Week in Review: April 30 - May 6

Another winning week for Chunichi (3-2-2) and an impressive 5-2-2 record over Golden Week.  Only Yomiuri had a better record over Golden Week at 6-2-1, which propelled the Giants to within half of a game of a playoff position.  Chunichi, on the other hand, is solidly in 2nd place right now holding a 4 game lead over Hanshin. 

The week started nicely for the Dragons with three home wins and a tie, but the Dragons ran into a bit of a buzzsaw on their weekend trip to Yokohama.  The BayStars really got their home run bats going against the Central Leagues' leading pitching staff.  The series started with Iwase giving up back-to-back solo shots in the bottom of the ninth, allowing the BayStars to draw even in Friday's game, which would end in a tie.  Yokohama's Yoshimura hit two home runs in Saturday's 12-1 drubbing of Shinji Iwata and the Dragons.  On Sunday Yoshitomo Tsutsugo had two almost identical home runs off of Yamamoto accounting for all 4 of Yokohama's runs in a 4-2 victory over Chunichi.  A tough ending to the week, but even good teams have stretches like that.  Hopefully they can get things together for Tuesday's game against Yakult in Toyohashi and can put on a good show for their fans there. 

• Masa Yamamoto picked up the win against Yokohama on April 30th making him the franchise-record holder with 212 wins for the team.  He went 7 strong innings giving up only 2 hits and 0 runs.
• Shuhei Takahashi got the start at 3B on Sunday, he was 0 for 3, but hit the ball hard a couple times.  He's still looking for his first career hit.  He also had a throwing error and a "fine play" charging a bunt during the game.
• I saw Jorge Sosa pitch live for the first time on Sunday.  He has a dreaded pony/rat tail thing going on with his hair.  Pretty Awesome!  He also kept his scoreless innings streak going as well.
• Kazuki Yoshimi could be out until June with some sort of an arm bruise.  Doesn't sound like a serious issue, and appears to be on his non-throwing arm.