Bobby Leads Marines' Charge
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Some rights reserved.
When the Chiba Lotte Marines defeated the Seibu Lions 6-4 at Seibu Stadium in the 21st meeting of the year between the two teams, Lotte kept 13.5 games behind the leading Blu e Wave (who also won), and the Lions dropped to 14 games behind. This marks the first time in 10 years that Lotte has been in 2nd place, and the first time in 11 years that Lotte was ahead of Seibu in the standings.
In 1985, Lotte finished 2nd with a record of 64 wins and 60 losses (6 ties), and was 15 games behind first place Seibu. In 1986, Lotte finished 4th, but were only 13 games out of first place. 1987 though 1994 Lotte has finished 5th or 6th as many as 33.5 games out of first place. This is why Lotte has often been referred to as "forever in B-Class."
8 year veteran outfielder Ohmura said, "Right now, playing baseball is the best! It's very gratifying!" Ohmura has a .400 batting average against Seibu this year, and went 1 for 3 with a 3-run home run in this crucial game. Whether you refer to it a "2nd place pressure" or a "Seibu Complex," it's been a long road from being next to the cellar on June 22 to 2nd place on August 29. Lotte had a chance to get into second place twice during that time, on July 22nd and August 12th, but... This season vs Seibu, Lotte has 7 wins against 13 loses (1 tie). "The pennant is our goal!" is what Valentine-kantoku says to being in 2nd place. Despite being 13.5 games out with just over a month left to play, anything short of 1st place is not enough. [Quote is a translation of a translation - accuracy is very suspect.]
In the first game of a four game series against No. 1 Orix on Friday September 1, Irabu threw 8 innings of shut out ball. Irabu's biggest pinch came in the 7th inning with one out, runners at second and third, and Ichiro at the plate. Irabu, who broke Ichiro's consecutive games on reaching base streak last month, got the slumping super-star to strike out swinging on a 145km/h fork ball. Irabu was clocked as fast as 156km/h (97.5mph).
The win stopped a 7 game losing streak against the Blue Wave. It also kept Orix's Magic number at 10 with 23 games left to play for Orix and 21 remaining for Lotte.
Source: Nikkan Sports
[Layout edited by: westbaystars on Feb 12, 2002 9:47 PM JST]