April 24th, 2008: Fuzhou at Chengdu

April 24^th, 2008

Fuzhou Whales at Chengdu Spice

CHENGDU – With a five run bulge in the bottom of the 7^th inning, the Spice burst out of the shackles of the Southwestern League cellar, defeating Fuzhou 6-5.

Chengdu’s offensive explosion in the bottom of the 7^th inning came after a single, a pair of walks, and a big grand slam home run by Leon Durham, knocking Fuzhou starter Wes Ferrell out of the box with his first loss. There weren’t many fans on to cheer the hometown heroes, but those that did come went away satisfied with the second Spice win of the season.

The blast, Durham’s first of the season, came as Leon pinch-hit for starter Jim Bunning. Chengdu’s manager is hoping that it will deliver a needed boost to the depressed Spice lineup, with stars such as Mel Ott hitting .118 and Mike Piazza hitting .143.

Click here for boxscore.

Today’s Other Games

Northeastern League

Tokyo Giants 5, Beijing Red Dragons 2 At Beijing

Nishinomiya Tigers 5, Harbin Icecaps 4 At Nishinomiya. The Tigers handed a loss and a blown save to Harbin closer Goose Gossage with three tallies in the bottom of the eighth.

Beijing Mets 3, Shenyang Defenders 0 At Shenyang. Beijing now has a six game winning streak and is in first by two games, with a 9-1 record.

Southeastern League

Shanghai Red Sox 3, Nanjing Monarchs 2 At Nanjing. Nanjing starter Pedro Martinez limited Shanghai to 5 hits, but gave up three solo homers in the process.

Suzhou Artisans 3, Shanghai White Sox 1 At Shanghai. Suzhou’s Kirby Puckett was injured, out for 13 games.

Hangzhou Eagles 3, Wenzhou Merchants 2 At Wenzhou.

Northwestern League

Lanzhou Refiners 4, Wuhan Turtles 1 At Lanzhou. Tommy Holmes was injured for Lanzhou, will miss 10 games.

Jinan Leopards 2, Taiyuan Kylin 1 At Taiyuan

Zhengzhou Dragons 3, Urumqi Flying Tigers 1 At Zhengzhou

Southwestern League

Guangzhou Fire 6, Chongqing Fog 3 At Guangzhou

Yunnan Bulls 5, Taibei Brother Elephants 3 At Taibei. Taibei starting pitcher Ray Kremer was injured, will miss 14 days.

Lhasa Monks 4, Xianggang Reds 2 At Xianggang

April 23rd, 2008: Taiyuan at Lanzhou

April 23^rd, 2008

Taiyuan Kylin at Lanzhou Refiners

LANZHOU – After eleven innings of battling, the visiting Kylin defeated the Refiners, 5-2. The big blow came on Robin Ventura’s shot in the top of the eleventh inning, taking advantage of two free passes by Lanzhou reliever Orval Overall.

Ventura’s home run, his first of the season, erased an exciting comeback by Lanzhou in the bottom of the eighth. In that frame, Frank Howard went deep off reliever Dave Righetti, tying the score at 2. The blast would have counted for two runs, had Eddie Collins not been picked off first earlier in the same at-bat.

And thus the pitching duel between Taiyuan starter Cy Young and Lanzhou starter Eiji Sawamura resulted in a no-decision for both starters. Young gave up only a single run in 7, his ERA dropping to 3.46. Sawamura battled him stride for stride for 8 innings, giving up two runs, dropping his ERA to 2.25.

Click here for boxscore.

Today’s Other Games

Northeastern League

Nishinomiya Tigers 2, Beijing Red Dragons 1 At Nishinomiya. Tigers starter Hideo Fujimoto went eight strong innings, allowing only four hits and a single run.

Tianjin Lions 5, Seoul Blue Dragons 3 At Seoul. Charlie Hough threw a complete game, giving up ten hits in the process.

Beijing Mets 9, Shenyang Defenders 4 At Shenyang

Tokyo Giants 5, Harbin Icecaps 2 At Tokyo.

Southeastern League

Nanjing Monarchs 1, Shanghai Red Sox 0 At Nanjing, one of the tensest games of the month. Through the sweltering, moist heat of Nanjing (one of China’s famous four furnaces), the Monarchs outlasted an 87 minute rain delay to beat the Red Sox, 1-0. Sandy Koufax gave up only 3 hits in eight innings for the Nanjing club, and was matched by Shanghai’s Bartolo Colon, who shut down Nanjing on five hits over 8. The final run came on four straight Nanjing singles in the bottom of the 11^th, Honus Wagner receiving credit for the RBI.

Ningbo Stallions 5, Hefei Hope Stars 1 At Ningbo. Ningbo starter Greg Maddux won his second game, giving up only a single run on five hits and striking out 7.

Hangzhou Eagles 7, Wenzhou Merchants 5 At Wenzhou.

Northwestern League

Wuhan Turtles 11, Jinan Leopards 4 At Jinan

Xi’an Wild Geese 11, Luoyang White Horse 7 At Xi’an

Zhengzhou Dragons 6, Urumqi Flying Tigers 2 At Zhengzhou.

Southwestern League

Chongqing Fog 3, Guangzhou Fire 2 (10) At Guangzhou. Smokey Joe Williams went 9 innings for Guangzhou, but it wasn’t enough, as the visiting Fog came back in the top of the tenth.

Taibei Brother Elephants 6, Yunnan Bulls 0 At Taibei. Andy Pettitte threw a four hitter, completely shutting down Yunnan and lowering his ERA to a miniscule 0.56. Yunnan starter Bert Campaneris was injured, will miss 9 days.

April 22nd, 2008: Lhasa at Xianggang

April 22^nd, 2008

Lhasa at Xianggang

XIANGGANG – The Lhasa Monks tightened their hold on the Southwestern League lead, exploding for 5 runs in the top of the ninth to defeat the cellar-dwelling Reds.

Reds pitcher Dobson did a good job of holding back the Monks offensive attack, giving up only five hits in eight innings of work. He left with his team down 4-3, but that didn’t last long.

Willie Hernandez came in from the bullpen to hold the Monks, and didn’t even come close. Hitters Curt Flood, Sammy Sosa and George Giles greeted Hernandez with three straight singles. Larry Andersen came in to put out the fire, and promptly gave up a hit to Roberto Alomar. Dan Quisenberry, the Lhasa closer, reached on an error and was forced at second by Paul Molitor’s grounder. With two on and one out, Gene Tenace came up and cleared the bases with a big double. By the time all was said and done, five more runs were tallied for the visitors, putting this game out of reach.

The two teams take Wednesday off, and meet again on Thursday. Mike Scott is anticipated to start for the Reds against the Monks’ Schoolboy Rowe.

Click here for boxscore.

Today’s Other Games

Northeastern League

Nishinomiya Tigers 4, Beijing Red Dragons 3 At Nishinomiya

Beijing Mets 11, Seoul Blue Dragons 8 At Seoul

Shenyang Defenders 11, Tianjin Lions 0 At Tianjin

Tokyo Giants 4, Harbin Icecaps 3 At Tokyo

Southeastern League

Shanghai Red Sox 10, Nanjing Monarchs 3 At Nanjing

Ningbo Stallions 4, Hefei Hope Stars 2 At Ningbo. Classic Japanese matchup, as Hefei’s Dihigo and Ningbo’s Wakabayashi both went 8 strong innings.

Suzhou Artisans 6, Shanghai White Sox 3 At Shanghai

Wenzhou Merchants 3, Hangzhou Eagles 1 At Wenzhou. Wenzhou pitcher Virgil Trucks was injured, should miss 14 days.

Northwestern League

Jinan Leopards 12, Wuhan Turtles 4 At Jinan

Lanzhou Refiners 10, Taiyuan Kylin 9 (10) At Lanzhou

Urumqi Flying Tigers 9, Luoyang White Horse 3 At Luoyang. Urumqi starter Warren Spahn goes the distance, earning his first win of the season.

Zhengzhou Dragons 5, Xi’an Wild Geese 4 (10) At Xi’an

Southwestern League

Fuzhou Whales 8, Chengdu Spice 1 At Chengdu. Fuzhou starter Dwight Gooden goes the distance, giving up only 7 hits and striking out nine. Chengdu starter Bret Saberhagen injured in the first inning, will miss 14 days.

Chongqing Fog 2, Guangzhou Fire 0 At Guangzhou

Taibei Brother Elephants 10, Yunnan Bulls 7 At Taibei. Wild game, which Taibei won in the bottom of the 9^th on a Bill Terry three run homer to right.

Team Review: Luoyang White Horse

For some reason, I can't get Blogspot's picture uploading program to work right now. Sorry!

I don't have any work or finals today (the last one is Modern Chinese Literature, tomorrow morning at the ungodly hour of 7 AM), so I figured I'd take the chance to stick up another team preview or two. Then again, now that the season is underway, I guess it counts as a team review instead. All semantics aside, here's the roster and some commentary on the Luoyang White Horse

The Season
As of April 22nd, 2008, the White Horse are in fourth place in the Northwestern League, playing .500 ball with a 4-4 record, and a game and a half behind the division leading Jinan Leopards. Luoyang's scored 29 runs and has given up 33, a difference that can be explained by their 9-3 loss to the fifth place Urumqi Flying Tigers earlier today.

The Stadium

Luoyang plays in the park formerly known as Enron Field, here renamed White Horse Stadium. This obsession with white horses comes chiefly from the famous White Horse Temple (白马寺), one of the most famous ancient Buddhist temples in mainland China. Perhaps commercializing a religious symbol is a tad inappropriate, but it fits in well with current capitalist practices in mainland China.

Starting Rotation
1. Tom Seaver
2. Robin Roberts
3. Ed Walsh
4. Hilton Smith
5. Red Ruffing
SS. Jose Munoz
SS. Kazuhisa Inao

Because only eight games have been played thus far, it's too early to give much pitching analysis.

As is often the case with deadball-era Negro League pitchers, I couldn't find anything about Jose Munoz online.

Relievers
Steve Farr
Don McMahon
Tim Burke
Rick Honeycutt

Starting Lineup
1. Wild Bill Wright RF
2. Jeff Kent 2B / Ben Taylor 1B
3. Dobie Moore SS
4. Harmon Killebrew 1B / Harmon Killebrew 3B
5. Bob Johnson LF / Zack Wheat LF
6. Bill Dickey C
7. Ken Boyer 3B / Jeff Kent 2B
8. Happy Felsch CF

Ben Taylor is currently injured, and should be back on April 24th.

Among starters, Harmon Killebrew is currently leading in batting, with a .387 / .406 / .742 line, along with three homers and 5 runs batted in.

Bench
Jimmy Ryan
Nish Williams
Bobby Wallace
Mike Tiernan
Lee Lacy
Masayuki Kakefu
Bobby Rose
Darren Daulton
Rusty Staub

Bobby Rose comes from the Japanese All-time Greats disk, believe it or not. He is considered to be one of the greatest foreign players in the history of Japanese baseball.

Anyway, there's today's quick team review. It will probably be a while before I start posting standings and league leaders, since not enough games have been played to report anything meaningful.

April 21st, 2008: Shenyang at Tianjin

This is going to be quick. The Jazz won tonight, so I'm happy. My final went well this morning. I should have a bigger post tomorrow, assuming my German Independent Study class doesn't devour me alive.

April 21^st, 2008

Shenyang Defenders at Tianjin Lions

TIANJIN – Shenyang starter Jack McDowell earned his first win today, shutting out Tianjin on three hits in a complete game performance.

McDowell’s victory came on the back of a fairly weak offensive performance by the Defenders They managed only three runs off Lions starter Stanley Coveleski, all coming in the first inning. Despite Radcliff’s 4-for-4 performance, the Defenders couldn’t get any runs across.

The game was one of the fastest of the year, coming on a day when only four games were played league wide.

Click here for boxscore.

Other games

Northeastern League

Beijing Mets 6, Seoul Blue Dragons 3 At Seoul. A three-run 9^th inning for Beijing broke a 3-3 tie.

Northwestern League

Urumqi Flying Tigers 3, Luoyang White Horse 1 At Luoyang

Zhengzhou Dragons 4, Xi’an Wild Geese 3 At Xi’an

April 20th, 2008: Zhengzhou at Xi'an

Here's another game of the day, hot off the presses. I have a big Japanese Political Science final at 7AM tomorrow, which is going to be the last difficult final I have. Next semester starts a week from tomorrow, though. It never lets up!

April 20^th, 2008

Zhengzhou Dragons at Xi’an Wild Geese

XI’AN – In an incredibly exciting see-saw battle, the Wild Geese would up on top in the end, defeating the visiting Dragons 8-7 .

Xi’an starter Cannonball Redding gave up a home run to King Kelley, the first Zhengzhou batter, and then proceeded to get the next two men out before leaving the game with a serious injury. Apparently the injury was sustained on Rafael Palmeiro’s ground ball to the mound. Redding will miss the next 23 days, which will be a shock to Xi’an’s pitching staff.

The two teams then traded leads, going back and forth. Xi’an took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second inning on Pablo Mesa’s two run blast. Both teams tallied a run in the 4^th inning, and then Zhengzhou evened it up at 3 with a fifth inning rally. Both teams then scored anther run in the 6^th, making the score 4-4 with only three innings to play.

Xi’an blew the gates wide open with three runs in the bottom of the 7^th. The big blow came on Eddie Mathew’s bases-loaded double. Zhengzhou reliever Bill Henry, who also pitched an inning yesterday, got himself into the bases loaded jam, with a walk, a hit batter and an infield single. At that moment, it seemed that the home team had the game sewn up.

But then Zhengzhou came roaring back. The unheralded Darrell Porter hit his second homer of the game, and third of the seasons, with a runner on in the top of the 8^th. A handful of base hits produced another run, and before long the game was tied at 7.

Those three runs came off of Xi’an relievers Kent Tekulve and Tom Gordon. However, as Xi’an’s entire pitching staff was either exhausted or already used, Gordon stayed in for the top of the 9^th inning. Gordon allowed two singles, got Porter to fly out to deep right field, and then proceeded to strike out the next two batters to end the inning.

In front of a roaring crowd, Tony Phillips, leading off the bottom of the 9^th, smacked the second pitch he saw into the left field stands. The blow was Phillips’ first of the season, putting his teammates and the fans in a frenzy, as Xi’an continues to battle for the Northwestern League lead.

Click here for boxscore.

Other games

Northeastern League

Harbin Icecaps 3, Beijing Red Dragons 1 At Beijing

Beijing Mets 8, Seoul Blue Dragons 3 At Seoul

Shenyang Defenders 11, Tianjin Lions 6 (12) At Tianjin. Tianjin starter Curt Schilling was injured on the second pitch of the game, after giving up a bunt single. He will miss 21 days.

Southeastern League

Hangzhou Eagles 3, Ningbo Stallions 2 At Hangzhou

Shanghai White Sox 4, Shanghai Red Sox 1 At Red Sox. White Sox’ Kazuhiro Yamauchi was injured, will miss next 5 days.

Nanjing Monarchs 13, Suzhou Artisans 2 At Suzhou. Nanjing starter Pedro Martinez again struck out 12 batters in 7 innings of work.

Northwestern League

Lanzhou Refiners 4, Jinan Leopards 3 At Lanzhou

Luoyang White Horse 4, Urumqi Flying Tigers 3 At Luoyang

Southwestern League

Chengdu Spice 7, Chongqing Fog 1 At Chongqing. Chongqing relief pitcher Chuck McKlroy was injured, will miss 20 days.

Guangzhou Fire 8, Fuzhou Whales 2 At Fuzhou.

Taibei Brother Elephants 12, Lhasa Monks 8 At Lhasa. Three HRs for Taibei’s Futoshi Nakanishi.

Xianggang Reds 8, Yunnan Bulls 3 At Yunnan

April 19th, 2008: Shenyang at Seoul Doubleheader

The Jazz won their first playoff game tonight, I took a Japanese history final, and I'm pretty pleased with myself. Here's a doubleheader!

April 19^th, 2008

Shenyang Defenders at Seoul Blue Dragons (doubleheader)

SEOUL – The Defenders and Blue Dragons split a remarkable doubleheader today. The first game lasted 14 innings, including two dramatic late comebacks, before Seoul’s victory. In the second, Shenyang starter Kevin Brown was masterful, shutting out the Blue Dragons on one hit.

All the offensive excitement came in the wild, 5-4 14 inning opening game. Behind 3-2 in the top of the 9^th inning, Shenyang mounted a late rally. Following a Sam Crawford double, pinch hitter Roy White snuck a single in through the middle, driving in the tying run.

Randy Velarde lead the top of the 14^th inning off with a walk, stole second, and scored on a Todd Helton double. Things appeared safe for Shenyang, until pitcher David Wells ran out of gas. Wells walked leadoff hitter Monte Irvin on four pitches. Irvin proceeded to steal second, advanced on a fly ball, and scored on pinch hitter Toshizo Sakamoto’s single to right, tying the ballgame.

It looked like the game would continue, but Wells made a throwing error after a series of pickoff attempts. Sakamoto advanced to second, and hitter Mickey Mantle was given a free pass. That brought up Andy Thornton, who spanked a double down the third base line, and the first game was in the book.

Kevin Brown was absolutely brilliant in the second game, shutting down a lineup that included Wee Willie Keeler, Mickey Mantle and Wade Boggs. The hometown Blue Dragons only managed a single hit, a second inning Boggs single, which amounted to nothing.

Click here for game one boxscore.

Click here for game two boxscore.

Today’s Other Games

Northeastern League

Beijing Red Dragons 5, Harbin Icecaps 2 At Beijing.

Tokyo Giants 8, Nishinomiya Tigers 5 (10) At Nishinomiya. Giants first win of season.

Beijing Mets 5, Tianjin Lions 1 At Tianjin

Southeastern League

Shanghai White Sox 6, Shanghai Red Sox 4 At Red Sox

Nanjing Monarchs 9, Suzhou Artisans 4 At Suzhou. Nanjing starter Christy Mathewson injured, out for 10 days.

Northwestern League

Jinan Leopards 5, Lanzhou Refiners 4 At Lanzhou. Lanzhou center fielder Alejandro Oms injured, out for 5 days.

Zhengzhou Dragons 3, Luoyang White Horse 1 At Luoyang

Xi’an Wild Geese 9, Urumqi Flying Tigers 2 At Xi’an. Xi’an catcher Chief Meyers was seriously injured, out for 35 days.

Southwestern League

Chongqing Fog 5, Chengdu Spice 3 At Chongqing. Chongqing starter John Tudor injured, out for 14 days.

Guangzhou Fire 14, Fuzhou Whales 11 At Fuzhou

Lhasa Monks 12, Taibei Brother Elephants 6 At Lhasa

Xianggang Reds 10, Yunnan Bulls 7 At Yunnan