Sometimes a pitcher is rubbish but wins. This was the case with Messenger who was abysmal and gave up eight (seven earned) runs. However, Yagi who had done so well in his previous starts started poorly then seemed to suffer a problem with his leg and had to be replaced. The Swallows bullpen imploded spectacularly with Takahiro Arai blasting a Grand Slam in the first innings. Everyone helped themselves to runs from the starting team except Uemoto and Shunsuke. Messenger kind of redeemed himself with 4 RBIs. When was the last time a Tigers pitcher did that? Still sense prevailed on the Tigers bench and given how poor Messenger was he was wisely removed once he had completed the necessary 5 innings. The final score was 20-11 Tigers. Normally, after such a blowout their bats go quiet but this time one can expect the same from the highly embarrassed and humiliated Swallows.