BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Giants rally past Swallows to clinch Central League crown

By Jason Coskrey

Oct 3, 2007

Thousands of Yomiuri fans turned out for the Giants' game against the Tokyo Yakult Swallows at Tokyo Dome looking for a celebration, and the home team made sure they got one.

Kenji Yano kept Yomiuri alive with a head-first slide into first base and the Giants scored the winning run on an error with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to win the Central League title with a 5-4 victory in front of a raucous crowd of 46,260 on Tuesday night.

Lee Seung Yeop of the Giants connects for a two-run homer in the fourth inning against the Swallows at Tokyo Dome on Tuesday night. Yomiuri won 5-4. KYODO PHOTOS

Yomiuri Giants players give manager Tatsunori Hara a lift after clinching their first Central League title in 5 years by defeating the Yakult Swallows 5-4 at Tokyo Dome on Tuesday.

"This year's team had a lot of fight as we saw on the final two plays of tonight's game with the players sliding head first into first base and home," Yomiuri manager Tatsunori Hara said.

While it was their prowess at hitting home runs that helped put the Giants in position to win the title, they played small-ball to clinch it.

With his team down a run in the ninth, Lee Seung Yeop drew a one-out walk and, after Tomohiro Nioka moved him to second sacrifice bunt, Shinnosuke Abe was intentionally walked with two away to put runners at first and second.

Yano followed with a line drive off the pitcher's glove that rolled to the second baseman, and he made a dramatic head-first slide to beat Hiroyasu Tanaka's throw from second to keep the Giants alive and bring Takayuki Shimizu to the plate.

Down to his last strike, Shimizu grounded a chopper up the middle to drive home the tying run and shortstop Shinya Miyamoto overthrew the first baseman to allow the winning run to score, and the Giants to clinch the pennant.

The win gives Yomiuri manager Tatsunori Hara, who led the Giants to their last Japan Series title in 2002, his second CL flag. Yomiuri must still make it through the league's first-ever Climax Series to qualify for the Japan Series.

"I thought about the fans while I was being tossed in the air," Hara said referring to the traditional doage where players from the winning team throw the manager into the air after winning a championship. "We won it for the fans."

Alex Ramirez, who before the game was named the CL's monthly MVP for September, put the Swallows up early with a three-run homer in the third.

Yomiuri Giants catcher Shinnosuke Abe (left) slides home to score the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Tuesday's game against the Yakult Swallows at Tokyo Dome. News photo

Yomiuri Giants manager Tatsunori Hara (center) and his players wave to fans after they beat the Yakult Swallows at Tokyo Dome on Tuesday to clinch the CL title.

Home runs by Luis Gonzalez and Lee help the Giants briefly tie the score at 3-3, before Tanaka hit into a bases-loaded double play that scored a run in the fifth.

The score remained 4-3 until Yomiuri rallied in the ninth.

The Giants will now await the winner of the first stage of the CL Climax Series between the Chunichi Dragons and Hanshin Tigers which starts on Oct. 13 at Nagoya Dome.

"We have to take time to savor this win before we think about the Climax Series," Hara said. "But we'll do our best to win as we have all season. This was our goal when we began spring camp in February and our dream came true today."

'Stars blank Tigers

YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) Rookie Kentaro Takasaki threw seven shutout innings and Tatsuhiko Kinjo drove in three runs as the Yokohama BayStars blanked Hanshin 5-0 at Yokohama Stadium on Tuesday night.

Takasaki (1-1) allowed two hits, stuck out six and walked three.

Yuya Ando (2-3) took the loss.

Kinjo had an RBI single and sacrifice fly in the first and second, respectively, and homered in the sixth.

With the loss, Hanshin was assured of finishing third in the league standings.