April 12th Iwata v Terahara - Kanemoto's 2,000th hit

Two milestones to report. Kanemoto finally got his 2,000th hit and Arai reached his 1,000th. Of the two Arai's was the easier - he just continued hitting but Kanemoto had to overcome some serious nerves to finally achieve the goal. This was a very high hitting game with both sides generating 25 hits. Line scores are as follows

         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R  H E
Tigers   1 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 1 6 12 1
BayStars 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 13 0

Starting lineups

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

BayStars
1. Ishii (Short)
2. Nishi (Second)
3. Kinjoh (Centre)
4. Murata (Third)
5. Saeki (First)
6. Yoshimura (Right)
7. Uchikawa (Left)
8. Toshio Saito (Catcher)
9. Terahara (Pitcher)

Leadoff batter Akahoshi struck out but Hirano walked. Next up was Arai who needed one hit for his 1,000th. He promptly hit a two base putting him on second and Hirano on third and bringing up Kanemoto. Kanemoto grounded out to second but Hirano was home and Arai on third 1-0 Tigers. Unfortunately, Imaoka flew out to end the innings. Tigers starter Iwata faced Ishii as leadoff and he hit a full count ball to centre. Next up was Nishi who also hit and we had runners on first and second with no outs. However, Kinjoh grounded out to Iwata and then Murata hit into a double play to extinguish the chance. In the top of the second Ford had his first hit and then somehow Iwata contrived to hit leaving runners on first and second with two outs. Akahoshi, though grounded out to Nishi to end this chance. So to the BayStars second. Once again the first two batters hit, Saeki and Yoshimura but this time the next batter Uchikawa bunted and they moved round to third and second with one out. The catcher Saitoh then hit a ground ball to first ensuring Saeki got home and the scores were level 1-1.

The Tigers third was quiet with Kanemoto, this time drawing a walk but Imaoka once again failing to make anything of it. The BayStars third wasn't so quiet - Ishii hit towards third and made first on an Imaoka error. He was bunted to second by Nishi and then Kinjoh struck out. One felt that the hard work had been done and that the final out would be next. Iwata, though, wasn't having a good game and had a 2-2 ball hammered into the centre stand by Murata 3-1 BayStars. The final batter of the innings, Saeki grounded out to end that innings. BayStars lead lasted as long as it took to get to the Tigers fourth innings. Toritani hit and then Ford hit a two base right centre shot. Runners on second and third with no outs. Noguchi hit a foul fly to first (and in fact would do nothing all game) and Iwata struck out bringing up Akahoshi. He hit to left driving in both runners scores level 3-3 and Akahoshi on first. He then stole second but Hirano grounded out to short to end the innings. Iwata continued to spread hits round like he was buying votes in an election. In the bottom of the fourth he struck out Yoshimura but then Uchikawa and Saitoh hit. They were bunted to third and second respectively by Terahara with Ishii next up. Iwata managed to walk him loading the bases with two outs but Nishi grounded out to first to end the danger. That was close!

Tigers fifth was quiet with the side being retired in order. In the BayStars fifth Kinjoh hit and then Saeki walked. This time Yoshimura hit into a double play to end the innings but by this time I would imagine Okada's nerves were probably in shreds. Apart from the third (when he gave up the home run) Iwata had never had less than 2 runners on base each innings. Once again in the sixth Tigers runners were retired in order and the BayStars sixth brought Watanabe to the mound. He gave up a hit to Uchikawa but very cooly dispatched the next three batters to end the innings. So to the seventh Yano (replacement catcher) hit and was bunted to second by Akahoshi. Hirano flew out and then Arai hammered out a three base hit to drive in Yano 4-3 Tigers. This brought up Kanemoto - would he do it this time. The answer was yes - he placed his hit nicely over second and just in front of right field to drive in Arai 5-3 Tigers. There then followed a celebration and in a nice gesture Ishii also presented Kanemoto with a bouquet. This though was the end of Terahara who was replaced by Kizuka who got the final out of the innings.

Watanabe started the BayStars seventh and struck out Nishi. He then gave up a hit to Kinjoh but stuck out Murata and walked Saeki. Runners on first and second with two outs. Okada decided at this point to go to Kubota to get the final out which he promptly did striking out Yoshimura to end the innings. After the excitement of the seventh, Tigers eighth was a bit of an anti-climax with Toritani hitting and then getting out trying to steal second. No one else got onto base. Just to show that he could do it too, Kubota gave up a hit - to Uchikawa. He then struck out the next two batters, pinch hitters Ozeki and Suzuki but gave up a hit to Ishii. Runners on first and second with two outs but Kubota's next move would be to strike out Nishi to end the innings. So to the ninth of quite an eventful game and Yano (who seems to have discovered his hitting for now) led off with a two base hit. Akahoshi flew out but next up was Hiyama who also hammered out a two base hit driving in Yano 6-3 Tigers. Arai and Kanemoto both flew out but they had earned it.

The ninth was of course Fujikawa. Kinjoh and Murata struck out but Aikawa who was pinch hitting hit to left. Next batter up was Yoshimura and he struck out to end the game. Tigers had won well against a hard BayStars challenge. Whilst BayStars may be B class if they could just get one or two major names they could become A class. They have considerable spirit and it took a hard fight from the Tigers to clinch victory. Fujikawa recorded his eighth save and the victory went to Watanabe, his first. Next up is Fukuhara but who knows how he will pitch. Also in pitching related news, Vogelsong has been judged ready to return to ichi-gun and will probably replace Sugiyama.