2009 ALL STAR GAMES

July 24 Sapporo Dome ( 38,370 audience)
The Fighters Yu Darvish started for the Pacific League, but an accident occurred. The ball Giants Alex Ramirez hit slammed into Darvish's shoulder. With that Darvish left the mound. Masahiro Tanaka of the Golden Eagles came on. What fans were looking forward to, Tanaka's pitch against the Giants Hayato Sakamoto. They were on the same elementary school baseball team. Later, Alex Ramirez homered off Tanaka. But the Pacific side hit after hits. It appeared Central was on the way to lose the game. But in the 9th inning, the Swallows Norichika Aoki slammed a 2 run home run. Central League won 10 to 8. Aoki won the MVP award.

July 25 Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium Hiroshima(30,866 audience)
Starting for the Central League was the Carp's Kan Otake. In the 2nd inning, he gave up a home run to the Lions slugger Takeya Nakamura. The Hawks Nobuhiko Matsunaka slammed 2 homers. The Swallows Shinya Miyamoto and the Marines Saburo also homered. Closing the game was the Marines Brian Sikorski who made his first all star appearance after 8 years in Japan. The Pacific side won 7 to 4. MVP went to Matsunaka.

Fans' top picks Takeya Nakamura(Lions)
Central League Pacific League
PitcherKan Otake(Carp) Yu Darvish (Fighters)
CatcherYoshiyuki Ishihara(Carp) Tomoya Satozaki (Marines)
First baseman Kenta Kurihara(Carp)Hiroki Kokubo (Hawks)
2nd baseman Akihiro Higashide (Carp) Tadahito Iguchi (Marines)
3rd baseman Michihiro Ogasawara (Giants)
Shortstop Hayato Sakamoto(Giants) Munenori Kawasaki (Hawks)
DH none Tomohiro Nioka (Fighters)
Outfielder Norichika Aoki(Swallows)
Masato Akamatsu (Carp)
Seiichi Uchikawa (BayStars)
Akinori Inaba (Golden Eagles)
Naoyuki Omura (Buffaloes)
Daisuke Kusano (Golden Eagles)




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