The Buffaloes have a 1 1/2-game lead over the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks and kick off the last half of the season by thundering into Fukuoka for a three-game set on Saturday.
The Buffaloes are trying to go from last to first in the Pacific League and have their work cut out for them. Despite an awesome offense, their pitching is often shaky.
If the pennant race comes down to motivation, it may be hard to beat the Buffs, who know that Nakamura will not be with them much longer.
The Osaka native is set to go to the majors next season and the feeling on the team is that this may be their best chance of winning a league title.
If the Buffs do capture the PL flag for the first time since the "Ogi magic" season of 1989, it will give them a chance to erase the stigma of being the only active club without a Japan Series crown.
Rhodes, whose 34 homers lead the league ahead of the 33 nailed by Seibu Lion's Alex Cabrera, would gladly trade a home run title for a pennant.
"You can have the home runs, as long as we get the championship," Rhodes told Cabrera before Game 2.
Asked if Cabrera, Rhodes' former teammate in the minor leagues and in winter ball, was in a position to hand the pennant to the Buffaloes, Rhodes said, "Sure. If he doesn't hit home runs they don't win. All he has to do is not hit against us."
In a six-team league, it's that simple said Hawks' closer Rodney Pedraza.
"You only play five teams, so you can win three straight and go from fifth to first in a weekend," Pedraza said.
So forget the titles. The Buffaloes are in the hunt for bigger game.
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While Nakamura's offseason departure gives the Osaka club a sense of urgency, they are all awed by the performance of middle reliever Koki Morita.
Morita was voted to the All-Star as a sentimental favorite by the fans--not because of his ordinary stats, a 2-0 record and 5.40 ERA in 19 games--but because he overcame brain surgery to pitch again.
Once a top reliever for the Yokohama BayStars, Morita was selected by the fans for the first time under new categories for relief pitchers.
"When I was with Yokohama, I could earn selection by the manager because of my performance," Morita said. "But the fans voted me in so I didn't really do it on my ability."
Still, Morita impresses everyone with his guts.
"With what he's gone through, it's just incredible," said Rhodes. "The guy is lucky to be alive, now."
Less than a year after being traded from the BayStars to the Buffaloes, doctors found a golf ball-sized tumor in his brain. They operated for 12 hours on Sept. 10, 1998 to remove it, but Morita was back pitching in less than a year.
And when the Hokkaido native came on to face Yomiuri Giants slugger Kazuhiro Kiyohara in Game 3, it was the first time his father had seen his son pitch since his operation.
"Seeing him standing on the mound and pitching was unbelievable," said Takeo Morita. Until then I could never bring myself to watch him. There was just too much scary."
When Koki was seven years old, his 5-year-old brother Koji died of cancer, so when Takeo first heard of the tumor his first thought was that he had lost another son.
"I thought, 'he's gone too,'" said Takeo. "Then to see him pitch today, it's just amazing. I'm incredibly happy."
Koki Morita struck got two called strikes on Kiyohara and saw the Giants star keeping his distance from the plate in anticipation of his best pitch, his running fastball or "shoot."
In true All-Star fashion, the right-hander had planned to go strength against strength with Kiyohara, but at the last moment he backed out. The tension of pitching in front of his family finally got to him.
"I was going to throw my shoot," he said. "But I was just beat. I didn't have the strength for it. So I threw a curve."
Kiyohara offered a lame swing and the fans behind the home dugout stood and roared as Morita came off the mound.
"I have to apologize to Kiyohara for not challenging him," said Morita.
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The Lions head into this weekend's action in third place, 2 1/2 games behind the Buffaloes. And while no one can compare the raw talent of the two clubs' pitching staffs, Game 2 may have provided a clue as to the outcome of the pennant race.
The big question the Buffaloes face is whether or not their pitching can hold up under the strain of the pennant race. Katsuhiko Maekawa, their big left-handed ace, has tamed the Lions every time he faces them but has been very ordinary against everyone else as his 5.47 ERA would suggest.
But Maekawa makes up in guts and stamina what he lacks in polish. He has become the most likely PL pitcher to finish a game, a useful trait if your team is scoring more than 5 1/2 runs a game as the Buffaloes are.
Maekawa has nowhere near the tools that his PL rival Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Seibu Lions possesses, but Maekawa has been much more consistent. The Buffaloes ace has the added advantage of not having Osamu Higashio of the Lions as his manager.
In Game 2 at Yokohama Stadium, Maekawa looked shaky but kept the CL scoreless in the first two innings before Matsuzaka got the stuffing beat out of him, costing the PL a shot at a series sweep.
Higashio seems intent on determining the exact number of pitches that will destroy his young right-hander's arm. He has let Matsuzaka run up some horrendous pitch counts this season so it should surprise no one to learn that Higashio was in charge of the PL pitching assignments in Game 2 when Matsuzaka threw 50 pitches in one-plus inning.
When he was an active pitcher, Higashio earned a reputation for two things: intimidating batters by throwing at them and pitching some of his best games while hung over. His bizarre handling of Matsuzaka over the last 2 1/2 seasons would make one think that Higashio's managing technique is founded on bullying people and consuming large amounts of alcohol.
The Hot Corner appears each Thursday in The
Daily Yomiuri .