March 29 Wood v Iwata - Kanemoto rumbles on

This day game was exciting and credit to the BayStars for making it so. It marked Iwata's first victory for Tigers and Kanemoto showing he had fully recovered from his surgery. Some great fielding (especially considering every one of the BayStars starting line up hit) by Tigers gave them the series and got them off to a great start. Line scores

         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
BayStars 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 3 11 0
Tigers   2 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 X 4 10 0

Line ups

1. Akahoshi (Centre)
2. Hirano (Second)
3. Arai (First)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Imaoka (Third)
6. Toritani (Short)
7. Ford (Right)
8. Noguchi (Catcher)
9. Iwata (Pitcher)

BayStars
1. Ishi (Short)
2. Nishi (Second)
3. Kinjoh (Centre)
4. Murata (Third)
5. Saeki (First)
6. Yoshimura (Right)
7. Ozeki (Left)
8. Aikawa (Catcher)
9. Wood (Pitcher)

Iwata who hadn't won anything started and did quite well in his first innings of the year. He walked Kinjoh but managed to get out of the innings safely. Wood wasn't so lucky. Akahoshi hit and the ball took a fortunate bounce of the third base sack turning it into a two base hit. Hirano bunted Akahoshi to third and Arai took a dead ball. Enter Kanemoto who despatched a 1-2 ball to right field and a two base hit 1-0 Tigers. Imaoka grounded out and then it was Toritani's turn. A well timed centre hit drove Arai in and the score was 2-0 Tigers, a very bright start. Ford grounded out to end the innings. In Iwata's second he ran into trouble. As I mentioned in the Open Sen games he did ride his luck and so it was today but this time he couldn't avoid the consequences.

Saeki hammered out a two base hit to left field. Yoshimura struck out looking and then Ozeki hit and Saeki charged home. The throw and transfer was good but too late 2-1 Tigers. Aikawa hit into a double play to end the innings. Wood settled down in the second and even though Akahoshi hit nothing resulted. In the bottom of the third we saw the best and worst of Iwata. Wood flew out then Ishi, Nishi and Kinjoh all hit in succession to load the bases. Oops. Iwata's response was stunning - two consecutive strike outs to end the innings. In the bottom of the third Kanemoto had his second hit but Imaoka hit into a double play to extinguish the chance of a score.

Things settled down after that though Iwata needed a superb piece of fielding by Toritani to get out of the fifth. Diving to his right he took a Kinjoh hit and was up in time to make the throw to first and get the out. Iwata pitched six innings, 108 balls and struck out five. Wood had who had been pretty secure until the sixth faced Kanemoto with one out. Kanemoto slammed his first ball high into the right stand for his first home run of the season and a 3-1 lead to Tigers. One out later Toritani had his second hit of the game and the BayStars kantoku Ohya had had enough Wood was replaced by Kizuka. Perhaps a bit of a panic reaction as Wood had only pitched 80 balls and apart from the first and sixth had looked very secure.

In the seventh Okada went with Watanabe which was surprising as with such a tight lead you would have expected JFK or even Abe. Watanabe couldn't repeat his performance of last night and was not impressive. Aikawa hit and reached second on an Ishi groundout. The next batter Nishi drove in a centre hit and Aikawa was home 3-2 Tigers. Kinjoh hit a centre fly and the innings was over. The BayStars pitcher for the seventh was Mitsuhashi and he promptly gave up a hit to Katsuragi who was pinch hitting for Watanabe. This was too much for Ohya who immediatley replaced him with Yamakita. Saka was pulled and replaced by Yano who bunted Katsuragi to second. Akahoshi struck out which brought up Hirano who hit. Runners on first and third with two out. Next was Arai and he put a hit through the field and Katsuragi was home and the score was 4-2. Kanemoto was the next batter but he struck out.

The BayStars eighth was pitched by Kubota who had no problems with the first two batters. Then up came Yoshimura who got a 1-1 pitch and slammed a high home run to left 4-3 Tigers. Kubota then gave up hits to Ozeki and Aikawa to set up the situation of runners on first and second with two outs. The final batter was JayJay who gave an almighty heave. The ball flew to right but Hirano was standing under it right by the wall and made the catch - end of the innings score 4-3 Tigers. Tigers eighth was quiet and the batters perhaps showed the BayStars pitcher Nasuno a bit too much respect. The end result was a straight retirement and onto the ninth.

This of course meant Fujikawa. His first out was Ishi who was struck out looking. Then he faced Nishi. Nishi hit a long hit to left and Kanemoto started after it. Just as he reached the wall Kanemoto jumped and hit the wall - catch secured and Nishi was out. An excellent piece of fielding. The final batter Kinjoh struck out swinging and Tigers had won. A good performance by Tigers who never relinquished the lead. A great fight by the BayStars who never gave up. But Ohya maybe changed his pitchers too frequently. Kanemoto had a great game - 2 RBIs three hits and his first home run of the season. Toritani and Arai also drove in their first runs of the season and Iwata won his first game. He gave Okada a scare though and after the game the Kantoku confessed that he had been a bit more worried than he expected.