June 8th Atchison v Yamamoto - Tigers win despite Atchison

Atchison still can't hold a lead. His pitching deteriorated badly in the sixth but Tigers were still too strong. Yamamoto was good but wasn't helped by poor fielding. With Dragons loss to Rakuten - Tigers moved to 7.5 games ahead of the Nagoya outfit. Line scores

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

Starting linups

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

Buffaloes
1. Sakaguchi (Centre)
2. Muramatsu (Right)
3. Cabrera (First)
4. Rhodes (Left)
5. Kitagawa (Third)
6. Hidaka (Catcher)
7. Ohbiki (Short)
8. Gotoh (Second)
9. Yamamoto (Pitcher)

As I have mentioned before Orix resent the fact that they are considered second to Tigers in Osaka and Kansai fan's affections. The main rivals to the Tigers are of course the Giants but this second status makes Orix compete very hard. This would prove to be a hard fought game. It didn't start that way as Atchison dismissed Orix in order. Yamamoto wasn't helped by one of Orix's two errors in the first. Kitagawa, even though he had a good game with the bat, would have a poor game at third. He messed up a Sekimoto ground out with the result that the Tiger's second was safe on first. Arai then hit and this moved Sekimoto to third. Next batter Kanemoto hit a nice sacrifice fly and the score was 1-0 Tigers. Ford grounded out to end the innings. In the Buffaloes second the batters once again fell in order. The Tigers second saw Yano hit but then Baldris hit into a double play and the innings petered out with no score. In the Buffaloes third they once again were dismissed in order and Atchison had pitched very well. The Tigers third was likewise quiet and no one got on base.

The Buffaloes fourth saw Muramatsu produce the first hit for Orix. He stole second but Atchison finished the innings with two strike outs and the score remained the same. The Tigers fourth saw Arai lead off against Yamamoto and he slammed his first pitch for a left home run 2-0 Tigers. Kanemoto struck out but Ford reached first on Kitagawa's second error. He made second on a Toritani ground out but then Yano grounded out to Yamamoto to end the innings. The Buffaloes fifth saw Kitagawa as the leadoff and he took his fourth pitch deep for a home run 2-1 Tigers. The next two batters fell but then Gotoh hit. The final batter was Yamamoto himself who grounded out to end the innings. Akahoshi hit in the Tigers fifth but nothing came of this. So to Buffaloes sixth. Atchison got Sakaguchi but then walked Muramatsu. Cabrera was next and he hammered a two base hit - runners on second and third with one out. Next batter was Rhodes - a timely centre hit drove both runners home 3-2 Buffaloes. Then Kitagawa had a two base hit - runners on second and third with one out - a dangerous situation. Atchison pulled himself together and got Hidaka to ground out to Arai locking the runners on base and then struck out Ohbiki looking. Tigers response was immediate - Arai hit a two base. He moved to third on Kanemoto's left fly and then was home on Ford's left sacrifice fly 3-3 scores level. The final out was Toritani's ground out to end the innings.

The Buffaloes seventh was the key innings. Watanabe was the pitcher and started by striking out Gotoh looking. He then gave up a hit to Yoshida (pinch hitting for Yamamoto). Sakaguchi grounded out but then Muramatsu hit setting up runners on first and third with two outs. Cabrera walked to load the bases and Watanabe faced Rhodes. The first pitch was a strike but the next three straight balls were all balls. Then Rhodes fouled one - count was 2 and 3. Watanabe sent a 146 km/h straight ball to the plate and Rhodes swung and missed - strike out - end of innings. Motoyanagi replaced Yamamoto and started with a strike out of Yano. Baldris though hit a two base to left. Lin flew out and this moved Baldris to third. Next batter was Akahoshi who hit a timely single to centre 4-3 Tigers. Akahoshi then tried to steal second but was judged out and the innings ended with a slim Tigers lead.

Okada immediatley went to Kubota for the eighth. Kitagawa grounded out but then Hidaka hit. He stole second but Ohbiki grounded out. Kitagawa was now on third but Kubota calmly struck out Gotoh to end the innings. Sekimoto led off the Tigers eighth with a hit and made third on a Kanemoto two base. The next two batters struck out swinging to end the innings. Buffaloes faced Fujikawa for their final innings and the leadoff was Hamanaka - his former colleague. No mercy was shown and Hamanaka fouled out to Arai. Next batter Sakaguchi struck out in three. Then Muramatsu fouled out to Yano - end of game and Tigers victory.

A good performance by the Tigers. Atchison still needs to be able to protect a lead but the rest of the pitching team showed good character. The win went to Watanabe (his third) and Fujikawa picked up his 21st save.

[Edited by: Christopher on Jun 8, 2008 8:57 PM] Many thanks to the unnamed guest who corrected the error about Atchison.

I see Lew Ford is in the lineup. How has he been doing recently?

Ford has improved but his average is only .211. He doesn't hit well with runners on base and needs to work on this part of his game. Currently he is platooning with Katsuragi and occaisionally Hiyama. His fielding though is first rate. If he can just sort out his hitting he will do well.

Ford shouldn't be batting 5th. At the beginning of the year he was batting 7th until he proved himself, but he hasn't done that. It reminds me of when Okada kept batting Sheets 3rd even though he slumped so much last year. Oh well, all that matters is we keep winning!

Or Imaoka at fifth. However, the problem is who to bat at fifth if Ford doesn't fill the position. Toritani is happy at sixth and Yano isn't suitable either.

Imaoka has no business on the top team, so it is trouble filling that 5th spot. The problem with Ford is with Arai and Kanemoto both hitting for average, he will have many chances with runners on base, but he just hasn't produced in that situation. But with all those chances, hopefully he'll eventually come through. Sometimes all it takes is that one big hit to get rolling.

Toritani should hit 6th!

(And why so hard on Atchison? Seems he pitched OK)

Atchison needs to step up a level to continue being effective. His performance has in fact deteriorated since the start of the season. He needs to be able to go deeper in particular.

That's what happens when you try to convert a reliever into a starting pitcher at that age. He's not going to go deep into games and you've got to be ready to make that call to the bullpen because generally when they start to tire on the mound, they fade quickly.

After his first few starts, Atchison actually had one of the best ERAs in the league, but he has been mediocre since. With the Tigers solid bullpen, if he can at least give 5 or 6 solid innings, that should often do the job.
Speaking of foreign pitchers, I haven't noticed Vogelsong start in a while. Has he been demoted again?

Yes Vogelsong is back in the farm team. He had a start against the Softbank farm team on 6th June in which he threw 119 pitches over six and two thirds innings. He struck out 11 but walked three and gave up 3 runs on six hits. More work is obviously still needed.

[Edited by: Christopher on Jun 12, 2008 4:43 PM]