May 5th Iwata v Sawamura - The first win

Finally, Iwata was able to record a win and pitched rather well in doing so. Both teams rather wasted chances with Tigers far to eager to try and hit Sawamura. He was able to ride this successfully in the early stages but his inexperience told against him. Iwata also had his struggles but his greater experience and knowledge enabled him to ride out the challenges better. Despite this it was a very close run thing going down to the last out. One thing I always enjoy about the Tokyo Dome is the atmosphere in the bottom of the ninth during Tigers/Giants match. Tigers fans singing 'ato hitori' and 'ato ikyu' and the Giants fans singing their chance march makes for an electric atmosphere quite unrivalled anywhere else in Japan. Koshien whatever its pleasures isn't the same as the Tigers fans are always in the ascendency. Scores

        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Tigers  0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 10 0
Giants  0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1  7 1

Starting lineups

Tigers
1. Murton (Right)
2. HIrano (Second)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Arai (Third)
5. Brazell (First)
6. Kanemoto (Left)
7. Johjima (Catcher)
8. Shunsuke (Centre)
9. Iwata (Pitcher)

Giants
1. Sakamoto (Short)
2. Tani (Right)
3. Ogasawara (First)
4. Ramirez (Left)
5. Chono (Centre)
6. Ryal (Third)
7. Wakiya (Second)
8. Katoh (Catcher)
9. Sawamura (Pitcher)

Murton led off the Tigers first by lining out to Ryal. Hirano though hit to right - he would own Sawamura and his only failure was when he tried to go left. Toritani walked and Tigers had runners on first and second. Here though Sawamura was very good - luring Arai into swinging at an inside track ball for a strike out and then catching Brazell looking. For the Giants and the commentators on TV the big focus was would Ogasawara reach his 2000th hit. Not in the first innings, Iwata started well and the innings was quiet. Tigers second saw the batters flying out in order with the useless Kanemoto starting the rout. Unfortunately, he is in the team through sentiment and not performance which is something that Hoshino was supposed to have ended. Giants second was their first wasted chance. The ever dangerous Ramirez hit to centre. Chono followed this with a centre hit as well and Giants had runners on first and second. Ryal grounded out but moved the runners round to second and third. Giants were in with a chance. Wakiya though hit straight to Iwata who checked that no one was going to try anything before throwing to first for the second out. This brought up Katoh and Johjima decided to deliberately walk him and load the bases to get at Sawamura. Sawamura struck out swinging conventionally and the innings was scoreless. As Tigers had recycled their batters very quickly Hirano was up again with two outs and he hit to right yet again. However, this time Toritani flew out in foul ground - once again one has to say that this was a fine piece of pitching by the Giants pitcher. Giants had also recycled but the top of the order couldn't make any progress and this time Ogasawara struck out looking to end the innings.

Brazell hit to right in Tigers fourth but stayed on first as the next two batters could do nothing. Iwata though ran into trouble in the Giants fourth. He faced Ramirez leading off who blasted a big solo home run off his cutball 1-0 Giants. Chono grounded out but Ryal hit to centre - Tigers favoured the right field in this game whilst Giants mostly went to centre. Ryal made second on a wild pitch but Wakiya flew out to centre. This brought up Katoh who hit his first pitch back to Iwata for the final out. Giants were in the drivng seat. It didn't last long with Shunsuke leading off Tigers fifth with a nice two base to right. The only debate was would the ball carry over the fence not whether the fielder would catch it as Tani had no chance. In the event it bounced off the wall. Iwata shaped to bunt but made a complete pigs ear of it and was out to three failed bunts. Really Tigers do need to work on their bunting. Murton grounded out which moved Shunsuke round to third but one was thinking that this chance would go begging as surely Hirano wouldn't go three from three. Hirano did exactly that - once again punching the ball into right for a timely hit 1-1 scores tied. Sawamura began to panic and walked both Toritani and Arai to load the bases. Next was Brazell who is never very good in a bases loaded situation but he did try and hit to left where a well positioned Ramirez took the catch to end the innings. In Giants fifth Iwata once again faced the Giants top and walked Tani with one out. It must be said that Tani was ineffective at second this game. Ogasawara then hit into a double play and the innings was over. It seemed he would never get that elusive hit. Tigers sixth and Kanemoto struck out in a really inept at bat. The first pitch which he should have swung at he left and the next two pitches he should have left he swung at and was out in three. Johjima was next and took his sixth pitch - a curve deep over the fence for a solo home run 2-1 Tigers. It didn't go as far as Ramirez's hit but it was a clear blow. Shunsuke grounded out but Sawamura managed to walk Iwata, a clear sign that he was rattled. Murton hit to centre which brought up Hirano who this time went left and flew out. Tigers hadn't pushed home the advantage nearly enough. Iwata needed to defend this lead with Ramirez as the first batter. The Giants third hit a low liner straight back to Iwata for the first out. Chono hit to left but then Ryal flew out to Toritani. Chono then tried to steal second but was thrown out to end the innings - nice defence by the Tigers.

Surprisingly given his struggles Sawamura returned for Tigers seventh. Toritani hit to second where Wakiya messed up the take. Arai grounded out to short for the force out but was able to beat the double play. Here Hara decided that perhaps he had batter switch pitchers after all and he replaced Sawamura with Takagi. This almost didn't work. Brazell was next and hit nicely into right centre - Arai raced round the bases and rounded third for home. Here Arai made a mistake - with Katoh blocking the plate he decided to go outside and touch the plate. What actually happened was that he bounced off the well positioned Katoh who took an accurate relay from Wakiya and was able to tag Arai out. He had missed the plate. If he had gone inside Arai would have probably slide over home and knocked Katoh off the plate. Still a nice piece of defence by the Giants. This was enough of Takagi though and Albaladejo took over with Asai (pinch runner) on second but retired Kanemoto easily. The game was now getting pretty tense especially as Mayumi decided that Iwata had another innings in him. The first out of the Giants seventh was pretty conventional but Katoh hit to right. Yano forced him out and then Sakamoto struck out swinging. Good work by the Tigers pitcher. Tigers eighth was pitched by Ochi who retired the batters in order striking out both Johjima and Shunsuke. However, Tigers fans hearts were in their mouths as Mayumi chose Kobayashi for Giants eighth. For Mayumi, Kobayashi pitches the eighth no matter what. He is still not secure but did get the first out Kamei (replacement right). This brought up Ogasawara who hit just past Kobayashi for his 2000th hit. Arai presented him with flowers on behalf of Tigers. Ramirez grounded out but the double play didn't come off and he was safe on first. Then Chono walked and things were even more tense. However, Kobayashi was able to strike out Ryal to end the innings. Nishimura pitched the ninth and struck out Murton who was swinging rather wildly. HIrano was more controlled and drove a rather nice two base to right. Toritani walked to set up runners on first and second but a conference between Katoh and Nishimura produced the desired result for the Giants - an Arai double play to end the innings. Arai is a bit of a chump sometimes. So to Giants ninth - Fujikawa to pitch and Giants 7-8-9 to get out - no Sakamoto (who is a big moment player). Wakiya though caused a scare by hitting deep to left but Asai (replacement left) had moved round nicely to take the catch. Suzuki (pinch hitter) struck out swinging and the 'ato hitori' call was started. However, Kyuji had other ideas and dead balled Tanaka (pinch hitter) on his hand. This meant he had to face Sakamoto after all. Kyuji is no longer the force he was but Sakamoto hit into right centre. I have mentioned how Murton charges round the field and here this quality was vital. Murton raced round from right and sliding took the ball before it reached the ground for the final out. Tigers victory.

Hard fought and very tight. Both sides had had their chances and both had squandered them with the Tigers perhaps missing out more. Still they had taken the lead and held it against some strong pressure. Hirano went 4 from 5 and had driven in one of the two runs. Iwata had pitched well and even with luck had had enough for the victory. Kyuji picked up his fifth save. Tigers took the series and can be pleased with this result.

I was quite impressed with Murton's final catch there. I'm not much of a fan of the guy and he (not always but) sometimes tends to miss the important catches. Was really glad to see him come through where it counted.

Good to see Iwata get his first win, as he deserved it. I was worried he might lose his spot in the rotation, which would be tough considering all he's been through. Plus, once you fall out of favor with the coaches, it's hard to work your way back. Just look at poor Uezono.

This was also hopefully a booster for Kobayashi. He's had some rough outings settling into the Tigers bullpen, so it was good to see him get out of that jam and not blow things for Iwata.

I see a troubling trend with Sawamura. The last couple times we faced him we've gotten all kinds of hits but he's really clamped down and pitched himself out of jams. We'll be facing this kid for years to come, so hopefully we can start hitting him when it counts.

I'm still a little annoyed we blew Wednesday's game, but anytime we can come away from the Tokyo Dome with a series win, I'm satisfied!