May 4th Shimoyanagi v Utsumi - Giants shut out this time

After a long wait of 11 games, Tigers finally won a game against the Giants. This was Mayumi's first victory against the 'auld enemy' and was as emphatic as the Giant's victory the night before. This time the Giants batting failed to exploit their chances and their fielding was rather slack. Tigers batting finally found its feet and hit well. Shimoyanagi worked hard and fully deserved his victory. The first part of this game was shown on ABC television in the Kansai region and I have never seen such a disgustingly amateur coverage. With about 10 minutes to go of the coverage there was a series of three sets of adverts which cut directly into the action and followed one after the other. Vital action was missed because of this idiotic performance. One accepts that most Japanese television stations have no clue when it comes to covering sports events but this was truely abysmal. One would hope that this station does not receive any more Tigers games until they mend their ways. Box scores

       1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Giants 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  7 1
Tigers 0 0 2 0 3 1 0 0 X 6 13 0

Starting lineups

Giants
1. Tani (Right)
2. Terauchi (Second)
3. Ogasawara (Third)
4. Ramirez (Left)
5. Kamei (Centre)
6. Odajima (First)
7. Sakamoto (Short)
8. Abe (Catcher)
9. Utsumi (Pitcher)

Tigers
1. Akahoshi (Centre)
2. Sekimoto (First)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Arai (Third)
6. Sakurai (Right)
7. Hirano (Second)
8. Kanoh (Catcher)
9. Shimoyanagi (Pitcher)

Shimoyanagi started Giants first with a dead ball which put the runner on first with one out. Both Ogasawara and Ramirez failed to do anything with this opportunity and despite his struggles Shimoyanagi would have some very good pitching up his sleeve. Utsumi has not been his dominating self against the Tigers batters this season and this would manifest itself later on. He started with a leadoff hit to Akahoshi (who would have a good game with three hits again). Sekimoto bunted him to second and Toritani's ground out took him to third but Kanemoto also grounded out and the innings was over. Giant's second was quiet as the batters fell in order with Sakamoto the last victim. Interestingly, Sakamoto represented no problem for Shimoyanagi who used his considerable experience to get the Giants short out three times. Tigers second saw Sakurai hit but nothing came of this. In the Giants third Shimoyanagi struck out three batters and gave up one hit, surprisingly a centre hit to Utsumi with one out but the strike outs followed rapidly. Tigers third saw the first runs. With one out Akahoshi hit towards Ogaswara at third who spread his legs and dropped his glove on Akahoshi's ground ball and missed. The ball rolled merrily into left field and Akahoshi was safe on first. Next batter Sekimoto hit to left and Tigers had runners on first and third. Toritani hit to Sakamoto who tried for the double play. Sekimoto was out but Toritani was safe and in the meantime Akahoshi was home 1-0 Tigers runner on first. Toritani then stole second which set the scene nicely for Kanemoto. He hit to right and the ball went under the sliding Tani for a two base hit, Toritani made home 2-0 Tigers, runner on second. Arai flew out but Tigers had a nice lead.

Shimoyanagi then ran into his first big problem in the top of the fourth. Ogasawara grounded out easily enough but Ramirez hit. This was followed by a hit from Kamei and Ramirez showing a nice turn of speed reached third with Kamei on first. Odajima tried to hit over Hirano but lined out instead and then Sakamoto flew out to Kanemoto. Nice work all round in stiffling the Giants fightback. Tigers fourth saw Hirano walk but nothing came of this. Giants showed that they hadn't given up in their fifth. With two out Tani hit to centre and this was followed by a Terauchi hit. Ogasawara walked in four as Shimoyanagi's placement seemed to go completely. This was not encouraging as the bases were now loaded with Ramirez next. A mound conference followed and the Ramirez was induced to hit to short for the final out and Shimoyanagi had escaped the danger. Utsumi would not be so lucky in the Tigers fifth. With two out Toritani hit to left centre. In an excellent display of running he turned a two base hit into a three base, head sliding to safety and setting up a dangerous situation for the Giants. Kanemoto hit to right placing the ball nicely in the corner for the run 3-0 Tigers runner on second. Arai was next and he put the ball over Sakamoto into left which brought Kanemoto home 4-0 Tigers runner on first. At this point Hara decided that a change in pitchers was a good idea and Utsumi exited to be replaced by Nishiguchi. Utsumi hadn't really pitched that well but hadn't been that bad. It just wasn't his night. Nishiguchi faced Sakurai with Arai on first. He let loose a pitch which bounced and was blocked by Abe. Abe though was a bit slow and casual about this and Arai seizing the chance moved to second. This was ruled a wild pitch but was really Abe's laxness. Sakurai then drove the ball past Sakamoto's outstretched glove for a centre hit. Arai motored round and beat the throw to home for another run 5-0 Tigers, runner on second (Sakurai having taken the chance to make second). Finally Hirano struck out but Tigers now had a commanding lead. Giants sixth saw Shimoyanagi return and the question was would he be OK. Kamei led off with a hit which brought up Sakamoto. Once again Shimoyanagi proved more than equal to that challenge striking him out swinging. Finally, Shimoyanagi faced Abe and got him to ground out. This was the end of Shimoyanagi's session and had seen some of his old brilliance. His dominance of Abe and Sakamoto had been very impressive particularly as the latter is hot at the moment. He had had to fight hard but this time had had the extra needed to keep the Giants off the scoreboard. For Tigers sixth Nishiguchi was replaced by Obispo who to be honest looked a bit too over-confident. With one out he gave up a hit to Katsuragi (pinch hitting for Shimoyanagi). This was followed by an Akahoshi two base off his first pitch and set up runners on second and third. Sekimoto then hit to right and Katsuragi was home 6-0 Tigers runners on first and third. Obispo exited to be replaced by Furukawa who got Toritani to ground into a double play and end the innings.

By now the Tigers victory was practically assured and the main question was would the Giants be shut out. Egusa took the Giants seventh and faced Hoshi. He struck him out and then sailed through the other two batters. Egusa has started well and currently has an ERA of 0.66. He is really pitching well at the moment. Furukawa returned for the Tigers seventh and walked Sakurai. Then Hirano hit to centre and Tigers had runners on first and second. Kanoh though was the last out and he grounded out to first to end the innings. Atchison pitched the Giants eighth and walked Kamei. However, Wakiya (pinch hitter) flew out to a nice catch by Akahoshi to end the innings. Micheal Nakamura pitched Tigers eighth and gave up another hit to Akahoshi but managed to avoid more runs. Tsutsui was chosen to pitch the Giants ninth and started with a hit to Sakamoto. He then struck out the next two batters before walking Tani and setting up runners on first and second. Terauchi though also struck out and the game was over. Tigers victory.

A very fine victory by the Tigers who had finally woken up. Shimoyanagi picked up his second win and the hero interview. It had taken them a long time but they had finally overcome the Giants and importantly made them look very ordinary. In fielding, pitching and batting the Giants hadn't been good enough but it would be too much to read a lot into one game. Kanemoto had driven in two more RBIs and the batting had shone nicely.

Saw this game. Shimoyanagi was impressive. I love seeing this guy pitch. Always keeping the ball low and on the corners. Never giving in.

This was a very good win for Hanshin with a strong bullpen coming in and holding onto the lead.

Some things weren't quite there but when he was good he was stunning.