This series I want to forget

Tigers first series at Nagado was an absolute disaster in which Kanemoto showed he was still learning. In an earlier post I wrote about the Tigers' new manager's plan to use Imanari or Kanoh as a back up catcher if Umeno or Okazaki were replaced. This is exactly what happened in the third game of the Dragons series - Imanari took over from Okazaki and blew the game. Imanari has some value as an all round fielder but as Nippon Ham and Tigers discovered he doesn't cut it as a catcher.

However, first a victory. The second game of the BayStars series was rained out but the third went ahead with Messenger pitching. He is still throwing too many pitches though the count was slightly down and one wonders whether he will be around at the end of the season. Tigers took the lead courtesy of a Hague sacrifice fly in the second and Messenger managed to keep the lead until the fifth when BayStars went for the steal and scored as Okazaki threw to second for the out. This was pretty clueless catching by any definition. Tigers bounced back with two runs in the sixth and added two more in the eighth putting the game beyond doubt. Gomez clubbed a two run home run. Mateo was brought in to close out after Takamiya had given up a home run and did so successfully with the final score being 5-2 Tigers.

Kanemoto, when he played for Tigers never prospered at Nagado and possibly this affected the teams performance though inept handling of the pitching also had a role to play. Nohmi started the series and wasn't very good at all. He was battered for six runs in the first two innings and never recovered. He was gone after the second innings and the relief then pitched a succession of short sessions rather like a pre-season game. Tigers meanwhile couldn't figure out the Dragons pitcher Noberto who picked up his first win which was rather easy in the end. Tigers managed 4 hits from the entire game which wasn't really satisfactory at all.

Iwasada pitched the second game and was really, really good. What is more he was replaced at the end of the seventh with a pitch count of 100 and a lead of three runs. This presumably was a comfortable situation with an experienced relief and a easy run in. Far from it Fukuhara managed to reduce the lead to one run and then Mateo in the ninth gave up two more runs to give the Dragons a sayonara victory. Whilst I predicted that Tigers would finish fourth before the season started I still want to see them win and I don't appreciate this kind of loss to a side which frankly is long past its sell by date. However, this is what happened 4-3 Dragons. Iwata pitched the final game of the series and he is still struggling. With neither him nor Fujikawa firing Tigers need to do something about their rotation. Still when he left the game it was competitive and Tigers did reach the ninth level 2-2. Why though they thought it necessary to replace Umeno with Okazaki and then Okazaki with Imanari escapes even the most imaginative of commentators. Once again Fukuhara was involved in blowing the tied game and we can only say that Kanemoto is still on his learning curve. The final score was 4-2 Dragons who can be very satisfied with that series.

I thought Kanoh was going to retire after last season. Glad he didn't. But what happened?

Probably he was persuaded to stay on. Kanemoto's appointment after Mayumi and Wada has reinvigorated a lot of Tigers players. The comments that Kanoh could well be used as a catcher again will also have given him an incentive to continue.