Frequent Flyer Miles

It seems that Japanese domed stadiums don't pose much of a challenge for the powerful Alex Cabrera.  He hit his 41st home run last night (8/14) at Fukuoka Dome measuring in at 160 meters, a new record for the stadium.  Just two days later he also set the record for longest hit ball at Osaka Dome, hitting the ball up into the "Super Link System" that allows the ceiling to retract for better acustics for concerts.  Many say that the Osaka home run was much longer than the "official" 170 meters, tying himself (Seibu Dome on May 26) and Bryant for the longest shot in Japan.

The 160 meter line drive at Fukuoka last night was Cabrera's 41st home run of the season, tying him with Kintetsu's Rhodes for the Pacific League lead once again.

The pitch from Daiei's "Clark Kent" Watanabe was outside and high, a ball if he'd have let it go.  But Cabrera has hit a number of bad pitches out.  For instance, he took Lotte's Kuroki deep on May 16 on a one bound fork ball in the dirt.  On May 27, Cabrera hit Daiei's Tanoue's face high offering out for his 26th home run of the season.  And on August 11, breaking the bat at the grip end, Cabrera managed to fist the ball over the right-center field fence for home run #38.  This man has power the likes that have never been seen before!

In all, the Lions out homered the home Hawks 4 homers to 2 in Matsuzaka's 11-7 victory.  McClain, hitting his 29th home run of the season, marked the 12th time that the "Twin Bazooka" combination hit home runs in the same game.  (I feel kind of sorry for him, being upstaged by Cabu's power.)

As a side note, Daiei's Valdez hit his 20th home run, giving 5 Hawks 20 or more round trippers on the season.  Hiroshima had 6 players with 20 or more home runs in 1976 for the Japan record, but this ties the Pacific League record with 4 other teams, the first for the Hawks' franchise.

With Kintetsu losing, Seibu climbs to 1 game out of first, behind Kintetsu and Daiei with just a .001 percentage point gap.  Orix is 2 games behind them, and Lotte 2 more, so the top 5 teams in the Pacific League have a difference of a mere 5 games.  The second place Giants are 6 games behind the Swallows in the Central League, just to show how different the two races are turning out to be.