June 14th Atchison v Shimizu - Atchison is terrible

Atchison didn't do very well at all today. His pitching was so poor it was unbelievable. Take away his contribution and the Marines would have been comfortably beaten. Instead they were able to craft a comfortable victory.

        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  R  H E
Tigers  2 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 0  6 13 1
Marines 6 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 X 10 12 1

Starting lineups

1. Akahoshi (Centre)
2. Sekimoto (Third)
3. Arai (First)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Lin (DH)
6. Toritani (Short)
7. Katsuragi (Right)
8. Yano (Catcher)
9. Fujimoto (Second)

Starting pitcher was Atchison

Marines
1. Nishioka (Short)
2. Nemoto (Second)
3. Fukuura (First)
4. Saburo (Centre)
5. Ohmatsu (Right)
6. Satozaki (Catcher)
7. Ortiz (DH)
8. Benny (Left)
9. Imae (Third)

Starting pitcher was Shimizu

Shimizu's first innings was poor. He gave up a leadoff hit to Akahoshi. Then Sekimoto hit - runners on first and third with no outs. Next up Arai hit a deep shot to right and while Ohmatsu was fumbling around with it made third. Akahoshi and Sekimoto of course were home 2-0 Tigers. Both Kanemoto and Lin struck out swinging but Toritani walked. Katsuragi grounded out to Imae stranding Arai on third. Shimizu had had a little extra to avoid the sacrifice fly. If Shimzu was bad, Atchison was simply appalling - there is no other way to describe his terrible pitching. He had no control and left too many balls in the zone. Even an average team like the Marines would have a field day and so it proved. Nishioka walked. He then stole second - the throw from Yano being poor again. Nemoto flew out but then Fukuura walked. Next batter Saburo hit 2-1 Tigers runners on first and third. Then Ohmatsu hit 2-2 runners on first and third - still only one out. Satozaki hit 3-2 Marines - runners on first and third. Ortiz hit a sacrifice fly 4-2 Marines. Next up Benny and he was served a high 140 km straight ball which he despatched into the left stand for a two run home run 6-2 Marines. The final batter Imae struck out but Atchison had taken 51 pitches and basically handed the Marines the victory. The Tiger's second innings was Shimizu's best - he retired the side in order with two strike outs and a ground out. Atchison returned for the Marines second and unsurprisingly gave up a hit to Nishioka. Nemoto was next and he flew out. Fukuura was next and it was ruled that he was interfered with (? - replays were inconclusive) and he was given first base. Next batter Saburo hit and it was 7-2 Marines runners on first and third with one out. Ohmatsu grounded out and then Satozaki struck out and the Marines didn't score.

The Tigers third saw Kanemoto and then Lin hit but with two out it wasn't difficult for Shimizu to get the final out. Even if you pitching is only average - with a 7-2 lead you don't really need to be too worried. What was more surprising was that Atchison started the third. His first pitch to Ortiz went for a home run 8-2 Marines. Then Benny hit. This was enough for Okada and Abe was summoned to replace him. Abe got Imae to fly out and then decided to take on Nishioka - he challenged him with a high curve and Nishioka who was looking for the challenge was onto it hitting a two run home run to left 10-2 Marines. Abe calmed down after his failed experiment and got the next two batters. The Tigers fourth saw Fujimoto hit but nothing came of it. Then came the Marines fourth and even though Satozaki walked both Ohmatsu and Ortiz struck out looking - Ortiz wasn't happy about his strike out. Sekimoto led off the fifth with a two base and made third on a Kanemoto ground out but wasn't converted by Lin and the innings ended scoreless. Marine's fifth started dangerously - Benny hit and then Imae had a two base - runners on second and third with no outs. Abe though responded well. First of all he got Nishioka to fly out to first, then Nemoto flew out to centre but near enough so that Benny wasn't going to lumber home. The final batter Fukuura hit the ball straight back to him and it was an easy ground out - nice pitching. Shimizu returned for the Tigers sixth and immediatley gave up a home run to Toritani 10-3 Marines. Then Katsuragi hit a two base. He made third on Yano's ground out to second and was home on Fujimoto's sacrifice fly 10-4 Marines. This would be Shimizu's last innings. He had pitched six undistinguished innings but with firstly a four then an eight run lead had always been comfortable. Surprisingly he had only given away two walks on his 112 pitches.

The next pitcher for the Tigers was Taiyo who would show his ability over his next three innings and make you wonder why he can't reproduce it regularly. Saburo struck out swinging, Ohmatsu flew out to left and then Satozaki struck out looking. For the Tigers seventh we saw Sikorski. He immediately gave up a two base hit to Sekimoto and then a hit to Arai - runners on first and third with no outs. Takagi replaced him but Kanemoto hit towards second and made first safely but Arai was out - Sekimoto meanwhile was home 10-5 Marines. Takahashi (pinch hitter) hit and Tigers had runners on first and second. Unfortunately Toritani grounded into a double play and the innings was over. For the Marines seventh Taiyo continued through the Marines batting lineup catching Ortiz by surprise and getting him to fly out to Toritani. He then saw a superb catch by Akahoshi who jumped to take a Benny fly. Final batter Imae grounded out. Kawasaki opened the Tigers eighth and faced Ford (pinch hitter). He slammed a slider over the fence for his third home run 10-6 Marines. This meant a new pitcher and it was Kubo who was summoned. Both Noguchi (replacement catcher) and Fujimoto flew out but then Akahoshi walked. This time Sekimoto grounded out to the pitcher to end the innings.

The Marines eighth saw Nemoto hit with one out but Taiyo had enough to get the next two outs. Ogino was the final pitcher of the day. He got Arai to ground out and then Kanemoto flew out. Final batter was Hiyama who was the victim of umpire incompetence. He fouled his sixth pitch which the umpire ruled was a hit. Hiyama refused to run and in fact the look of disgust on his face said it all. Satozaki fired the ball to first and the out was given.

A comfortable win for the Marines. The difference between the two sides was Atchison who has been deteriorating recently. His pitching today was not worthy of a first team pitcher and he needs to up his performance considerably from now. The good piece of news for the Tigers was that the Dragons also lost preserving the 8.5 game difference but Tigers don't need too many of these blow outs.

[Edited by: Christopher on Jun 15, 2008 10:48 AM] Many thanks to the unnamed guest who provided information on the umpires. I decided to correct the main body of the text and so deleted the post and my follow up as superfluous. All corrections are of course welcome.