April 15th Atchison v Lewis - Command and Control

This game Tigers won comfortably enough even though the score was tight for most of the game. Atchison's family was in the stand to watch him pick up his third straight victory. This is also the sixth game when Arai and Kanemoto have both driven in RBIs. Line scores

       1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Carp   0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  4 1
Tigers 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 X 5 10 1

Starting lineups
1. Akahoshi (Centre)
2. Hirano (Second)
3. Arai (First)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Imaoka (Third)
6. Toritani (Short)
7. Ford (Right)
8. Yano (Catcher)
9. Atchison (Pitcher)

Carp
1. Amaya (Centre)
2. Soyogi (Short)
3. Alex (Right)
4. Kurihara (First)
5. Maeda (Left)
6. Seabol (Third)
7. Ishihara (Catcher)
8. Higashide (Second)
9. Lewis (Pitcher)

The game started quietly for the Carp with Atchison retiring the side in order. However, Tigers were onto Lewis straight away. Akahoshi took a foul ball and stole second. Hirano and Arai struck out but Kanemoto hit to drive Akahoshi in 1-0 Tigers. Imaoka as has become his practice struck out to end the innings though. The Carp's second followed the same pattern as the first but in the Tigers version Toritani hit, Ford struck out and Yano hit leaving runners on first and third with one out. Unfortunately the next two batters Atchison and Akahoshi did nothing and the score remained the same. Onto the third and the same thing happened, Carp retired in order. This time Hirano hit for the Tigers but once again Lewis was able to prevent any further progress. In the fourth Carp got their first hit, from Amaya. He tried to steal second sandwiched between Soyogi and Alex striking out looking but was thrown out by Yano. The Tigers fourth was the first innings they didn't get a hit, Toritani, Ford and Yano being retired in order.

So to the Carp's fifth and their biggest challenge. Kurihara hit and Maeda flew out. Then Seabol took a foul ball and walked getting runners on first and second with one out. Kurihara flew out which brought up Higashide. He walked to load the bases but the last batter was Lewis who struck out to end the innings. In the Tigers fifth Akahoshi hit then tried to steal second but was thrown out. Hirano also hit but nothing came of that as Arai grounded out to Lewis. Atchison continued into the sixth and got the first two batters but Toritani failed to gather an Alex ground ball and the runner was safe on first. The next batter, Kurihara, hit and Alex was round to third. However, Atchison kept his nerve and got Maeda to fly out to Akahoshi. Tigers sixth was quiet and the side retired in order. Onto the seventh and Okada decided that with the score still at 1-0 it was time to move to the relief corps. First on was Watanabe, he struck out Seabol swinging but then walked Ishihara. Next up was Higashide, he struck out swinging as well. Finally, Lewis who also struck out swinging - a good efficient innings by Watanabe. Lewis had no problems in Tigers seventh and so to Kubota for the Carp eighth. He retired all three batters without breaking into a sweat and Lewis lined up for the Tigers eighth.

Maybe Lewis was tired because he immediately gave up a two base hit to Akahoshi. Hirano bunted him round to third and that brought Arai to the plate. He stroked a pitch to centre and Akahoshi was home 2-0 Tigers. Lewis was replaced by Yokoyama who faced Kanemoto. Kanemoto grounded out to Higashide who fluffed it and the Tigers No.4 was safe. Next up was Hiyama pinch hitting for Imaoka and he hit again to load the bases. Yokoyama faced Toritani who hammered a 2-2 ball to right for a bases clearing 2 base hit 5-0 Tigers. Ford and Yano both failed to score bringing the innings to an end. Of course the earlier plan of Fujikawa to close the ninth was abandoned and Egusa pitched the Carp ninth. He started out by giving up a two base hit to Kurihara but then retired the next three batters to end the game and shut out the Carp. Victory Tigers.

This was a well crafted performance. Atchison wasn't as impressive as his previous start and in fact pitched 104 pitches for his six innings. He had struck out 7 and walked 2 while giving up three hits. So a competent performance and good victory. The one question mark is Imaoka who seems to be drifting off the focus. He struck out three times in last nights game and this is causing concern. Next will be Shimoyanagi v Miyazaki.

I was out Koshien tonight and Imaoka was out of the line up. I scoffed at Sekimoto getting a start, but he had a great game. Katsuragi also played in place of Ford in right and also hit well. Another well-pitched game with good hitting!

Sekimoto has always had a robust approach to his game and is a better third base. Concerns about Imaoka have been building as his production falls.