August 7th Shimoyanagi v Miyazaki - Shimoyanagi and the innings from hell

Tigers picked up their first four game losing streak and the Giants cut the lead to 8 games. It's still comfortable but being swept by the Carp was an embarrassing experience especially as they are the inferior team. This defeat was once again due to poor Tigers play. Shimoyanagi's seventh innings was incomprehensible and given the other pitching failures means that the pitching coaches have some work to do. Sekimoto sat out the game with a back injury but it is hoped he will be fit for the next game. Line scores

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

Starting lineups

1. Akahoshi (Centre)
2. Hirano (Second)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Hiyama (Right)
6. Katsuragi (First)
7. Noguchi (Catcher)
8. Maeda (Third)
9. Shimoyanagi (Pitcher)

Carp
1. Higashide (Second)
2. Akamatsu (Centre)
3. Alex (Right)
4. Kurihara (First)
5. Shima (Left)
6. Seabol (Third)
7. Ishihara (Catcher)
8. Kokubo (Short)
9. Miyazaki (Pitcher)

Shimoyanagi would start superbly - retiring the Carp in order. Miyazaki would be dreadful throughout his short stint but once again poor batting by the Tigers would stop them from taking advantage of ths. With two out Miyazaki walked Toritani and then Kanemoto. Hiyama though grounded out and the first innings ended scoreless. In the Carp second Kurihara hit but this was extinguished by a Shima double play. The final batter, Seabol struck out and the innings was over. In Tigers second Katsuragi led off with a walk but then tried to steal second. This is almost as unbelievable as Shima trying to steal second - neither player has the speed or the acceleration. Of course he was thrown out. The next two batters did nothing and the innings ended quietly. Shimoyanagi got the first out in Carp's third and then faced Kokubo. Somehow, Kokubo got a good impact which flew to left for a home run 1-0 Carp. Shimoyanagi stayed cool and finished the innings. Tigers decided to stop messing around with Miyazaki in the bottom of the third. Akahoshi walked with one out and then tried to steal second but was thrown out - two outs. Next Hirano hit and then Toritani slammed a two run home run 2-1 Tigers. Kanemoto was next and he dispatched his third pitch for a home run as well 3-1 Tigers. Hiyama hit but Katsuragi flew out to end the innings. Shimoyanagi retired the Carp batters in order in the fourth.

Tigers fourth was pitched by Makino, Miyazaki having been retired - his three innings having been poor to say the least. Here Tigers failed - they should have attacked Carp's relief more, it isn't exactly something to strike fear into most batting lineups. Instead they were content to sit on their lead and revert to the lazy batting of the past two games. Makino retired the Tigers in order. Carp's fifth was also quiet - Shimoyanagi had no problems with the batters. Tigers fifth saw Hirano hit but he didn't get the support from either Toritani or Kanemoto and the innings ended quietly. Nothing happened in Carp's sixth - Shimoyanagi was once again dominant. Kishimoto pitched the Tigers sixth and gave up a hit to Noguchi but once again nothing happened.

Shimoyanagi returned for the Carp's seventh and why not. He had been totally dominant and had given up only one run on two hits and no walks. Importantly he had thrown only 65 pitches in his six innings and was well within his capacity. This makes his meltdown difficult to understand - it certainly wasn't because of the Carp but something that he alone was responsible for. He started by walking Akamatsu - his first walk of the game. Then Alex grounded out and Akamatsu moved up to second. Kurihara was next and he hit a two base 3-2 Tigers. Shima walked and then Seabol hit a two base 3-3 scores level runners on second and third with one out. Ishihara hit a sacrifice fly to centre 4-3 Carp. Kokubo was walked - why this was necessary is not clear. Probably, both Noguchi and Shimoyanagi panicked. Maeda (pinch hitter) also walked to load the bases. Finally, Higashide flew out and the innings was over. The Carp seventh took Shimoyanagi 35 pitches and involved four walks. It also knocked the stuffing out of the Tigers. A one run lead with three innings and a weak relief is not a comfortable situation but Tigers didn't try after that.

Yokoyama pitched the Tigers seventh and retired the side in order. In the Carp eighth Akamatsu led off with a hit from Watanabe (who replaced Shimoyanagi). Two outs later Williams was summoned and he got the final out. Tigers eighth was quiet with the batters putting up no resistance. Williams continued into the Carp ninth and retired the batters in order. Nakagawa pitched the final innings - he walked Noguchi with one out but then Takahashi hit into a double play and the innings was over. Carp victory and sweep.

Tigers were supposedly at home (Kyocera Dome) and should have done better. In fact one could say that their performance was an insult to their fans. They had pitched and batted poorly against a mediocre team and payed the price. Application was lacking and the effort from the main batters poor. Pitching had been slack with too many walks being thrown and too many dead balls. The team may not like Kyocera Dome but they are in their home town in front of their home crowd. They need to look at how they play the B class teams not just focus on beating the A class Dragons.