Pitcher Chen Wei-ying gets promotion in NPBL

Taiwanese-born Chunichi Dragon minor leaguer Chen Wei-ying (陳偉殷) was recently promoted to the Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPBL) after over two months of stellar performance.

The former pitching standout on Taiwan's national baseball team joins fellow countrymen Chang Chih-jia (張誌家) and Hsu Ming-jeh (許明傑) of the Seibu Lions as the three active Taiwanese players currently playing in the NPBL.

The 18-year-old first gained international recognition when he was named as the top left-handed pitcher on Taiwan's silver-medal-winning team in the 2002 World Junior Baseball Championship.

The highly competitive tournament for high-school players is organized by the International Baseball Federation every other year in member nations throughout the world.

He later led Taiwan to a fourth-place finish in the Baseball World Cup held in Cuba last year while a freshman in the National College of Physical Education and Sports before being drafted by the Dragons earlier this year.

Projected as the Dragons' solution to the big left-handed bats in the Yomiuri Giants' lineup, Chen will receive guidance from famed Dragons skipper Ojiai Hiromitzu and pitching coach Mori Shigekazu.

His repertoire of pitches includes a solid fastball clocked well over 140kph, a nasty slider that runs up-and-in on right-handed batters, a curve ball that consistently paints the corners of the strike zone, and a splitter that he has recently develeped.

"He will not be starting for us yet, but when the opportunities present themselves, Chen will definitely get some chances to face the Giants' lefties in a relief role this year."

npbl roundup

The Daiei Hawks socked five round-trippers to overpower the Nippon Ham Fighters 9-6 on Monday.

Julio Zuleta led the way with a three-run homer in the second, followed by Nobuhiko Matsunaka's three-run shot in the third. Another Matsunaka homer and shots from Tadahito Iguchi and Kenji Jojima rounded out the score.

Nippon Ham fought back, scoring three runs in the bottom of the ninth on a homer from Michihiro Ogasawara, but was unable to pull ahead of the Fukuoka sluggers.

With the victory, Daiei's Sadaharu Oh won his 1,000th game as a manager, a milestone reached by only 10 managers of Japanese professional baseball before him.

At Yahoo BB Stadium, Yoshitomo Tani and Roosevelt Brown smashed a pair of two-run homers to power the Orix BlueWave over the Lotte Marines 6-1.

Hidetaka Kawagoe struck out 10 and allowed one run and seven hits over eight innings to improve his record to 3-3. Lotte's Naoyuki Shimizu suffered the loss after giving up five runs on 11 hits.

Lotte snapped a four-game winning streak with the loss.

At Osaka Dome, Kazuhiro Wada shot a two-run homer over the center field wall to drive the Seibu Lions over the Kintetsu Buffalos 4-3.