July 4th Nohmi v Yoshinori - Nohmi's decline continues

Nohmi is now out of the rotation. Once again his performance wasn't of sufficient quality to justify keeping him and after 13 games he has gone down in quality. Hirano was No. 1 batter again and once again was full of fire and action. Shimizu was the starting catcher but wasn't particularly good and had to be replaced by Kanoh. The game itself was quite close until the eighth when Atchison blew any chance of victory. All the top relievers have not performed to the highest standards and this is probably due to Mayumi's influence. He doesn't value his relief pitchers as much as he should. This is reflected in erratic performances. Box score

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

Starting lineup

Swallows
1. Aoki (Centre)
2. Fukuchi (Left)
3. Hiroyasu Tanaka (Second)
4. D'Antona (First)
5. Guiel (Right)
6. Miyamoto (Third)
7. Aikawa (Catcher)
8. Keizo Kawashima (Short)
9. Yoshinori (PItcher)

Tigers
1. Hirano (Centre)
2. Sekimoto (Second)
3. Arai (Third)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Brazell (First)
6. Katsuragi (Right)
7. Toritani (Short)
8. Shimizu (Catcher)
9. Nohmi (Pitcher)

Nohmi's start was surprisingly good which is about the only good thing you can say about his pitching. All three Swallows fell easily and rapidly and the Swallows first was quickly and painlessly over. Hirano led off Tigers first with a hit. Sekimoto bunted and he was on second. Arai hit to left and Tigers had runners on first and third. Kanemoto then hit a sacrifice fly and Hirano was home 1-0 Tigers and the last they would see of the lead. Brazell in wjhat was a quiet game for him struck out to end the innings. Here Nohmi went rapidly downhill. He walked D'Antona which in itself wasn't a problem especially as Guiel flew out. Miyamoto hit but this only set up runners on first and second, again a problem but not serious. Aikawa though hit his first pitch to right centre for a two base hit but which drove in both runners 2-1 Swallows, runner on second with only one out. Kawashima grounded out and Yoshinori struck out but the Swallows had reversed the situation. Tigers second saw Toritani hit but Shimizu hit into a double play and ended the innings. Nohmi then faced Aoki in Swallows third who hit nicely to right beating the Koshien winds for a solo home run 3-1 Swallows. The next three Swallows fell easily with two striking out looking but they had a good lead. Tigers third was a waste. Nohmi led off and grounded out. Hirano though hit into the right centre sweet spot for a three base hit. Here was a real chance to get back into the game. This was blown. Sekimoto after a long battle flew out to right but no one chanced Guiel's arm. Then both Arai and Kanemoto walked to load the bases. It seemed as neither of them wanted to take responsibility for getting out and ending the innings so they chickened out of taking the risk. Not so Brazell who at least tried but he struck out and the innings was over. Yoshinori had done well but Tigers cleanup hadn't.

In Swallows fourth Miyamoto hit to short and even though Toritani stopped the ball he couldn't make the throw in time. Another out and Kawashima hit - runners on first and second. However, Yoshinori grounded out to end the innings. Tigers fourth was quiet as usefully, Yoshinori retired the batters in order. With Swallows fifth Nohmi walked Aoki. He was bunted to second by Fukuchi but Mayumi had had enough and Nohmi was replaced on the mound by Watanabe. Egusa of course would have been the better choice but Mayumi still doesn't get this. Tanaka grounded out taking Aoki round to third which brought up D'Antona. He placed his hit neatly between Arai and Toritani for the run 4-1 Swallows, runner on first and the vital run. Tigers fifth was quiet and no one made any impression. For Swallows sixth the pitcher was Tsutsui who would be very effective, in fact the only effective Tigers pitcher of the evening. He retired the batters in order to bring up Tigers sixth. Here Swallows generated their own problems. Arai hit to short who missed the ball which trickled between his legs, an error. A wild pitch took Arai to second and then Kanemoto hit a home run to right 4-3 Swallows. With one out Katsuragi walked and Tigers were in with a very good chance here - Yoshinori was faltering. However, Toritani let him off the hook and hit into a double play. Some very relieved Swallows players made their way back to the dugout for the seventh.

Once again Tsutsui was the pitcher and once again he was effective, retiring the batters in order. Tigers seventh saw Hirano's third hit of the night but nothing came of this. So to the killer innings, Swallows eighth pitched by Atchison. He was not on form but wasn't helped by a Sekimoto error. Sekimoto used to be such a reliable second base when Okada was manager but now is slack and not particularly efficient. Tanaka hit to him but he messed up the take and the Swallows batter was safe on first. D'Antona then hit to right centre, bouncing the ball off the wall just past Hirano's brave attempt to take it and Tanaka set off for home. Kanoh (replacement catcher) tried to block him with his leg but Tanaka was safe 5-3 Swallows runner on second. This knocked the stuffing out of the Tigers. With two outs Aikawa hit to right and D'Antona made home 6-3 Swallows, runner on first. Aikawa stole second and as if he wanted to show he could do worse Atchison released a pass ball which took the Swallows catcher to third. Finally Kawashima flew out to help Atchison escape but the game was out of sight or was it? Igarashi would do his best to try and help the Tigers out and in their eighth he gave up hits to Kanemoto and Katsuragi setting up runners on first and third with two outs. However, Toritani grounded out and Igarashi escaped without damage. For Swallows ninth Mayumi chose Sajikihara, a strange choice. Maybe he's trying out the pitchers he hasn't used before in the hope that one clicks. Last game Sugiyama, this game Sajikihara. He didn't click. With one out he walked Aoki who stole second. Fukuchi hit to left and then stole second as well. It's difficult for a catcher to throw a runner out if the pitcher's pitches are all over the place. Tanaka grounded out to third but the runners remained on base and then Sajikihara walked Yuichi to load the bases. Finally Guiel (who has been quiet this series) struck out and the innings was over. Swallows had no such problems in Tigers ninth. They sent their ace closer Lim to the mound and he retired the batters in order, it was as simple as that. Swallows victory.

A good victory for the Swallows who needed the win to maintain the credibility of their challenge to the Giants. For Tigers Kanemoto had hit and been more active and lets hope this is the start of something good. Once again Hirano impressed but Shimizu at catcher hadn't had such a good game. Nohmi is second team material and even though I had hoped he would blossom it seems that this is never going to happen. I wonder who Mayumi will dredge up next to pitch for the Tigers. It certainly makes things interesting.

Any word on who will replace Nohmi? Like you Christopher, I was pretty shocked to see him get another chance this year. He actually did have a decent stretch for a while and would have had some more wins if the Tigers had scored more runs for him. Still, his downfall is he just doesn't appear to have the stamina to be a starter, as he often lost leads, especially in the crucial 5th inning.
Speaking of lack of run support, I saw an amazing figure the other night that the Tigers had a team ERA of something like 2.53 in May but still finished the month 7-14! You have to be a really bad hitting team to manage that, but the Tigers did it!

It's difficult to say as it could be one of several. Most attention has focused on either Kubota or Kojima. I would tend to go with the former as they have been grooming him for a long time. It is surely time to give him a run.