Tigers v Hawks - Shimoyanagi is back

A night game (24th March) against the Hawks saw the return of Shimoyanagi after surgery and unfortunately he was the reason for the Hawks victory 4-1. Kubo started for the Tigers and was excellent pitching 5 innings for only 2 hits and striking out seven. Houlton started for the Hawks and was nearly as good. He got stung in the first though with a hit from Akahoshi who stole second and then was driven in by Sakurai.

So at the bottom of the seventh Tigers were comfortably in control (though with a narrow lead). Shimoyanagi though wasn't - after all it was his first start of the season. He gave up a leadoff hit and the batter advanced to second on an error. A Matsunaka ground out moved him to third and to avoid the sacrifice fly Shimoyanagi walked Kokubo. His pitching then disintergrated and he gave up four runs to put the Hawks firmly in control. Shimoyanagi was replaced by Abe who had no trouble but Tigers never threatened after that.