5 game losing streak to hold up just 1 game out of first place. And they did it with the home run combination of Rhodes and Nakamura.

First of all, Daiei lived up to Johjima's promise to pitch to Rhodes. Johjima had said before the series that Rhodes is as much a threat on the base paths as at bat, so walking him wasn't really much better of an option that pitching to him. That held true Friday night (9/7) when Daiei held both Rhodes and Nakamura to 1 for 4 games each for an easy 8-1 victory at Osaka Dome. But both big batters found their strokes Saturday and Sunday.

It was a slugfest on Saturday (9/8) as Daiei managed to scrape out a win 9-8. In the game, Rhodes went 4 for 5, driving in 5 runs with not one, but two home runs. That gave Rhodes the highest pace to 52 homers in a season, reaching the mark at 124 games, one faster than Bass in 1985, 5 games faster than Oh (in the opposing dug out this evening) in 1964. In the 9th inning, Rhodes and Nakamura hit back to back homers to bring the Buffaloes to within one run, but that was all they got. Rhodes had no comment after the game as he feels the home runs without a victory had no value.

Of course, the way I see it, they had tremendous value. The biggest being Nomura breaking out of the slump he was in. For today (Sunday, 9/9), Nakamura went deep his first two at bats, to put Kintetsu to an 5-0 early lead. And more importantly, it let Daiei know that they had to pitch to Rhodes. Daiei did catch up, tying the ball game before Rhodes hit a huge home run into the upper deck in the bottom of the 7th to retake the lead, 6-5. Rhodes stood there in the batters box and exclaimed "Wow!" as he watched the ball fly. There was no doubt about that one.

The home run this afternoon was Rhodes' 53rd of the year, surpassing Nomura and Ochiai for the Pacific League record. Kintetsu has 15 games remaining, and both Rhodes and Nomura are in stride, with Rhodes hitting almost a home run per game pace this past week.

Nakamura, with the two dingers today, is now at 42 HRs, well enough for the home run crown in most years. Could a duo hit 50/50 in a single year? I'm not sure which race is hotter, the one for the pennent or the home run crown. Cabrera seems to have paused at 45, so Rhodes appears to be only challenging history from here on out. But still, it's getting exciting.