5th March - the return of FK

Today (5th March) Tigers played the Carp at Kyocera Dome. Okada continued phasing in his first line pitchers. It also marked the return of Kanemoto and Shimoyanagi who was OK but not much else. He gave up a run to Carp in the first innings (Kurihara driving it in).
Fortunately, Tigers rescued the situation in the second. Akahoshi and Sekimoto hit but Sekimoto was thrown out trying for second. Arai struck out then Kanemoto hit a two run homerun 2-1 Tigers. Carp struck back in the third when the pitcher was Atchison. Akamatsu (remember him) hit and then stole second. He was followed by Amaya who also stole second. Akamatsu reached home on a fielders choice and Amaya on a Alex sacrifice fly 3-2 Carp.
This was the situation until the fourth when Toritani hit and next up Ford hammered out a 2 run home run to put the Tigers 4-3 up. Tigers would then stretch their lead in the next innings as Imaoka drove in an RBI 5-3. You could sense the game was getting away from the Carp by now. After Atchison's two innings he was followed by Vogelsang (2 innings) and Egusa, Kubota and Fujikwawa (1 innings each). Only Vogelsang (2 innings, 26 balls, 6 batters, 1 strikout) and Kubota (1 innings, 11 balls, 3 batters) seemed sharp. The other pitchers still need to work a bit more.
Carp need to work more on their error prone fielding which allowed 2 Tigers batters to reach first base in one innings (7th). Kanemoto's return was welcome and his start was encouraging. Ford did well with his hitting. Sakurai and Tortani also drove in RBIs. Imaoka has now driven in four runs whichi is an encouraging sign.
Starting lineups
1. Akahoshi (Centre)
2. Sekimoto (Second)
3. Arai (First)
4. Kanemoto (DH)
5. Imaoka (Third)
6. Toritani (Short)
7. Ford (Right)
8. Asai (Left)
9. Yano (Catcher)
Starting pitcher Shimoyanagi

Carp
1. Akamatsu (Centre)
2. Amaya (Left)
3. Soyogi (Short)
4. Kurihara (First)
5. Alex (Right)
6. Ogata (DH)
7. Seabol (Third)
8. Ishihara (Catcher)
9. Yamasaki (Second)
Starting pitcher was Ohtake