2009 NPB All-Star Game

The 2009 NPB All-Star Games were held on July 24 and July 25, 2009.

Game 1

Game 1 was held on July 24 at Sapporo Dome with an attendance of 38,370. The PL scored first when Yoshio Itoi drew a leadoff walk, then Tadahito Iguchi's double against Dicky González helped him score. They extended their lead to two runs when Tomohiro Nioka recorded a leadoff double in the third inning, and Iguchi collected his 2nd RBI of the night with a single against Shohei Tateyama. The CL's cleanup hitter Alex Ramirez answered back with a solo homer in the 4th inning, then they tied the game with Masahiro Araki's sacrifice fly after Seiichi Uchikawa and Shinnosuke Abe's back-to-back singles. The CL extended their fine batting and took the lead in the next inning with Nori Aoki and Michihiro Ogasawara's doubles, but the PL soon tied the game again when Shinji Takahashi, Hiroyuki Nakajima and Daisuke Kusano singled in three straight at-bats in the bottom of the 6th inning. When the bases were loaded, Tomoya Satozaki drew a game-tying walk, but Yudai Kawai then retired Nioka to prevent the PL from getting the lead.

The game then became a batting contest. The PL's Saburo Omura hit a leadoff single first in the 7th inning, then veteran Kawai committed a throwing error after he fielded Munenori Kawasaki's grounder. This error was nearly fatal, because Atsunori Inaba then recorded a infield single, and the PL drove in five runs with three straight hits. Kawai finally forced Kusano to ground into a double play, and struck out Satozaki to end this long inning. With a 5-run lead going into the 8th inning, PL seemed easily ready to take the first game, but the CL then had a dramatic rally. Reliever Kanehisa Arime walked Aoki first, then gave up a hit to Ogasawara. Ramirez's double drove in a run, and Kurihara drew a walk. Arime finally retired the first batter of this inning, but Uchikawa then added a two-run double. Tadashi Settsu replaced him soon, and he forced Akihiro Higashide to fly out to end this inning. The PL still had a one-run lead, and they sent Hisashi Takeda to the mound to try to close it out. However, after Yoshiyuki Ishihara's leadoff single, Aoki blasted a game-winning, two-run homer. The CL added an insurance run with hits by Masato Akamatsu and Uchikawa, then Daisuke Miura closed the door with two strikeouts to Nakamura and Makoto Kaneko.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Central	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	4	3	10	17	3
Pacific	1	0	1	0	0	1	5	0	0	8	14	0

Players used

Central League Starting Lineup

1. Hayato Sakamoto, SS (Yomiuri Giants)
2. Nori Aoki, CF (Yakult Swallows)
3. Michihiro Ogasawara, 3B (Yomiuri)
4. Alex Ramirez, LF (Yomiuri)
5. Tomoaki Kanemoto, DH (Hanshin Tigers)
6. Tony Blanco, 1B (Chunichi Dragons)
7. Seiichi Uchikawa, RF (Yokohama BayStars)
8. Shinnosuke Abe, C (Yomiuri)
9. Masahiro Araki, 2B (Chunichi)

• Dicky González, P (Yomiuri)

Backups Used

• Ryoji Aikawa, C (Yakult Swallows)
• Yoshiyuki Ishihara, C (Hiroshima Carp)
• Hirokazu Ibata, SS (Chunichi)
• Akihiro Higashide, 2B (Hiroshima)
• Shinya Miyamoto, 3B (Yakult)
• Masato Akamatsu, LF (Hiroshima)
• Kenta Kurihara DH (Hiroshima)
• Shohei Tateyama, P (Yakult)
• Tetsuya Yamaguchi, P (Yomiuri)
• Yudai Kawai,P (Chunichi)
• Daisuke Miura P (Yokohama)

Manager

• Tatsunori Hara

Coaches

• Akinobu Mayumi
• Hiromitsu Ochiai

Pacific League Starting Lineup

1. Yoshio Itoi, CF (Nippon Ham Fighters)
2. Tadahito Iguchi, 2B (Chiba Lotte Marines)
3. Atsunori Inaba, RF (Nippon Ham)
4. Takeya Nakamura, 3B (Seibu Lions)
5. Hiroki Kokubo, 1B (Softbank Hawks)
6. Hiroyuki Nakajima, SS (Seibu)
7. Naoyuki Ohmura, LF (Orix Buffaloes)
8. Tomoya Satozaki, C (Chiba Lotte)
9. Tomohiro Nioka, DH (Nippon Ham)

• Yu Darvish, P (Nippon Ham)

Backups Used

• Saburo Omura, RF (Chiba Lotte)
• Munenori Kawasaki, 2B (Softbank)
• Yuya Hasegawa, CF (Softbank)
• Shinji Takahashi, 1B (Nippon Ham)
• Hidenori Tanoue, DH (Softbank)
• Makoto Kaneko, SS (Nippon Ham)
• Daisuke Kusano, LF (Rakuten Golden Eagles)
• Masahiro Tanaka, P (Rakuten)
• Takayuki Kishi, P (Seibu)
• Brian Falkenborg, P (Softbank)
• Kanehisa Arime, P (Rakuten)
• Tadashi Settsu, P (Softbank)
• Hisashi Takeda, P (Nippon Ham)

Manager

• Hisanobu Watanabe

Coaches

• Masataka Nashida
• Daijiro Oishi

Umpires

• Tetsuo Yamaji, Takahiro Tsuchiyama, Masami Yoshikawa, Atsushi Fukaya, Norihiro Akimura, Tetsuya Shimata

Game 2

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

The second game was held on July 25 at Hiroshima Municipal Stadium; 30,866 attended. CL took the lead first this time with Ramirez's RBI double after Ibata's single, but the PL soon tied it with Nakamura's homer in the next inning. The CL roared back soon as Miyamoto collected a second-inning double, and Akamatsu took back the lead with a RBI single. The PL's Nobuhiko Matsunaka tied the game with a solo shot in the 4th inning, and the CL answered back with Miyamoto's solo home run in the same inning. This game was full of homers, since the PL's next three runs all came from home runs - Saburo's solo shot in the 5th inning and Matsunaka's two-run homer in the 6th inning; Matsunaka won the game MVP. PL added two insurance runs when Kokubo, Hasegawa and Saburo got hits for three straight at-bats against Katsuhiro Nagakawa, then Satozaki drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. The CL didn't gave up; Ogasawara drew a walk against PL closer Brian Sikorski, then Abe added a hit. Ibata's single loaded the bases, and Araki hit a sacrifice fly. Aoki could have became the CL's hero again with a home run just as he did in the last game, but Sikorski forced him to hit a grounder to first, and the PL tied the series.

Players used

Pacific League Starting Lineup

1. Kawasaki, SS
2. Iguchi, 2B
3. Inaba, RF
4. Nobuhiko Matsunaka, DH (Softbank)
5. Nakamura, 3B
6. Takahashi, 1B
7. Hasegawa CF
8. Saburo, LF
9. Tanoue, C

• Hideaki Wakui, P (Seibu)

Backups Used

• Kusano, 2B
• Ohmura, LF
• Itoi, LF
• Kaneko, 2B
• Kokubo, 1B
• Nioka, PH
• Nakajima, SS
• Satozaki, C
• Toshiya Sugiuchi, P (Softbank)
• Chihiro Kaneko, P (Orix)
• Brian Sikorski, P (Chiba Lotte)

Central League Starting Lineup

1. Ibata, LF
2. Higashide, 2B
3. Aoki, CF
4. Blanco, DH
5. Kanemoto, 1B
6. Higashide, 3B
7. Miyamoto, LF
8. Akamatsu, RF
9. Ishihara, C

• Kan Otake, P (Hiroshima)

Backups Used

• Araki, 2B
• Ramirez, DH
• Uchikawa, LF
• Ogasawara, PH
• Aikawa, C
• Sakamoto, PH
• Abe, PH
• Yoshinori Sato, PR (Yakult)
• Colby Lewis, P (Hiroshima)
• Kyuji Fujikawa, P (Hanshin)
• Kazuki Yoshimi, P (Chunichi)
• Chang-yong Lim, P (Yakult)
• Katsuhiro Nagakawa, P (Hiroshima)

Umpires

• Shimata, Yoshikawa, Fukaya, Akimura, Yamaji, Tsuchiyama