July 11th Andoh v Greisinger - Bye bye winning chance

It was rather remote but until this game Tigers were in control of their fate and could have theoretically won the pennant. Now they have to rely on other teams blowing it. They didn't exactly blow the game but they wasted a superb session by Andoh. The failures this time were Atchison and Fujikawa hardly people you would expect to fail but this is normal for Mayumi Tigers. scores

        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 R  H E
Giants  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1  0  0  0 2 14 2
Tigers  0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0  0  0  0 2  8 0

Starting lineups

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

Tigers
1. Hirano (Centre)
2. Sekimoto (Second)
3. Katsuragi (Right)
4. Kanemoto (Left)
5. Brazell (First)
6. Arai (Third)
7. Toritani (Short)
8. Kanoh (Catcher)
9. Andoh (Pitcher)

This was another long struggle. Giants fielding hadn't improved on the night before and once again they had two errors. They also out hit the Tigers but this turned out to be unimportant. Matsumoto got the first hit for the Giants but he was caught in a double play and no score resulted. Tigers first hit came from a Hirano lead off hit to left. Sekimoto bunted him to second but then both Katsuragi and Kanemoto flew out to Tsuruoka - poor batting. Giants second saw the first real threat. Ramirez led off with a hit but then he was also caught up in a double play. Andoh then ran into trouble walking Lee and following that with a two base hit to Wakiya. The bottom of the Giants batting order would do rather well this game. Tsuruoka was walked to get at Greisinger who grounded out to second and the Giants hadn't scored. Tigers second was quiet and Greisinger retired the batters in order. In Giants third Ogasawara hit with two out but nothing came of this as Andoh was in much more control. Tigers third brought Hirano's second hit but this also went unrewarded.

The fourth was entirely quiet both pitchers maintaining command. The Giants fifth started with a Tsuruoka hit. He was bunted to second by Greisinger and then Sakamoto hit to set up runners on first and third. Andoh struck out Matsumoto to eliminate the chance of a sacrifice fly and then got Ogasawara to ground out to second to end the innings. Greisinger wouldn't be so successful. With one out he walked Toritani, this turned into runners on first and second as Kanoh hit. Still the next batter was Andoh. He bunted but Greisinger messed up the throw and the bases were loaded. Hirano flew out to centre but not far enough and the sacrifice fly was eliminated. This brought up Sekimoto who hit to centre driving in two runs 2-0 Tigers runners on first and second. Katsuragi grounded out to second to end the innings but Tigers had the lead. Andoh gave up a two base hit to Kamei who then made third but the final out was Wakiya who grounded out. In Tigers sixth it was Arai's turn to walk and then Toritani hit to second. Wakiya messed it up and Tigers had runners on first and third. This time though, Kanoh could not convert and Greisinger escaped.

Andoh returned for Giants seventh and comfortably retired the batters in order. Greisinger gave up a two base to Hirano but then managed to keep Katsuragi and Kanemoto from exploiting it. Tigers cleanup do need to pick up the pace significantly. Tigers ran into trouble in Giants eighth. Mayumi replaced Andoh who had pitched superbly with Atchison. Atchison was poor right from the start. He gave up a hit to Matsumoto and then walked Ogasawara, runners on first and second with no outs. Ramirez flew out which took a runner to third and the Giants had a definite scoring chance. Kamei was the batter and he hit to left driving in Matsumoto 2-1 Tigers. Mayumi then replaced Atchison with Fujikawa, undoubtedly the right move though here Kubota would have been useful. However, Tigers are still obsessed with converting him into a starter so he isn't available. Fujikawa though retired the next two batters to preserve a slender lead. Amazingly Greisinger's pitch count was quite low and so Hara had him pitch the Tigers eighth. He gave up a one out hit to Brazell who was then pinch run for Fujimoto (the thought of Fujimoto batting five really does show the paucity of Mayumi's management). Anyway Fujimoto remained on first as the next two batters did nothing. Fujikawa returned to pitch the ninth and here Kubota would have been quite useful. He gave up a lead off hit to Abe (pinch hitter). Ohmichi (pinch hitter) bunted Suzuki (pinch running for Abe) to second and then Sakamoto's fly took him to third. Still only one out to go. This was not to be as Fujikawa foolishly gave up a left hit to Matsumoto 2-2 scores tied runner first. Fujikawa had blown the victory. Finally Terauchi (replacement third) flew out to end the innings. Tigers ninth was pitched by Nomaguchi who once again had no problems with the Tigers batters and the game once again went into extra innings.

The first pitcher to face the challenge was Tsutsui. He wasn't quite as assured as before but still did the job. With two out he walked Lee and then gave up a hit to Wakiya but some assured pitching got the final out in the form of a Suzuki fly out. Nomaguchi took the Tigers 10th and walked Sekimoto. He was bunted to second by Katsuragi and then Kanemoto was deliberately walked (perhaps unnecessarily). This left two outs to get, the first being Fujimoto who proved to be quite unsuited for the No. 5 postion and Arai who also did nothing. For Giants 11th Mayumi used the pitcher he should have used the night before in their 12th Watanabe. He had that bit extra to get out of jams which neither Nohmi or Sajikihara possessed. He started with a two base hit to Tani (pinch hitter). One out later he walked Katoh (replacement catcher). Terauchi's ground out took the runners to second and third but Watanabe then took on and struck Ramirez out swinging to end the innings and the threat. Nice pitching. Ochi pitched the Tigers eleventh and also ran into difficulties. Toritani hit to centre and was bunted to second by Kanoh. Sakurai struck out and then Hirano was deliberately walked. This brought up Takahashi (pinch hitter) who flew out to centre to allow the Giants to escape. Now to the Giants final chance to win the game - Egusa was the pitcher. He also wasn't as assured as the night before but was still able to handle the Giants batters. He actually got the first two outs and the Giants were down to their final chance. The umpire though was sleeping and Wakiya walked. Suzuki hit and then Tani walked to load the bases bringing up Sakamoto. He was out of heroics for the night and grounded out to Egusa to end the innings. The Giants couldn't win the game now but they could still lose it. Yamaguchi pitched the final innings. With one out Kanemoto hit - finally. Shimizu (pinch hitter) was next but he hit into a double play and the game was over. Tied game.

Both teams had fought hard and better pitching by the Tigers top relief would have seen them win. Neither Atchison or Fujikawa concentrated on the task in hand unlike Watanabe and Egusa both of whom fought hard. Tigers cleanup was conspicuous by its absence and the idea of using Fujimoto and number is just to absurd for words. On the plus side once again Hirano was excellent and he is showing great form.