The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters American manager Trey Hillman says the most exciting time of his 3 1/2 seasons at the helm of the Pacific League club is right now.

The team is in the midst of a hot four-team pennant race, and things are looking good for a postseason playoff berth awarded to the top three PL finishers during the regular season.

Through games of May 25, after taking two of three interleague contests from the Yomiuri Giants, the Fighters were tied for second place with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, a game behind the league-leading Chiba Lotte Marines and a half-game ahead of the Seibu Lions.

The reason for the team's success this season is easy to pinpoint: it's the pitching, tutored by another American, coach Mike Brown.

"We need our pitchers to have fastball command to make their other pitches better," said Hillman prior to a May 23 game in which the Fighters beat the Giants 5-3 at Tokyo Dome.

"You need to be consistent to remain over .500 all year long, and we're doing that," he pointed out. His mound staff has the best ERA among the 12 teams in Japanese baseball, a super 2.97, and it's a rookie leading the charge and inspiring the other hurlers on the club.

"The guy who has made the most impact is Yagi," said Hillman, referring to first-year left-hander Tomoya Yagi. "He has stabilized our rotation, and I think some of the other starters have fed off of his youth and excitement, and his aggressiveness in throwing to both sides of the plate and using all his pitches."

Yagi is 22, and Hillman says the scouting report before Yagi was signed indicated he had a better than 50 percent chance of making an impact on the F's first team.

"He has exceeded those expectations, and now it's just a matter of giving him the ball every five or six days," said the manager with a smile.

The kid beat the Giants 5-2 on May 25 to run his season record to 6-2.

He was tied for the PL lead in wins with three other pitchers and was on top with a stingy 1.64 ERA.

The highlight of his year so far was a game against the Hawks at Fukuoka's Yahoo Dome on April 15, when he threw a 10-inning no-hitter, but came out of the scoreless game with a no decision.

Other standouts on Nippon Ham's mound staff include North Carolina southpaw Corey Lee (4-3, 3.29 ERA), right-handers Shintaro Ejiri (4-3, 3.98) and Satoru Kanemura (3-2, 4.54) and relief ace Micheal Nakamura (13 saves, 2.38).

Youngster Yu Darvish (2-5, 4.08) has struggled, but his manager says he's getting better, has major league talent and will be OK.

While the pitching has been great, however, the team batting average is only .249, worst among all teams in both leagues.

Hillman is obviously frustrated by the lack of offense from his hitters this season, and that has caused him to play more Japanese-style baseball.

He's using the sacrifice bunt, hit-and-run, and base stealing, and scored a key run in a win against the Giants with a squeeze play.

The change is "out of cultural necessity," Hillman said.

"Last year, especially in interleague games, we had a lack of run production. In 2003 and 2004, we had good run production, but in 2005 and 2006, we have not. With our pitchers keeping us in more games, we have won more up to this point, but our run production is a full one run off from what it was two years ago."

Make that two.

The record shows the Fighters have scored an average of 3.55 runs per game in their 49 games this year. Over a full season in 2004, they plated 5.50 runs per contest.

Another major improvement has been in interleague games where Nippon Ham has posted a record of 8-6 in its first 14 games this spring, after going 12-22-2 against Central League opponents in 2005.

The difference, Hillman explains, is that the Fighters were ready this time.

"Last year, we did not prepare well," he admits. "This year, we started our scouting (of CL teams) early, and the information is clear. (Scout Hiroshi) Watanabe has done a great job of finding what we need to know to pass along to our players."

Asked about how it feels to run a team in Japan, matching wits with opposing American managers Bobby Valentine of the Marines and Marty Brown of the Hiroshima Carp, Hillman said, "My relationship with Bobby has always been good. He has treated me exceptionally well.

"With Marty (Brown), I see things I remember from my first year (managing in Japan) three years ago, where he's got his team and what they're doing. They just beat us two out of three, so he's got some talent to deal with but needs to inject more depth.

"I don't see any difference in managing against them (as opposed to Japanese managers) in a ballgame.

"It's nice to be able to have a lengthy conversation with an opposing manager, though," he added.

Hillman managed the Fighters during their final year in Tokyo in 2003 and is now in his third year leading the club after the franchise was moved to Hokkaido where he enjoys living and working.

"Things are fine in Sapporo," he said. "The fans are coming out and, from a marketing standpoint and things I see around town, the Fighters are very much a part of the community. I am much more recognizable in Hokkaido than I am in Tokyo, and that's fine with me," he said.

It appears the job Hillman has done is just fine with the people in Sapporo and the Nippon Ham front office as well.

Contact Wayne Graczyk at: [email protected]