2008 NPB All-Star Game

The 2008 NPB All-Star Games were held on July 31 and August 1, 2008.

Game 1

Game 1 was held on July 31 at Osaka Dome with an attendance of 33,618. The CL's Tomoaki Kanemoto scored first with a solo home run off Yu Darvish in the first inning, then the PL answered when Tuffy Rhodes singled and G.G. Sato added a double. Hiroki Kokubo tied the game with a sacrifice fly against Ken Takahashi. The PL took the lead in the 5th inning when Kensuke Tanaka and Takeshi Hidaka both singled. Hichori Morimoto's grounder drove in a run, and Hidaka scored on 2B Akihiro Higashide's error. The CL rallied in the 7th inning as Tyrone Woods hit a leadoff double and scored on Alex Ramirez and Tomoaki Kanemoto's back-to-back doubles. Kazuyuki Hoashi forced Shuichi Murata to ground into a double play, but he couldn't stop Seiichi Uchikawa from giving CL the lead with a RBI infield hit. With a one-run lead, NPB appearances record holder Tomoyuki Kubota closed for the CL. However, he allowed a leadoff double to Rick Short, Tsuyoshi Nishioka added a single then Nobuhiko Matsunaka tied the game with a RBI single. 40-year-old pinch-hitter Takeshi Yamasaki replaced Morimoto, and he hit a walk-off single to help the PL win the opener; he was named the MVP, of course.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Central	0	1	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	4	9	1
Pacific	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	5	14	1

Players used

Central League Starting Lineup

1. Nori Aoki, CF (Yakult Swallows)
2. Akihiro Higashide, 2B (Hiroshima Carp)
3. Takahiro Arai, 1B (Hanshin Tigers)
4. Alex Ramirez, DH (Yomiuri Giants)
5. Tomoaki Kanemoto, LF (Hanshin)
6. Shuichi Murata, 3B (Yokohama BayStars)
7. Tomonori Maeda, 2B (Hiroshima)
8. Shinnosuke Abe, C (Yomiuri)
9. Hayato Sakamoto, SS (Yomiuri)

• Ken Takahashi, P (Hiroshima)

Backups Used

• Masahiro Araki, 2B (Chunichi Dragons)
• Tyrone Woods, 1B (Chunichi)
• Shinya Miyamoto, 1B (Yakult)
• Seiichi Uchikawa, RF (Yokohama)
• Kazuhiro Wada, PH (Chunichi)
• Akihiro Yano, C (Hanshin)
• Yoshiyuki Ishihara, C (Hiroshima)
• Hirokazu Ibata, SS (Chunichi)
• Takashi Ogasawara, P (Chunichi)
• Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi, P (Hanshin)
• Kan Otake,P (Hiroshima)
• Kyuji Fujikawa P (Hanshin)
• Tomoyuki Kubota P (Hanshin)

Manager

• Tatsunori Hara

Coaches

• Akinobu Mayumi
• Hiromitsu Ochiai

Pacific League Starting Lineup

1. Hichori Morimoto, CF (Nippon Ham Fighters)
2. Munenori Kawasaki, SS (Softbank Hawks)
3. Atsunori Inaba, 2B (Nippon Ham)
4. Tuffy Rhodes, DH (Orix Buffaloes)
5. G. G. Sato, LF (Seibu Lions)
6. Hiroki Kokubo, 1B (Softbank)
7. Takeya Nakamura, 3B (Seibu)
8. Kensuke Tanaka, 2B (Nippon Ham)
9. Takeshi Hidaka, C (Orix)

• Yu Darvish, P (Nippon Ham)

Backups Used

• Rick Short, 1B (Rakuten Golden Eagles)
• Hiroyuki Nakajima, 3B (Seibu)
• Takeshi Yamasaki, PH (Rakuten)
• Shoitsu Omatsu, LF (Chiba Lotte Marines)
• Nobuhiko Matsunaka, PH (Softbank)
• Tsuyoshi Nishioka, 2B (Chiba Lotte)
• Toru Hosokawa, C (Seibu)
• Naoyuki Shimizu, P (Chiba Lotte)
• Shogo Yamamoto, P (Orix)
• Kazuyuki Hoashi, P (Seibu)
• Daisuke Kato, P (Orix)

Manager

• Masataka Nashida

Coaches

• Koji Akiyama
• Bobby Valentine

Umpires

• Kinji Nishimoto, Ryuzo Yamamoto, Kunio Kiuchi, Masaharu Kodera, Kazuaki Nako, Daisei Sugimoto

Game 2

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Pacific	0	1	1	0	2	0	0	2	0	6	12	2
Central	0	1	2	2	6	0	0	0	X	11	19	0

The second game was held on August 1 at Yokohama Stadium with an attendance of 27,433. The PL started with Matsunaka's solo shot against Kenshin Kawakami, then the CL tied it soon with a double from Ramirez and a sacrifice fly from Murata. PL slugger Omatsu took back the lead the next inning with another solo shot, then the CL added two runs in the bottom of the frame with four singles. Yoshihisa Naruse was on the mound despite the fact he allowed two runs in the prior inning, then Woods crushed a solo homer in the beginning of this inning. This game's result was determined in this inning, because the CL got 5 runs after Woods' homer. Ramirez reached with C Hosokawa's error, Wada doubled then Murata hit an infield single. Naruse retired Ishihara, but Araki, Aoki and Miyamoto all collected hits and drove in runs. PL catcher Hidaka recorded the fourth homer for his league in the 8th inning, but it didn't influence the result and the CL tied the series.

Players used

Pacific League Starting Lineup

1. Nishioka, SS
2. Yasuyuki Kataoka, 2B (Seibu)
3. Inaba, RF
4. Yamasaki, DH
5. Matsunaka, LF
6. Nakajima, 3B
7. Short 1B
8. Omatsu, CF
9. Hosokawa, C

• Hisashi Iwakuma, P (Rakuten)

Backups Used

• Nakamura, 3B
• Rhodes, PH
• Kawasaki, SS
• Sato, RF
• Morimoto, CF
• Hidaka, C
• Tanaka, 2B
• Kokubo, 1B
• Toshiya Sugiuchi, P (Softbank)
• Yoshihisa Naruse, P (Chiba Lotte)
• Masahiro Tanaka, P (Rakuten)
• Hisashi Takeda, P (Nippon Ham)
• Satoshi Komatsu, P (Orix)

Central League Starting Lineup

1. Aoki, LF
2. Ibata, 2B
3. Woods, CF
4. Ramirez, DH
5. Wada, 1B
6. Murata, 3B
7. Uchikawa, LF
8. Abe, RF
9. Araki, C

• Kenshin Kawakami, P (Chunichi)

Backups Used

• Miyamoto, SS
• Higashide, 2B
• Kanemoto, DH
• Arai, PH
• Yano, C
• Sakamoto, SS
• Maeda, PH
• Ishihara, C
• Masanori Ishikawa, P (Yakult)
• Shohei Tateyama, P (Yakult)
• Kubota, P
• Hayato Terahara, P (Hanshin)
• Marc Kroon, P (Yomiuri)
• Fujikawa, P

Umpires

• Sugimoto, Nako, Kiuchi, Yamamoto, Kodera, Nishimoto