Kuroki Pitches Beautifully for 1st Loss

Tuesday night at Tokyo Dome marked the 11th start for Chiba Lotte Marines' ace "Johnny" Kuroki.  As usual, he pitched an awsome game, surrendering just 4 hits in 9 innings while walking but a single batter.  But, baseball is a fickle game where just two pitches can make a big difference.

Those two pitches turned out to be back to back home runs to Kataoka and Obando to lead off the 4th inning.  Up to that point, Kuroki had just allowed 2 base runners, a walk and a base hit in the 2nd.  After that, Shimada's 2-out single to left was the only other Nippon Ham Fighter to reach base.  Regardless, though, when your team only manages a single run, giving up 2 dingers in a row can really hurt.

For Nippon Ham, Sanders got his first win of the season, throwing 7 2/3rd innings, allowing a single run in the 1st.  He managed to scatter 7 hits out just enough to get into and out of a few pinches.  With bases loaded and 2 down in the 8th, and having thrown 126 pitches, Ohshima-kantoku went to his closer Mirabal to get them out of the jam.  Mirabal got a grouder to second to end the threat, then struck out 3 of the 4 batters he faced in the 9th for his 11th save.

It was a hard loss for Lotte, and puts them back even in the head-to-head contests against the Fighting Ham (5 and 5 - 1 tie).  With Kintetsu losing to Daiei, Lotte remains in 2nd place, just dropping to 4 games back of the front running champions.  It is still a tight race as a mere 4.5 games seperate the top 4 Pacific League teams.