April 5th Iwata v Greisinger - Iwata makes the grade

Kanemoto only had one hit today but what a hit! 2 hits to go to 2,000. One feels sorry for Giants fans as their woes continue. Ramirez is still Rami-chan to Tigers fans which is quite impressive. Now for the line scores

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

Starting 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)

Giants
1. Takahashi (Right)
2. Kamei (Centre)
3. Ogasawara (Third)
4. Ramirez (Left)
5. Lee (First)
6. Abe (Catcher)
7. Kimura (Second)
8. Sakamoto (Short)
9. Greisinger (Pitcher)

Greisinger started well, the first three Tigers batters struck out. For Iwata his first batter was Yoshinobu Takahashi. In a stunning exhibtion which indicates potential for the future he took Takahashi in three balls and struck him out looking. The next batter, Kamei, hit though and then stole second. One has to say that Noguchi had sawdust in his head. His throw to short was poor and Kamei was able to advance to third on what was ruled a wild pitch but was really Noguchi not knowing what he was doing. So runner on third with one out. However, Iwata was up to it and struck out Ogasawara (incidently Giants fans hold up inflatable dolphins when he's at bat - anyone know why) and then got Ramirez to ground out.

Greisinger continued his good start in the second though Imaoka hit a long fly which almost made it. Iwata was also more settled and so to the third. The surprise in the top was Greisinger walked Iwata. However, nothing came of this as Akahoshi grounded out. The positioning of Giants second, Kimura was very good - he stopped quite a few potential hits. In the fourth Hirano had his first hit but no one was able to take advantage of it though you did feel Greisinger was already beginning to tire. Kanemoto actually grounded out Hirano and ended up on first but to no avail. Iwata had settled down and retired the Giants in order. Tigers fans revealed a considerable range of scatalogical variations on the songs for Giants players. So to the fifth, the game had generated one hit per side, two steals and one walk - very tight. Greisinger walked Toritani and the next up was Ford. Toritani was ready so when Ford hit he was round to third. No outs, runners on first and third. Noguchi was next up and he was looking for the sacrifice fly. After battling Greisinger for a while he hit a right foul fly which gave Toritani enough space to get home 1-0 Tigers. Iwata bunted Ford to second but Akahoshi struck out to end the innings.

Lee led off for the Giants fifth and slammed a ball towards Hirano. He made an awesome dive to his right and then was up in time to throw Lee out. Abe was next out then Kimura walked (Iwata's only walk). Sakamoto hit to leave runners on first and third with two outs but the next batter was Greisinger who grounded out to end the innings. Top of the sixth and Tigers leadoff was Hirano. He had his second hit of the game and then stole second. Arai struck out but Kanemoto hammered a home run into the right stand 3-0 Tigers. Iwata then held the lead retiring the Giants top of the order, Kamei, Ogasawara and Ramirez in order. Greisinger pitched the seventh and also retired the Tigers in order. In the bottom of the seventh with the Giants fans singing their chance march continuously Lee got a dead ball which showed that Iwata was tiring (in fact he had shown signs in the sixth). However, Abe grounded into a double play to end the innings.

The Giants pitcher for the eighth, Yamaguchi, managed to retire the Tigers batters in order but did need the help of an incredible catch by Kamei to do it. Hirano hit a ball to left centre which in a normal game would have been a two base. Moving rapidly to his right, Kamei dived, took the ball and rolled whilst retaining hold of it. Even Tigers fans applauded that catch. Anyway the surprise for Tigers fans was that Iwata was going to pitch the bottom of the eighth. Surely this was an innings too far. It seemed that way as first Tani (replacement centre) hit and then Sakamoto hit a two base. Runners on second and third with no outs. A mound conference followed and then Iwata faced the Giants pinch hitter Ohmichi. He grounded out to short but the runner on third was home 3-1 Tigers. So Iwata was faced with a runner on second and one out - how would he respond. He got Yoshinobu Takahashi to fly out to Toritani and then Kamei to ground out to Hirano end of innings and Tigers still in the lead.

The Giants pitcher for the ninth Nishimura walked Kanemoto but managed to dismiss everyone else. Of course, Okada turned to Fujikawa. He got Ogasawara to fly out to Hirano and then struck out Ramirez and Lee. The end of the innings and the end of the match. Iwata had pitched 8 innings with 103 balls, he struck out 5, gave up 4 hits and one run. A marvelous sustained effort for his second victory. His strike out of Takahashi showed what he could develop into. Hirano also had an excellent game - one feels that Orix once again let a real asset go (same with Abe) and Ford contributed significantly. Kanemoto of course was supreme - his ability to lift his performance to another level is quite unbelievable. His two run home run was the difference between the sides.

[Edited by: Christopher on Apr 6, 2008 5:54 PM]