Hanshin Tigers clinch Central League Pennant

Remeber when the BOSOX became the 2004 World Series Champions?

OSAKA -- The Hanshin Tigers are headed back to the Japan Series. Hanshin starter Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi went six strong innings Thursday, and Shinjiro Hiyama and Akihiro Yano had back-to-back RBI singles in the seventh inning at Koshien Stadium as the Tigers wiped the Yomiuri Giants 5-1 to win their second Central League pennant in three years.
Shimoyanagi struck out six and gave up four hits to improve to 14-3 on the season. Kyuji Fujikawa, Jeff Williams and Tomoyuki Kubota each worked an inning of relief. Kubota gave up the only run on a wild pitch in the ninth before getting Shinnosuke Abe to fly out to left.
Hiyama gave Hanshin a 4-0 lead in the seventh with a two-out, bases-loaded single to right. Yano widened the lead in the next at-bat with a sharply hit grounder to third that got past Yomiuri third baseman Hiroki Kokubo allowing the fifth run to score.
Thursday's win was a big relief for Hanshin manager Akinobu Okada, who is in his second year at the helm after replacing the highly-popular Senichi Hoshino.
The Tigers return to the postseason for the first time since 2003 when they lost to the Daiei Hawks. The last time the team won the Japan Series was in 1985, when Okada was a star infielder for Hanshin.
Hanshin jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two innings. Tomoaki Kanemoto singled in a run in the first and Kentaro Sekimoto and Norihiro Akahoshi drove in runs in the second.
The victory was all the more satisfying as it came at home and at the expense of the bumbling Yomiuri Giants, Hanshin's longtime rivals, who made three errors in Thursday's game and look set to finish a distant fifth in the standings.
Founded on Dec. 10. 1935, the Tigers are one of Japan's oldest baseball teams and are celebrating their 70th anniversary this year.
The Tigers moved into first place on June 9 and stayed there for good. They won nine of their first 10 games in September, pulling away from the second-place Chunichi Dragons.
They've lost only four times this month.
The Tigers will now await the winner of the Pacific League's playoffs and will face either the Softbank Hawks, the Chiba Lotte Marines or the Seibu Lions in the Oct. 22-30 Japan Series.
Next to the Hawks, the Tigers are arguably the most balanced team in Japanese baseball.
Infielder Makoto Imaoka and outfielder Kanemoto will both contend for MVP honors.
Going into Thursday's game, Imaoka has 28 homers with 144 RBIs and 152 hits while Kanemoto has a team-high 38 homers with 119 RBIs and 173 hits.
Not to be overlooked is speedy leadoff hitter Akahoshi, who leads the league with 58 steals and has 184 hits.
Andy Sheets, who came over from the Hiroshima Carp, has also put together a solid year with 85 RBIs, 19 homers and 159 hits.
Three of Hanshin's starters -- Kei Igawa, Yuya Ando and Shimoyanagi -- all have wins in double digits and the "JFK" relief relay of Williams, Fujikawa and closer Kubota was effective all year, including Thursday's win.
Hanshin's winning season in 2003 ended an 18-year pennant drought that was referred to by Tiger fans as "The Curse of the Colonel."
In 1985, an overzealous Hanshin fan threw a statue of Colonel Sanders taken from a nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet into Osaka's Dotonbori River. The statue was never retrieved and the team's losing ways were attributed to the missing mannequin. (AP)