July 5th Kubo v Ishikawa - Kubo bottles the Swallows up

One of Kubo's problems with pitching has been a lack of run support from the offense. This time he received nice run support and as a result won a comfortable victory. Tigers have now won two out of their last three series which is encouraging but they do need to win more away from home. Their next series is a short two game series in Niigata to initiate the new Niigata stadium. This is a typical Japanese white elephant construction project, a 30,000 seat stadium with no baseball team to play regularly in it. Unless, by some miracle, the league expands or another team decides to move to Niigata it will stand empty for most of the year.

Akahoshi is out for at least 10 days with neck and back trouble which he picked up against Dragons. Mayumi made the decision to put Baldris in as leadoff batter - a strange decision it must be said. Baldris had no hits and one walk and had looked very off the pace. The decision worked to a certain extent but one thinks more due to Ishikawa's poor pitching than to Baldris' sudden improvement. Without a lot more work Baldris doesn't have much to offer the first team that other batters can also offer. Box score

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

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

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

With Yakult winning the previous game and Ishikawa on the mound one would have thought Swallows were in with a good chance. Instead Kubo controlled the game and Swallows didn't really get into the frame. Kubo started by retiring the Swallows batters in a 1-2-3 first. Ishikawa hasn't been pitching well of late and this game would continue that trend. Facing Baldris as leadoff on a 1-2 count he sent a 136kmh fast ball low into the zone. The swing was good and the ball went flying into the left gaia for a solo home run 1-0 Tigers and a dream start. This is Baldris' first hit of the season and first RBI. Ishikawa then walked Sekimoto but Arai's double play rescued him and Kanemoto flew out. Kubo though maintained his 1-2-3 pattern as the next set of Swallows batters fell. Ishikawa gave up a hit to Toritani in the bottom of the second but nothing came of this. The Swallows third saw Kawashima generate a one out hit to Arai. Ishikawa bunted him to second and then Kubo walked Aoki to set up runners on first and second. Tanaka grounded out and Kubo was safe. Tigers third was quiet as Ishikawa established a measure of control.

Swallows didn't stop trying - they only had a run deficit and in the fourth. Fukuchi led off with a hit and stole second. Guiel walked but Miyamoto's ground out ended the innings. Ishikawa then fell apart in Tigers fourth. With one out Kanemoto hit a two base. Brazell hit his first pitch to right and Tigers had runners on first and third. Sakurai hit to left on a full count and Kanemoto was home 2-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Toritani walked to load the bases and then Kanoh hit to Kawashima who let the ball get through him and two Tigers runners made home on the error 4-0 Tigers runners on first and second. The next two batters were Kubo who grounded out and Baldris who struck out to end the innings and Ishikawa's session. He hadn't pitched well and hadn't really had much in the way of control. Kubo then produced another 1-2-3 innings in the Swallows fifth to prevent them getting back into the game. Tigers fifth was pitched by Hagiwara who was much better than two nights before. He did give up a hit to Kanemoto but with two out was able to restrict the Tigers left to first. Kubo's final innings would be Swallows sixth and here he did have trouble. He started with a two base hit to Aoki. Tanaka's hit set up runners on first and third with no outs and it looked dangerous. Fukuchi grounded out which allowed Aoki home 4-1 Tigers, runner on first but D'Antona flew out and suddenly things looked a little less dangerous. Guiel was next and he flew out to Kanoh to end the innings and the threat. Kubo had worked hard and had made sure that he preserved a useable lead. Hagiwara returned for Tigers sixth and gave up a hit to Sakurai. He was bunted to second by Toritani but stayed there and the score remained the same.

For Swallows seventh we saw Atchison fresh from his disaster of the night before. He also was much more assured. He did give up a hit to Aikawa (who had a quiet game) but a Kawashima double play extinguished the threat nicely. Oshimoto took the Tigers seventh and was very comfortable making sure that no one got on base. Swallows eighth was really their last chance and saw them square off against Egusa. He wasn't at his best but was still able to generate the outs. Takada had intended to use Yuichi (pinch hitter) as leadoff but switched and chose Iihara instead. This worked and Iihara hit to centre. Aoki grounded out but then Tanaka hit and we had runners on first and second. Fukuchi lined out straight to first which also allowed Sekimoto (he had moved to first) to catch Tanaka off base for the final out. For Tigers eighth the Swallows used the Korean pitcher Hye-cheon Lee who demonstrated some nice stuff and retired the Tigers in order. This brought up Fujikawa for the Swallows ninth and he looks like he's back at his best now. Like the game against the Dragons he buldozed his way through the batters he faced, striking out all three in 14 pitches. Tigers victory

A very good win against a strong side. Swallows hadn't given up but neither had Tigers. The victory was built on determined pitching by Kubo and good support from the offense. Swallows didn't help themselves with Kawashima's error which was the second in as many nights but this time was punished. Fujikawa picked up his ninth save in an awesome display of closing pitching and one hopes that he is now back. Mayumi's decision making worked this game though the jury is still out on Baldris.

Christopher,

I do not know why you think Baldris is so bad. He has plenty to offer the first team. Do you not have a clue as to what he has been doing on the farm. HIs average is well over .300 there. When they call him up maybe if they would play him regularly he would prove he needs to be playing on the first team. It's dump they call him up to sit the bench when he is playing so well on the farm. He can hit alot better than players they have on the first team. So I don't understand your negative comments toward hime all the time. Is it just the fact that he is a foreigner??

The issue about Baldris is that he is not delivering in the top team. Farm team performances are not necessarily an indication of how someone will perform in the top team. Currently, Baldris would rate sub-Fujimoto which begs the question why do Tigers need someone else of that level without Fujimoto's fielding skills. I agree that a long run might well help him but where do you put him given that there are better performers at every position he plays in. He needs to deliver in a much more consistent way before he can become a regular. In fact he has to deliver at a much higher level to get himself noticed. His first at bat was good but then he did nothing after that leaving him open to accusations of luck. This is not what the coaches want - if he had managed a hit as well one could say that he looked more promising. It's the ability to deliver not his nationality that is the issue.

I agree that Mayumi's decision was odd. Lack of hitting in the lead-spot has hurt us this year, with Akahoshi a bit banged up and not hitting well. So, it's strange to put someone there who doesn't have a hit all year instead of someone like Hirano who has been hitting well and has the ability to see a lot of pitches.
I like the spark Baldris brings to the team and he's a decent fielder, but in his 2 years he hasn't done much on the top team. I don't mind him getting another shot, but you don't put someone batting 0 for 15 in the lead-off spot.
So, I'm not sure where Mayumi was coming from. He's been stubborn with the line-up all year and hasn't made enough changes, but this was a really odd move. Once Baldris proves he can hit on the top team it's fine to move him up in the order, but not until then.

Are you a coach christopher? Since when do you know what the coaches want and dont want, unless you really are a part of the organization. I have a feeling this is more of what you want than what they want.

You should know that fans will always criticize the coaches choices especially if they go wrong. Sometimes though outsiders have a better understanding of the situation than insiders. Given Tigers performance this is one of those situations and following the game against the Carp (see the report later) it looks like Tigers coaches seem to have no idea of what they want.

You should know that readers will always criticize the writer whether he is accurate or not. So, write your stories and criticize where needed and praise when needed.

> ... it looks like Tigers coaches seem to
> have no idea of what they want.

Unless what they want is ending up dead last...T__T