It's sweet to beat the Giants

11th March - the first Open Sen contest with Yomiuri. For a lot of Tigers fans this is the premier contest in Japanese baseball and for some it outweighs winning the pennant. Currently, Tigers talk is about Hirano and the possibility of making him starting second base. Whether this will happen or not he has been making quite an impression. This match he started at right field which suggests that the coaching team haven't quite explored all his abilities yet. So without further ado here is the line score for today's match.

--------- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Giants 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 10 2
Tigers 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 3 X 5 - 6 0

Starting lineups were

1. Akahoshi (Centre)
2. Hirano (Right)
3. Ford (DH)
4. Arai (First)
5. Imaoka (Third)
6. Toritani (Short)
7. Yano (Catcher)
8. Sakurai (Left)
9. Fujimoto (Second)
Starting pitcher was Fukuhara

Giants
1. Wakiya (Second)
2. Tani (Centre)
3. Kamei (Right)
4. Ramirez (Left)
5. Gonzalez (First)
6. Yano (DH)
7. Sakamoto (Short)
8. Furuki (Third)
9. Hoshi (Catcher)
Starting pitcher was Burnside

Both pitchers started well - with very little effort the first three batters from each side were quickly disposed of. Fukuhara continued nicely into the second innings and then after two outs suddenly lost some control. Yano (Giants) hit and Sakamoto followed with a two base hit. Yano was quick enough to get home 1-0 Giants. Fukuhara then dead balled Furuki but managed to get a strikout to end the innings. However, next innings he gave up another run to Gonzalez. First Tani hit followed by Ramirez and then Gonzalez driving in Tani 2-0 Giants.

The bottom of the third, the first batter was Yano (Tigers) and he smashed a home run off Burnside 2-1 Giants. Nothing much else happened that innings except that Burnside dead balled Akahoshi. Fukuhara was OK in the fourth giving up a hit but no more runs. In the bottom of the fourth Ford drew a walk and advanced to second on an Imaoka third ground out. The next batter Toritani hit and drove in Ford 2-2.

Next pitcher up for Tigers was Abe who was superb (11 balls, 3 batters, 3 strikeouts two of which were watching). He was followed by Watanabe who managed to give up two hits in the sixth but the Giants pinch runner (for Gonzalez) Takuya Kimura was thrown out trying to steal second. The Tigers batters went to sleep in the sixth and the seventh.

Come the eighth the score was still 2-2. The Giants pitcher was Aida and he gave up a two base hit to Asai who had taken over from Hirano at right. He then dead balled Hiyama who was pinch hitting for Ford and Tigers had runners on first and second with one out. The next batter up Katsuragi (replacement first) drove in Asai. He was followed by Saka who hammered out another two base hit driving in 2 more runs 5-2 Tigers.

This is where the scoring ended - Tsutsui and Daiyu Kanemura successfully saw out the ninth innings for the Tigers. A most satisfactory result. Tigers had been out hit (but not outscored) by the Giants who failed to make the most of their efforts. Encouraging performances once again by Abe and by Hirano. The Orix trade seems to have been highly beneficial so far. If Hirano can manage to keep off the injury list Tigers can be very happy.