March 30th Nohmi v Takasaki - Opening day tie

Tigers started poorly against what is frankly an second rate BayStars side. More on this in the second game report where BayStars manage to blow the opportunities that Fujii's incompetence gifted them. Komiyama replaced Fujii in the eighth innings but some inept pitching by Fujikawa and then poor work by Komiyama put BayStars in the lead. Komiyama hasn't fully recovered from his virus yet but Fujii does need to be replaced as soon as possible. Even though he isn't in the frame Tigers should be examining bringing Kanoh back urgently. Scores

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

Starting lineups

BayStars
1. Kajitani (Short)
2. Ishikawa (Second)
3. Koike (First)
4. Nakamura (Third)
5. Kinjoh (Right)
6. Morimoto (Morimoto)
7. Aranami (Centre)
8. Kurobane (Catcher)
9. Takasaki (Pitcher)

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

The game started nicely with Nohmi and Fujii working well to retire the BayStars batters in order. Tigers first went with a bang. Hirano led off with a single to left and then took second on a BayStars throwing error. He was bunted to third by Shibata and Toritani hit deep into centre for the sacrifice fly 1-0 Tigers. Arai hit a two base but Brazell flew out to left to leave Tigers with a slender lead. Nakamura led off BayStars second with a flyout. Why he is starting ahead of Ramirez is one of the great mysteries of this season. Kinjoh followed with a single to right and then Morimoto singled to left and BayStars had runners on first and second. However Aranami flew out and then Kurobane took a swing at his third strike and missed to end the innings. Tigers second was quiet with Fujii being the last man out. He still doesn't have a hitting song and the participation in the standard song is about 50% of the other batters. Tigers fans don't like him it seems. Still he and Nohmi were working well together and the BayStars third was quiet. With one out Hirano hit a two base in Tigers third. Shibata grounded out to Takasaki who was doing well but this moved Hirano round to third. Toritani walked which brought up Arai and he hit his first pitch to third for the ground out. A chance wasted.

The fourth was quiet full stop. Both pitchers struck out two and no one got on base. BayStars fifth saw Aranami hit but nothing came of this. Tigers fifth saw all three batters strike out and we moved to BayStars sixth. Here Fujii who had been quite reliable up until now ran into his usual problem of predictability and unimaginativeness. With two out Koike singled to left. Nakamura hit over left for a two base hit which brought in the tying run 1-1, runner on second. Then Kinjoh walked and Morimoto drove a three base hit into right centre bringing in two more runs 3-1 BayStars. Finally Aranami struck out to end the innings. Tigers failed to respond in their sixth and the BayStars retained the two run advantage.

Kurobane led off BayStars seventh with a hit but fell to a Takasaki double play. Then Kajitani hit right but Ishikawa grounded out to end the innings. Brazell then grounded out to Ishikawa who messed things up and the Tigers first was safe on first. Kanemoto walked and Takasaki was replaced by Kaga. He started well getting Shunsuke (pinch hitter and replacement left) to ground out. Then Johjima (pinch hitter) flew out to left with the runners still on first and second. This brought up Sekimoto (pinch hitter and replacement third) who took a swing and got a reasonable contact on the ball propelling it into the left stand for a three run home run 4-3 Tigers. As Fujii had been pinch hit for Komiyama took over as catcher and had a smooth eighth with Enokida retiring the batters in order. Hamilton pitched Tigers eighth and gave up a lead off hit to Shibata. This was followed by a hit to Toritani and Tigers had runners on first and second with no outs. Unfortunately, they failed to exploit this and Arai hit into a double play which did take Shibata to third. Asai (replacement right and one wonders why he is in the side ahead of Lin) then struck out swinging to end the innings. Fujikawa entered the game for the BayStars ninth being handed the ball by Wada personally. It didn't help as he gave up a lead off two base hit to Morimoto. Aranami bunted Morimoto to third and then Ramirez (pinch hitter) lifted one over the infield for a timely single 4-4 scores tied. Fujikawa had blown another victory. For BayStars Ohhara pitched Tigers ninth and retired the batters in order - the game went into extra innings.

Tsutsui took the mound for the BayStars tenth - not the pitcher I would have chosen to start this particular innings and dead balled Ishikawa. Ishikawa stole second and it was decided to replace Tsutsui with Fukuhara who should have started the innings in the first place. Koike bunted the runner to third and then Nakamura hit deep to centre for a sacrifice fly 5-4 BayStars. Finally Kinjoh struck out looking but Tigers were behind. Yamaguchi was chosen to close out Tigers tenth and struck out Sekimoto. Next was Hirano who hit a three base to right. He was pinch run for by Yamato - another incomprehensible move as over the distance from third to home there is no difference in speed. Shibata hit into centre for a sacrifice fly 5-5 scores tied. Toritani walked and then Arai grounded out but once again Ishikawa made a mess of it and Tigers had runners on first and third. Wada sent Hiyama to the plate but he flew out to end the innings. As time had run out this was the end of the game.

Tigers hadn't lost but Fujii's ineptness had almost cost them the game Just the fact that the BayStars were even more inept (Tigers were outhit 10 to 7) kept them in the game. Wada hadn't covered himself with glory but one has to say this was his first top level game. One hopes he can improve.

Yokohama has been talking about being more aggressive on the base paths for the past couple of years, and this year they're actually doing it, and it's working. This makes every little mistake done by the opposition that much more damaging. It is this new drive within the team that was responsible for them finishing open-sen in third place.

I humbly disagree with the evaluation that they are a "second rate" team. They are going to force their opponents to play better or suffer.

Did anyone out there think the Ramirez hit in the 9th was playable by Shunsuke? Like most people in the stadium, my eyes were focused on home for a potential tag up and play at the plate, but then realized it dropped in. Haven't seen a replay, so just curious how clean a hit it was.

I don't think it would have been humanely possible for Shunsuke to reach that hit. It hung in the air certainly but fell comfortably short of him.

I agree with Christopher here. Shunsuke was playing too deep for the shallow fly. Not even Akahoshi at his fastest could have gotten it from where Shunsuke was playing. It was a clutch punch hit up the middle.

Rami-chan brings an interesting set of skills to the team. I was impressed with his patience this afternoon (April 1). And, again, he strokes the ball in front of Shibata in center.

[Edited by: Christopher on Apr 1, 2012 9:08 PM - Nashida corrected to Shibata]