Daily Update: Dragons v Tigers @Koshien, 12th July; Valdes start, bullpen loss.

Dragons 4-5 Tigers

WP: Rafael Dolis 1IP 0ER 0SO                                     Yamato 4-3, 4RBI
LP: Katsuki Matayoshi 1IP 1ER 1SO                            Alex Guerrero 4-2, 2RBI, 1HR

It was to be a game where the Dragons lost everything late in the game despite looking very good to start proceedings.

Alex Guerrero teed off in the 1st against Akiyama to notch a 2-run homer. His 23rd of the year and only the 5th that's registered more than one RBI.

Yamato's timely double in the in the second allowed Oyama to scuttle home. At the top of the 6th, Yota Kyoda would get on first and be helped along by a Kamezawa safety bunt. With the king of average with RISP at the plate, Yohei Oshima, and the Yota "Flash Gordon" Kyoda on second, an added run seemed a foregone conclusion, but Oshima helped Kyoda to save his legs by knocking in his 2nd homer of the year.

That was not to be all she wrote however as in the bottom of inning Nakatani and Yamato helped get the Tigers back on level terms in a 4-hit, 1 walk inning for Valdes.

Hitoki Iwase would do his thing and hold on in the 7th but Katsuki Matayoshi with 2 outs on the board gave up the game winning RBI to "Battleship" Yamato in the 8th. 

Left with little recourse, the Dragons were unable to get past Rafael Dolis to grasp a better result.

Two fairly disappointing games. Valdes hasn't been the same since he was lit up earlier in the year and sent down to the farm. This is particularly a shame when you consider he's going to the All-Star games on Friday and Saturday. The bats didn't produce quite enough either going down 6 hits to 10 today, but the pop was there today where it wasn't so much yesterday. 

Our next game won't be until the 17th against the Giants as we have the aforementioned All-Star game. I will cover both games in the similar report form that I do here. Yohei Oshima, Alex Guerrero, Raul Valdes and Katsuki Matayoshi are our participants this year. Guerrero will be participating in the home-run derby on Friday in Nagoya while Seiya Suzuki will take his place in Chiba on Saturday. 

In other news, owner Bungo Shirai has ordered the club go after Waseda Jikkyo slugger, Kotaro Kiyomiya at all costs in this years draft. He seems convinced that the capture of the 1st baseman currently receiving national attention would change the complexion of the team and more importantly bring in more spectators to Nagoya Dome. Kiyomiya has slugged over 100 homeruns in his high school career (including practice games) and is slated to be the number 1 pick for the majority of teams. Whether or not the high schooler will choose to go to the draft is still a matter of debate as he may go straight to college instead. With our heads scout Tsuneo Tanaka keen on Kiyomiya as well it seems like we already know who's going to be our first round pick.