April 21st Fujinami v Yagi - Taking a broom to the Swallows

We now have a winning streak of four games after crushing the hapless Swallows on Sunday. Things went very well. Fujinami was unstoppable and the batters added runs steadily with Takahiro Arai shinning today and Ryota Arai also doing well. Maybe things are starting to come together and Tigers are beginning to generate some momentum. Koshien was full and at the moment Tigers are able to fill the ground at the weekends. The weekdays still need more work and hopefully a series of wins will bring in the fans. It used to be almost impossible to get even weekday seats at Koshien. Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Swallows  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  3 0
Tigers    0 0 0 0 1 2 0 2 X 5 11 0

Starting Lineups

Swallows
1. Ueda (Centre)
2. Miwa (Second)
3. Milledge (Left)
4. Balentien (Right)
5. Hatakeyama (First)
6. Miyamoto (Third)
7. Morioka (Short)
8. Nakamura (Catcher)
9. Yagi (Pitcher)

Tigers
1. Nishioka (Second)
2. Yamato (Centre)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Murton (Left)
5. Fukudome (Right)
6. Takahiro Arai (First)
7. Ryota Arai (Third)
8. Fujii (Catcher)
9. Fujinami (Pitcher)

This was a rematch with Fujinami squaring off against Yagi as per his first start at Jingu. Weather conditions were, if anything, worse than that occasion - the temperature dropped 10 degrees on the previous day. Fujinami though had no issues and is known to like Koshien anyway. Ueda started by flying out to Ryota and then Miwa and Milledge rapidly followed. Tigers first was just as low key though - Yagi taking even less time (6 pitches as opposed to 9) to dispose of the top of the Tigers order. The first base runner appeared in Swallows second with Balentien leading off with a walk. Hatakeyama struck out looking and then Miyamoto hit into a double play which was rather neat. Tigers second saw Fukudome single with one out and then attempt to steal but be thrown out. Arai flew out to end the innings. Morioka led off Swallows third with a double. Nakamura grounded out which took Morioka to third. Luckily the next batter was Yagi who messed up his bunt attempts and struck out. Finally, Ueda grounded out - Fujinami had escaped his big challenge. Fujii singled with one out in Tigers third and was bunted to second by Fujinami. The inevitable failure to score then followed with Nishioka flying out to centre to end the innings.

So far honours were even with Swallows having created slightly more chances. They couldn't do anything in their fourth though as Fujinami established a stranglehold on the batters and kept them off base. Yamato singled to lead off Tigers fourth. Toritani grounded out taking Yamato to second and then Murton's ground out took him to third. Fukudome hit right but flew out. It took all of seven pitches to eliminate the Swallows batters in the fifth. Yagi did not have such a nice experience in the Tigers fifth. Arai led off and got hold of his seventh pitch - high and outside to hit it over the fence for a solo home run 1-0 Tigers. Ryota doubled and advanced to third on Fujii's ground out but with Fujinami next another score was a remote possibility. Fujinami struck out swinging and Nishioka flew out to end that innings with a vital lead. In Swallows Tigers ties the team that scores first is usually the winner. Swallows sixth saw the batters work harder but still to no avail - they could not get on base. Yamato though led Tigers sixth off with a single. He stole second and then Toritani walked. Murton flew out to first in foul ground and Fukudome struck out swinging. It looked likely that Yagi would get out of this trouble but it was not to be. Arai coming round again singled left bringing in a run 2-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. Ryota singled left as well bringing in another runner 3-0 Tigers, runners on first and second. This was the end of Yagi who was replaced by Ohba. He got Fujii to ground out and end the innings.

Swallows seventh started with Miwa grounding out. Milledge though doubled left and Swallows had a chance to fight back. They blew it though. Balentien grounded out to third locking Milledge on second and then Hatakeyama struck out swinging to end the innings. Conrad (pinch hitter) led off Tigers seventh striking out. Wada had decided that Fujinami had done enough. Nishioka walked but Yamato lined out to short. Nishioka then stole second but the very next pitch Toritani struck out looking to end the innings. Andoh pitched Swallows eighth and did well - the batters fell in order and the innings was over quickly. For Tigers eighth Swallows sent Masabuchi to the mound and if the game was slipping away from them this innings buried their chances. Trouble started immediately with Murton doubling right. He was pinch run for by Shunsuke who took third on Fukudome's ground out. Next was Arai who singled left again bringing in the runner 4-0 Tigers, runner on first. Saka (replacement third) mistimed his hit and grounded out but Arai took third. Then Fujii dug one out hitting a line drive into left and Arai charge home 5-0 Tigers, runner on first. Hiyama was next but he flew out - Tigers pinch hitters haven't been able to hit so far this season. Tsutsui pitched the Swallows ninth and rapidly got Kawasaki (pinch hitter) to ground out to Nishioka. Iihara (pinch hitter) struck out swinging and then Tanaka (pinch hitter) doubled left. I suppose Ogawa thought that if you flooded the game with pinch hitters one of them would do something. Still time had run out for the Swallows as Milledge flew out to Shunsuke to end the game. Tigers victory.

A nicely worked victory. Fujinami had pitched well and given up only two hits and a walk. He had worked well with Fujii who this time had called very well. Arai had driven in three runs and looked like the run machine of old. Tigers now have four victories in a row and can possibly put together an even longer winning streak.

Ironic that three of the players we most frequently criticize here--Fujii and the two Arais--drove in all of the runs in this game! Hopefully there'll be more of that.

I wouldn't blame the empty weekday seats just on the Tigers play. For the past several seasons weekdays in April have been hit or miss, with fans moreso playing wait and see with the weather. Last Friday for example was freezing and I don't think even I would have wanted to be sitting at Koshien that night.

The retention of Wada is a big issue for Tigers fans. Two poor managers in a row does not fill fans with confidence and does not fill seats. I can remember two freezing days at Jingu at the start of the season where the Tigers side was packed with fans of course spilling into the Swallows side. We used to disdain the weather.