March 31st Standridge v Brandon - Wada's first win

Once again we saw a mediocre performance from Fujii wasting pitches and generally looking pretty out of his depth. It is good to see him batting eighth but maybe ninth would be even more appropriate. Shunsuke continued to create a 'what is this player for?' impression which he shared with the useless Kanemoto. Still this is only the second game out of 144 and was played at Kyocera Dome. One should be thankful that Tigers won. Scores

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

Starting lineups

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

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

Communication between Fujii and Standridge wasn't as good as the game before with Nohmi and more pitches were thrown than necessary. With one out in BayStars first Ishikawa singled right and made second on Koike's ground out. Nakamura hit to right and brought home the runner 1-0 BayStars, runner on first. Brandon was much more comfortable. He did walk Toritani but then the Tigers short tried to steal second and was thrown out. Morimoto led off the second with a single and then tried to throw second. Fujii's throw was in the right place but then Aranami singled. Poor calling by the Tigers catcher. Luckily Aranami stayed on first as the next two batters fell to ground outs. Tigers second by contrast was quiet. Ishikawa picked up a one out walk in the BayStars third but also got no further than first. Tigers third saw their first hit - from Standridge who singled to centre with two out. Hirano though after his heroics of the night before was having a quiet game and grounded out to end the innings.

For BayStars fourth Johjima replaced Brazell and brought a new fire to the field. Even so Aranami singled again with two out. This time Kurobane grounded out to short to end the innings. Tigers fourth was quiet with the batters falling in order. BayStars fifth was also quiet with all batters grounding out but Standridge had thrown 80 pitches to get to this point. When Tigers fifth finished quietly Brandon had only thrown 73 but was nearing his limit. As a result BayStars sixth was a mess for the Tigers. With one out Nakamura came to the plate. He hit to right where the ball bounced in front of a tardy Shibata. The bounce, it must be said, was unkind and the ball flew over Shibata's head and behind him. Nakamura used the opportunity to turn the single into a three base hit. Kinjoh latched onto his first pitch - a poor call by Fujii and a poor pitch by Standridge driving it to right. However, Johjima saved the day with a superb diving catch. Morimoto was next and Fujii insisted on calling outside pitches which clued Morimoto in and he hit smoothly into centre for a timely single 2-0 BayStars. This had been poor calling. Aranami hit to set up runners on first and third but then Kurobane didn't hit far enough and flew out to centre. Still BayStars had the lead. It didn't last long as Brandon ran out of steam. Fujii led off Tigers sixth by striking out - it really was a pathetic at bat. Standridge was pinch hit for by Ryota Arai who took a dead ball. Then Hirano drew a walk - Tigers had runners on first and second. Yamato turned one nicely over third for a single to left which brought home Ryota Arai 2-1 BayStars. Brandon was replaced by Shinohara who walked Toritani to load the bases. Next was Arai and with the count at one strike his second pitch was hit deep to left against the wall for a double bringing in two runs 3-2 Tigers, runners on second and third. Johjima was deliberately walked to get at Kanemoto who flew out to centre but not deep enough for a sacrifice. Shinohara was replaced by Kaga who faced Sekimoto with the bases loaded. Sekimoto grounded out to short and ended the innings. Still Tigers had the lead.

Standridge did not pitch the seventh. He had thrown 108 pitches and clearly this had been enough. Instead we saw Tsutsui who started out by striking out Watanabe (pinch hitter). Kajitani grounded out but Ishikawa battled hard before surprising everyone by striking out swinging to a high pitch he should have left. Hamilton pitched Tigers seventh and looked insecure walking Hirano but having enough to get out of the innings without any further damage. Enokida pitched the BayStars eighth and here we saw more Fujii incompetence. Enokida was nervy and gave up a lead off single to Koike. Fujita (replacement third) was next and he tried to bunt which Enokida tried to avoid. There followed a slightly farcical battle when taking the bunt would have been the sensible option. With the count full Enokida dead balled Fujita to set up runners on first and second with no outs. Fujii was totally out of his depth here and Johjima had to offer some advice from first. Things looked bad but BayStars came to the rescue. Kinjoh was next and also tried to bunt. In this situation your No. 5 batter bunts? Eventually Enokida was able to slip one through Kinjoh's defences for the first out. BayStars had let the Tigers off the hook. Their pitcher had been struggling and the catcher was totally clueless about what to do. Morimoto took a swing and grounded out to short eliminating the runner going for second but making first safely himself. Runners on first and third. Now if Kinjoh had swung and hit Morimoto might have been faced with the chance of a game tying sacrifice fly. Instead Ramirez (pinch hitter) grounded out to second to end the innings. Tigers eighth saw Arai single but nothing came of this. Fujikawa pitched the ninth and once again Wada handed him the ball. He struggled with Fujii's bizarre notions of calling and walked the lead off batter Shimozono (pinch hitter). Tsuruoka bunted him to second - a totally pointless at bat you thought and then Kajitani after reading the pitching quite well and swung at a low fork to strike out. Finally, Ishikawa hit straight back to Fujikawa for he final out. Tigers victory.

It was a win and welcome. However, against a better team Tigers would have probably lost. Not because their fielding was poor - this was very good. However, the BayStars out hit Tigers 9 to 5 and wasted their chances. Fujii is a waste of space in the lineup and a poor catcher being easy to read and hit. He was lucky not to blow the game in the eighth and really the BayStars poor play gifted the victory to Tigers.

I'll just say that Johjima's fire at first base was impressive. He saved the game for the Tigers twice. And Brandon lost the game much more than the Tigers won it. Brandon had just run out of gas in the 6th inning and could no longer locate his pitches.

There had been a lot of talk about how foolish Nakahata-kantoku appears, yet did you see how well he used his bench? Regardless of the result, he used Rami-chan when there wasn't a chance for him to ground into a double play (since he can't run yet). Nakahata is showing that he's much more competent at evaluating situations than the past couple of Tiger managers, wouldn't you agree?

Brandon was impressive for five innings but even though he did run out of steam it is true the BayStars lost the game rather than Tigers won it. Nakahata I will reserve judgment on though - the mess in the eighth makes me question his sense. Tigers were on the rack there with Enokida struggling and Fujii out of his depth by a long way. Having Kinjoh bunt regardless was not the wisest decision.

Agreed on Kinjoh's bunt. But the umpire took the bat out of his hands, calling strike three high and tight.

The umpires were extremely strict in the first two games - on the zone and swings.