August 15th Shimoyanagi v Williams - This has got to stop

Tigers were at Kyocera Dome and once again were abject. The excuse that this is shi no rodo is no longer valid. A lot of fans spend a lot of money to support the Tigers and this kind of display short changes them. I doubt Tigers mangement read this blog but if they do maybe they could consider not paying the players during the time the High School baseball championship is held. If they win they get a bonus equivalent to the relevant portion of the monthly games they play. Thus if they have 20 games away from Koshien the win bonus is 1/20th of the pay they would have gotten. However, if they lose players would forfeit double their potential win bonus. It is time to end the rubbish of shi no rodo and start acting like professionals. The BayStars tonight were abysmal but the Tigers were worse. Poor batting and pitching combined in a display that was both embarrassing and stupid. The only compensation is that the Giants also lost so the Magic Number is still alive. Line scores

         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  R  H E
BayStars 1 0 0 0 0 2 7 1 0 11 12 0
Tigers   0 1 0 0 0 0 3 0 0  4 12 2

Starting lineups

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

BayStars
1. Ishikawa (Third)
2. Nishi (Second)
3. Uchikawa (First)
4. Yoshimura (Right)
5. Kinjoh (Centre)
6. Ohnishi (Left)
7. Ishii (Short)
8. Takeyama (Catcher)
9. Williams (Pitcher)

BayStars would start well and would exploit Shimoyanagi's early weakness nicely. With two out Uchikawa hit then Yoshimura hammered out a two base. Once again speed round the bases was the key and Uchikawa was home 1-0 BayStars. Tigers started with an Akahoshi ground out but followed with a Hirano hit. Then Toritani walked runners on first and second. The next two batters flew out in what was to prove a common pattern. Wasted chances with a pitcher who reached the level of merely ordinary. BayStars second was quiet and Shimoyanagi retired the side in order. With Tigers second Sakurai hit. A Noguchi two base drove him home 1-1 scores level. A wild pitch moved Noguchi to third but Shimoyanagi struck out and Akahoshi grounded out to end the innings. BayStars third also saw Shimoyanagi retire the side in order. In Tigers third Hirano hit again. He moved to second on a Toritani ground out but both Kanemoto and Takahashi flew out. This is not acceptable - with a pitcher as poor as Williams the batters must do more. BayStars fourth was also quiet, once again Shimoyanagi retired the side in order.

In Tigers fourth Sekimoto led off with a hit. He was out in a Sakurai double play but then Noguchi and Shimoyanagi hit. Akahoshi walked and the bases were loaded. Hirano flew out and the innings was over - another wasted chance. It really doesn't matter that Hirano had three hits - when he had the chance to put runners home he failed. In BayStars fifth Ohnishi walked and was bunted to second but the next two batters went nowhere. In Tigers fifth Toritani hit but received no support. In their five innings Tigers had generated 8 hits (yes 8) and two walks and only had one run. They had left 8 runners on base - truely dreadful batting. BayStars who were poor would make the most of their chances. In the sixth Ishikawa had a lead off hit. He was bunted to second by Nishi and then Uchikawa hit 2-1 BayStars. Yoshimura walked to put runners on first and second and then Kinjoh hit to move the runners round and it was 3-1 BayStars. The final two batters fell but the damage was done.

Amazingly Tigers did nothing in the sixth - a rare quiet innings. Okada decided not to continue with Shimoyanagi in the seventh and instead went with Resop who was dreadful (the Tigers relief in the seventh was just plain lazy). Resop started with a lead off hit to Bigbie (pinch hitter). He was bunted to second by Aikawa (replacement catcher) and then Ishikawa hit 4-1 BayStars and hardly an auspicious start. Resop continued to throw rubbish. Nishi reached first on an error and then Uchikawa walked. Resop then walked Yoshimura with the bases loaded 5-1 BayStars. Enough of Resop, Watanabe was next. He started by giving up a hit to Kinjoh 6-1 BayStars, then he walked Ohnishi 7-1 BayStars. A Ohnishi hit followed 8-1 BayStars. Bigbie grounded out but another run scored 9-1 BayStars. Aikawa hit 10-1 BayStars. Finally Ishikawa flew out and the innings was over. Normally Watanabe would have earned himself an extended trip to ni-gun with that performance and a paycut at the end of the year but Okada likes him and he can pitch well so he may survive. His pitching though was not of the standard expected from a first team pitcher.

Just to demonstrate that we were not dealing with a good BayStars side but an appalling Tigers performance the Tigers batting partially woke up in the seventh. The pitcher was Yuya Ishii and he started with a lead off hit to Akahoshi. Hirano hit and here Akahoshi should have made third but once again Wada held him up at second. Toritani walked and then Kanemoto walked 10-2 BayStars. Ishii departed and Oyamada took the mound. He immediatley allowed a hit to Hiyama (pinch hitter) but only one run was scored 10-3 BayStars. One cannot help contrasting the BayStars approach to base running with the Tigers - they should have tried for two runs. All of this was with no outs and the risk was well worth taking. Sekimoto was next and he hit into a double play 10-4 BayStars which just goes to show what can happen. Finally Katsuragi flew out and the innings was over.

BayStars eighth was pitched by Abe and if no one else put in any effort why should he. Actually he gave up a solo home run to Yoshimura - more poor Noguchi calling 11-4 BayStars but he got the other three batters. Okada should have used his younger catchers more. Noguchi may have a good arm but frequently is too predictable and doesn't have a clue. Yokoyama pitched Tigers eighth and with two out gave up a hit to Akahoshi but nothing came of this. In BayStars ninth Hashimoto gave up a lead off hit to Ohnishi but an Ishii double play ended that. Finally Tigers ninth was straightforward for Yokoyama - the batters were retired in order. BayStars victory.

There are no good points to this defeat. Tigers were not outclassed and BayStars remain a poor side with poor coaching. Somehow Tigers contrived to be worse both in batting (each team generated the same number of hits) and walks - not that the BayStars were good. It is not acceptable for the Tigers to dislike Kyocera Dome (they have lost the four games they have played there so far) - they are at home. Everyone underperformed and really they do not deserve to be paid for this debacle. Congratulations to the BayStars who took their chances but really Tigers need to take action to ensure that they do not repeat this kind of performance again. The only consolation is that the Giants lost and the margin between the teams remains at 8 games.