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Tashiro's home debut sees more of same as BayStars lose

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Tashiro's home debut sees more of same as BayStars lose

by Jim Allen (May 25, 2009)

Tomio Tashiro made his home managing debut in Yokohama on Sunday, but once more the BayStars were down and out--as in outhit, outpitched and outfielded.

Tohoku Rakuten Southpaw Kohei Hasebe held the hosts to two runs in six innings as the Golden Eagles smacked the BayStars 5-2 in interleague play at Yokohama Stadium.

Hasebe (3-3) allowed five hits and a walk, while striking out seven. One of his runs was unearned. The Eagles amassed 11 hits, but Rakuten skipper Katsuya Nomura all but dismissed his side's effort against the Central League's cellar dwellers.

"We haven't been getting those hits, but things change when you play a last-place team," said Eagles skipper Katsuya Nomura. "The things you need to do are exactly the same. You need to execute the same, but you feel different. That's what happened tonight."

Yokohama starter Futoshi Kobayashi (1-4) and his fielders failed to get the job done in the fourth, when the Eagles turned the game around on a sacrifice fly by Rick Short and a tie-breaking RBI single by Motohiro Shima, who went 3-for-3, stole a base and scored a run.

The BayStars led 1-0 through three thanks thanks to Seichi Uchikawa's first-inning homer, but in front of 18,041 fans on a rainy night, the hosts stumbled and the Eagles seized the initiative.

Kobayashi hit Daisuke Kusano to open the inning. A Takeshi Yamasaki single followed and Kobayashi walked Norihiro Nakamura on four pitches, pushing Kusano to third, from where he scored on Short's fly to left.

Shima then hit a grounder inside the bag at first that first baseman Dan Johnson dove for but couldn't come up with, allowing Yamasaki to score.

The Eagles made it 3-1 in the fifth with the help of the BayStars' second error of the night. After getting hit in the fourth, Kusano got a two-out, payback single off Kobayashi.

Third baseman Shuichi Murata let a grounder go through his legs, and Teppei Tsuchiya plated Kusano with a single.

Hasebe, who failed to get a bunt down in the second, helped himself with the bat as the Eagles knocked Kobayashi from the mound in a two-run sixth.

Shima doubled with one out and went to third on Hasebe's single that sent Kobayashi packing with runners on the corners. Southpaw Yuya Ishii, however, surrendered runs on a Makoto Kosaka single and a Kusano double.

The BayStars fell to 2-3 under Tashiro, who took charge at the start of interleague play.

"I'm grateful that so many fans came out in the rain," Tashiro said. "The whole lineup needs to just come together a little more and we're going to pull out of this.

"Kobayashi has good stuff when he attacks batters, but sometimes he gets gun shy and that's when things come apart."


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