July 31st Iwata v Nishikawa - Traditional Dragons

The crowds for the past two games have been very good and maybe Tigers have managed to reverse the slumping midweek figures. This game though was a pitching duel in which Iwata was slightly outduelled by the Dragons pitcher who won his first ever top team start. Shimizu started behind the plate - an acknowledgement that Fujii is not the catcher for Iwata. Sometimes the evidence is undeniable no matter what Wada would like to believe. Tigers batting was dismal but then so was Dragons who were able to make the most of their slender opportunities. Scores

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

Starting Lineups

Dragons
1. Fujii (Centre)
2. Araki (Second)
3. Hirata (Right)
4. Wada (Left)
5. Morino (Third)
6. Clark (First)
7. Donoue (Short)
8. Matsui (Catcher)
9. Nishikawa (Pitcher)

Tigers
1. Saka (Second)
2. Yamato (Centre)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Murton (Left)
5. Takahiro Arai (First)
6. Imanari (Right)
7. Ryota Arai (Third)
8. Shimizu (Catcher)
9. Iwata (Pitcher)

The pitching duel started with Iwata walking Fujii who was of course bunted to second by Araki. This , of course, ended the chance of a run with both Hirata and Wada grounding out to Toritani to end the innings. Tigers first was also low key with the batters all flying out. The Dragons second saw Morino hit a fly to centre and then Clark hit a grounder to second. Saka messed this up and Clark made first safely. Donoue made amends though and hit into a double play which Saka managed to execute successfully. Tigers second saw Murton and Arai fly out and Imanari strike out. The batters were failing to read Nishikawa very effectively. The Dragons third was the first innings for the visitors with no runners on though they did manage to bring Fujii round as the last batter. Tigers third was another quiet innings with no runner on.

Dragons fourth and the batters fell in order. The same happened in Tigers fourth and the game had reached it's turning point. Iwata's problem has always been his fifth innings especially in a tight game. This game was no exception. Dragons hadn't generated a hit until that moment and with Morino grounding out weakly to Iwata it didn't look like happening. Iwata threw a couple of straights outside the zone to Clark but the first he put inside the zone was pounced on by the Dragons first. It high and hard it cleared the right fence by quite a way for a solo home run 1-0 Dragons. Donoue and Matsui failed to do anything but the Dragons had the lead. They then proceeded to hang onto it in traditional Dragons style. Nishikawa kept Tigers off base and the fifth was another quiet innings. Dragons sixth returned to the pattern of most of the game. Having cleared the fifth Iwata was back on form and retired the batters in order. Nishikawa did the same and the Tigers still hadn't had a base runner.

Dragons seventh was quiet with no runners on base. Saka struck out and Yamato flew out in Tigers seventh but then Nishikawa's perfect record disappeared. The pitches to Toritani were too low and the Tigers short walked. Murton hit a line drive to centre and Tigers had runners on first and second. The problem with Murton at four is that he hits too many of these singles. He needs to hit more extra base hits to be truly convincing in this position. Arai managed to hit to second for the ground out and the chance was gone. Iwata returned for Dragons eighth which was an innings too much on his first start after a long break. He got the first two outs but then Tanishige (pinch hitter and replacement catcher) doubled to centre. Luckily Tani (pinch hitter) swung at his first pitch and only managed to ground out to second. There was no such mistake from the Dragons who retired Nishikawa after the seventh and brought on Asao. He used to have quite a record against Tigers being practically untouchable by Tigers batters and this innings was no exception. Imanari, Ryota and then Hiyama (pinch hitter) all went down. Matsuda took over for Dragons ninth and in an impressive display pitching to Fujii struck out all three batters he faced. For Tigers ninth we saw another old foe, Iwase. Sekimoto (pinch hitter) flew out, Shunsuke (pinch hitter) grounded out but Yamato singled to centre. Then Toritani hit a line drive to left - runners on first and second. It was up to Murton but he failed and grounded out to end the game. Dragons victory.

Dragons had kept hold of a one run lead on some fine pitching by Nishikawa. Tigers batters had failed to respond and one hopes that this doesn't become a familiar pattern - a big win followed by a series of losses. Tigers actually have a big chance to win the series against the Dragons but more consistency is needed and Murton needs to stop being a passenger. He isn't really suited to be a No. 4 batter and it is only Mizutani and Wada's strange ideas that keep him there. Murton is better suited leading off the team and should really return to that role.

I imagine a couple reasons contributing to the huge crowds this week are the start of summer holidays for school and no games at Koshien for a while after this series.
Really tough luck for Iwata. He finally gets called back up and the Tigers respond as they usually do when he's on the mound--with no run support. Anyway, a good sign at least that Iwata was so sharp and hopefully he will finally get some support in the future.