2002 NPB All-Star Game

The 2002 NPB All-Star Games were held on July 12 and July 13, 2002. Both leagues won one game.

Game 1

Game 1 was held on July 12 at the Tokyo Dome with an attendance of 40,346. Three singles by Tadahito Iguchi, Kazuo Matsui and Michihiro Ogasawara brought the PL the lead in the third, and CL tied it with Hideki Matsui's sacrifice fly after Yoshinobu Takahashi's triple an inning later. Hanshin players then dominated the game. Starter Kei Igawa struck out 3 in his 3 innings, and Trey Moore got the win with his 2 shutout innings. MVP winner George Arias took the win for his teammate with a solo shot in the 7th inning, and Atsushi Kataoka's 2-run shot in the 8th inning gave the CL more insurance runs. Junichi Kawahara saved it, and the CL had a good start in this series.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Central	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	2	0	4	8	0
Pacific	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	0

Players used

Central League Starting Lineup

1. Makoto Imaoka, 2B (Hanshin Tigers)
2. Hirokazu Ibata, SS (Chunichi Dragons)
3. Yoshinobu Takahashi, RF (Yomiuri Giants)
4. Hideki Matsui, CF (Yomiuri)
5. Kazuhiro Kiyohara, DH (Yomiuri)
6. George Arias, 1B (Hanshin)
7. Alex Ramirez, LF (Yakult Swallows)
8. Kazuyoshi Tatsunami, 3B (Chunichi)
9. Akihiro Yano, C (Hanshin)

• Kei Igawa P (Hanshin)

Backups Used

• Kosuke Fukudome, RF (Chunichi)
• Shinjiro Hiyama, LF (Hanshin)
• Atsushi Kataoka, 3B (Hanshin)
• Takahiro Arai, 1B (Hiroshima Carp)
• Shinya Miyamoto, SS (Yakult)
• Atsuya Furuta, C (Yakult)
• Motonobu Tanishige, C (Chunichi)
• Takayuki Shimizu, PH (Yomiuri)
• Daisuke Miura, P (Yokohama BayStars)
• Trey Moore, P (Hanshin)
• Ryota Igarashi, P (Yakult)
• Junichi Kawahara P (Yomiuri)

Manager

• Tsutomu Wakamatsu

Coaches

• Tatsunori Hara
• Masaaki Mori

Pacific League Starting Lineup

1. Kazuo Matsui, SS (Seibu Lions)
2. Michihiro Ogasawara, 1B (Nippon Ham Fighters)
3. Tuffy Rhodes, LF (Kintetsu Buffaloes)
4. Norihiro Nakamura, 3B (Kintetsu)
5. Alex Cabrera, DH (Seibu)
6. Koji Akiyama, RF (Daiei Hawks)
7. Yoshitomo Tani, CF (Orix BlueWave)
8. Tadahito Iguchi, 2B (Daiei)
9. Tsutomu Ito, C (Seibu)

• Koji Mitsui, P (Seibu)

Backups Used

• Saburo Omura, LF (Chiba Lotte Marines)
• Naoyuki Ohmura, RF (Kintetsu)
• Hiroki Kokubo, RF (Daiei)
• Makoto Kaneko, 2B (Nippon Ham)
• Tetsuya Matoyama, C (Kintetsu)
• Takeshi Hidaka, C (Orix)
• Yuji Yoshioka, PH Kintetsu)
• Hiroyuki Kobayashi, P (Chiba Lotte)
• Akira Okamoto, P (Kintetsu)
• Shuji Yoshida, P (Daiei)
• Kazuo Yamaguchi, P (Orix)
• Rodney Pedraza, P (Daiei)
• Shinji Mori, P (Seibu)

Manager

• Masataka Nashida

Coaches

• Haruki Ihara
• Sadaharu Oh

Umpires

• Shoji Arisumi (Home), Toru Maeda (1B), Masanobu Suginaga (2B), Ryuzo Yamamoto (3B), Katsunori Tomari (LF), Masao Yanada (RF)

Game 2

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Pacific	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	7	1
Central	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	7	0

The second game was held on July 13 at Botchan Stadium with an attendance of 27,063. Leadoff hitter Kazuo Matsui was plunked by Kevin Hodges, then Ogasawara and Tuffy Rhodes's back-to-back singles drove in the first run. Norihiro Nakamura's sacrifice fly gave the PL their second run, and their offensive continued the next inning. Yoshitomo Tani, Makoto Kaneko and Tetsuya Matoyama hit singles in three consecutive at-bats to produce one run, then Tadahito Iguchi's grounder added an insurance run.

Reliever Koji Uehara ended the PL's attack, and he struck out 4 in 2 shutout innings. Kosuke Fukudome and Shinjiro Hiyama's doubles in the 4th inning gave the CL their first score, and Takahiro Arai's solo shot decreased the PL's lead to two runs. However, Kiyoshi Toyoda saved it with 2 strikeouts in the 9th inning, and the PL tied the series. The MVP went to Matoyama, who was the only PL player to have more than one hit and also drove in a RBI.

Players used

Pacific League Starting Lineup

1. K.Matsui, SS
2. Ogasawara, 1B
3. Rhodes, LF
4. Nakamura, 3B
5. Cabrera, DH
6. Kokubo, RF
7. Tani, CF
8. Kaneko, 2B
9. Matoyama, C

• Jeremy Powell, P (Kintetsu)

Backups Used

• Iguchi, 2B
• Yoshioka, 1B
• Hidaka, C
• Ito, C
• Akiyama, PH
• Ohmura, RF
• Saburo, LF
• Kenichi Wakatabe, P (Daiei)
• Masahiko Kaneda, P (Orix)
• Hayato Nakamura, P (Nippon Ham)
• Kiyoshi Toyoda, P (Seibu)

Central League Starting Lineup

1. Shimizu, LF
2. Miyamoto, SS
3. Fukudome, RF
4. H.Matsui, CF
5. Hiyama, DH
6. Furuta, C
7. Kataoka, 3B
8. Arai, 1B
9. Imaoka, 2B

• Kevin Hodges, P (Yakult)

Backups Used

• Rmirez, LF
• Takahashi, RF
• Arias, DH
• Yano, C
• Ibata, SS
• Tanishige, C
• Tatsunami, 3B
• Kiyohara, PH
• Kenshin Kawakami P (Chunichi)
• Koji Uehara P (Yomiuri)
• Yasuhiro Oyamada, P (Hiroshima)
• Hideki Okajima, P (Yomiuri)
• Hirotoshi Ishii, P (Yakult)

Umpires

• Yanada (Home), Tomari (1B), Yamamoto (2B), Suginaga (3B), Maeda (LF), Arisumi (RF)

Sources

• Japanese Wikipedia